South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-10-19
remaining games.

Few experienced coaches ever
place much confidence upon those
plays which are designed 10 com
pletely disconcert the opposition and
gain touchdowns alone and unaided.
They know that a sound system, de
signed TO gain three and four yards
at d time, is the surest road TO vic
tory. However, football lore is
TANNED full OF trick plays which
have turned the day when all else
has failed ever since the fall of
1855, when Laurie Bliss, playing
half at AndOver, won the Exeter
game by making two tOuchdOwns on
the criss-cross play, the first trick
ever used in football The decep-
tive principle here involved has
been the basis for nearly every
trick play since used The object
is ever 10 feint the attack at one
spot and then suddenly switch il 10
another This is often the basis for
much sound football as well. VIII
lie Keller had much the same idea
in baseball when he coined his ia
. nous, Hit them where they amt"
Let me set down some Of the odd
/ est tricks I've seen in football that
! have proven successful. The first
was a play, absolutely lllegitimate,
used by a certain team for a touch
down against Washington and JET
I ferson when the writer was coach
/ ing there. II was in a big game and
near its end with the score 6-3 in
our favor that the opposing eleven
gained a first down less than a yard
from our goal-line. Three strenu-
! Gus line bucks failed 70 put over
| the ball. This team lined UP for
| the fourth time in exactly the same
manner. OF a sudden its line jump
/ ed into ours and the quarterback
/ had slipped through center for the
/ score that gave them the lead. A
riot almost took place on the field
4 My eleven protested vigorously.
+ They claimed that the ball had not
+ been snapped by the opposing cen
: ter. that this team had charged on
another signal, without swapping the
ball had thus caught them off
guard and that their quarterback
I had simply dived for the ball left
resting on the ground, and had skid
,ded the necessary yard for the
! score. The officials did not agree
( with them. Such a play would be
Z illegal.
After we had pulled that contest
/ from the fire I asked their coach If
I our idea Of this play was not cor
\ rect He denied that il was Then.
I several years later I became init
mate with one OF their players He
1 told me il was an old trick OF theirs.
I 1t was the cleverest way of beat
/ ing the rules I ever have seen. Let
me say il was satisfying TO have de
feated this team by clean sports
+ manship.
One Of the strongest plays i'm
/ football. the reverse run used bv
/ Warner at both Carlisle and Pitt. is
/ based entirely on the principle of
I the old Criss-cross used by Laurie
/ Bliss One-time star at Yale. Warner
/ sends his back-field running forward
: toward the long side and his line
running toward the short side at
: the snap Of the ball. Nearly every
= opponent has been made TO think
I the play Is going TO the point where
/ the backs start for. Instead. il
comes 10 the opposite side of the
I line with plenty OF interference. il
is as successful today as il was half
a dozen or more years ago.
The most freakish play I ever
saw was used by Marshall college
against West Virginia for q score i'm
I a game Marshall lost 9q-6 West
l Virginia had put its scrub backfeld
+ In the lineup. when Marshall be-
I gan series OF freak forward passes
/ which took them 10 the maintain
/ GERS Vineyard line. Here they we're
held for three downs On the fourth
Z they scored by having d big tackle