The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-19
SPORTS
Fighting Spirit Is Great
 Quality In Football Games
Ability to Scrap Even Against Terrible Odds One of Redeem ing Features of Gridiron Contests-Footba Campaigns
 Must Be Planned Is Opinion of Coach Stiehm
Fly SOL METZGER Coach of Washington and Jefferson


 Leo Leary. the old Harvard coach, whose Charlestown navy yard eleven re- gently defeated the Seventy diyis- ion eleven from Camp Devens, coached by Percy Haughton, told me not long ago that the big moment in football was when the team you were coaching was ahead When the last whistle blew. But there is one thing finer in football than victory and that is it's fighting spirit. Fighting spirit is bred in football play CTS, it is the soul of the game and about the fighting spirit of football teams there rallies college spirit, which is close kin to patriotism. Indeed, were it not for the fighting spirit of college elevens there would be little college spirit Football fighting spirit has taught the college man to appreciate patriotism and loyalty. It has enabled the college man to do his part in this war in no. small degree just as the dis cipline and spirit of college sport, ac- cordng to Secretary Baker, gave the government it's plan for solving the rec reatioE problem in our military and na val camps.
 There are two kinds of fighting spirit in football-ndividua and team. We, who have much to do with the making Of college teams, hold this fighting spirit above systems of play and our knowledge of the game. Without it a team is doomed to failure-failure in good old American grit and nerve Though it may win, the team which shows the fighting spirit gets all the praise.
 TWO FINE EXAMPLES
 This fall I had the good fortune to witness two good examples of football fighting spirit. In the Pittsburg-Penn- sylvania game the latter eleven gave magnificent example of fighting spirit against great odds. In the Army Notre Dame contest Ohphant the brilliant leader of the West Point eleven, seemed to me to be playing such splendid football that alone he was almost an equal match for the splendid Notre Dame eleven. In both these examples this fighting spirit was noteworthy because it was made against odds.
 In the Pennsylvania -Pittsburg game Penn was not expected to have any chance whatever An overwhelming de- feat at the hands of Georgia Tech at the start of the year, the fact that the team was much the lighter of the two and the known prestige of Pitt were the
 
 setback.
 But the little Quakers, filled to over- flowing with what they call "The Spirit of '76' in Red and Blue football, made up in savage determination and sheer recklessness what they lacked in almost everything else While they went down to defeat, two touchdowns to one, there was not one present, including the clean playing and sportsmanlike Pitt players, who did not think 1t defeat tinged with victory. At that the breaks of the game favored Pitt. Its first score was most fortunate execution of a long forward pass and its second, 8 blocked kick while excellent football, was no finer bit of playing than the little Quakers themselves showed when they, too, blocked a punt In the first case the ball bounded back close to Penn's goal where Pitt player gained 1t; In the second the ball fell dead behind the line Of scrimmage Everybody admired Penn for that gallant fight.
 ELEPHANTS WORK GREAT
 The play of "Ollie" oliphant against Notre Dame was nothing short of mil raculous. Without in any sense wish ing to detract from the splendid playing of the well balanced team of Notre Dame it is my belief that on a dry field Oliphant would have come very close, single handed, to winning that game for the army. His play was of the savage, fighting style, yet never did he lose control of himself or fail to make use of every faculty to turn the tide. It is mighty comforting to know that men of Oliphant's type are bred on the football fields of West Point and Annapolis each year.
 year ago a coach and a team from the eastern section of the middle west sprang into sudden fame when Indiana, tutored by "Humbo" Stiehm, defeated the splendid eleven of Tufts, conqueror of Harvard. All the odds favored Tufts and when a touchdown and goal from the field had sent the down customers home without the bacon many left that game with the impression that Indiana won a fluky victory. Stiehm the coach, was new to the east. True, he had been Wisconsin star in his college days and later had won renown at Nebrask but these facts had been almost totally overlooked in the east Stiehm now stands high as a coach anywhere. This is his version of that memorable game: .'In our Tufts game last fall you will remember that Tufts had series of plays in which the center faced his backfield and tossed the ball to the quarter. The plays were extremely dan gerous when once under way The chances of their going wrong were small. Tufts had used them to good advantage against both Harvard and Princeton.
 PLAY WAS NAILED
 'Our plan was to smash up this att tack before it got under way. To do so we had to nail the quarter in his tracks before he could pass the ball to an- - -------------------------