Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-11-02
GRID MEN NERVOUS
ON HOMESTRETCH|
tradition, Alumni and Public
Are Reasons for Tension of
. Football Warriors
TIGERS WORKING HARD
By JACK" STRUBING
Farmer Princeton Quarterback

Down the homestretch! How much
- AZ tbe football public realizes what the
players go through on that home
stretch? Not physically; that's the
,oost Of it. because the men are at the
ton of their condition. That has been
,be purpose of the preliminary season
in get the men to top form. But,
mentally and nervously, on the day of
,be bip game the faces of the men show
rbot the week before has done. They
ore pioued and seem to have a strained
s,nression. Their eyes are hollow and
burning with n nervous intensity, which
"a only n mirror of their whole nervous
system. The game must be won! That
% fbe thought which keeps hammering
az their brains. And they feel thnt
should they lose life will be empty.
Wby is all this? Why does foot.
hall game with two representative elev-
ems mean so much more than n soccer
game. which also has two representative
elevens? What Is 1t about football that
moves women to scream and strong men
10 tears? What is 1t that makes
man sob his heart out when he is
yanked from tne game
No one would want it any other way;
but has any one ever stopped to analyze
tbe reasons for all this? The root of
Il all Is in the nerve center; but how
does this nerve center get keyed up
10 such strained pitch that 1t will
take ten pounds off q man in seven
days. Tradition. the alumni and the
public probably are the three outstand-
ing reasons.
Tradition-what deeds have been done
IN its name. For half century coll
'leges have met on the gridiron and for
an hour or more there has been "bloody
murder" and sudden "death." And on
the memories of these battles tradition
kas been built up that n lnen never
quits when certain colored jerseys are
IN front of him. Men have played with |
broken arms, broken heads, broken
necks and some have had to- fight |
losing fight with broken hearts. But |
always they fight to the bitter end
for tradition.
The Alumni
Then the alumni. They come back
from far and near and tell wondrous |
tales Of deeds of valor in days gone by. |
And they sob on your shoulder and |
plead with you to fight ; to fight for your
alma mater even If you lose leg or
an eye, or even a life-the honor Of !
the college must be upheld. And they |
make the men feel this they make the |
student body feel it. And through the |
student body 1t comes back to the men. |
But all this ancient interest is based !
on one thing-the lure of physical con-
tact. And here is where public, student
body, alumni and players are all one.
The gripping thrill Of watching strong
men wage battle has come down from
the days of gladiators. 1t is some
thing which canot be described, but |
around this little nucleus is built the
whole frame of football excitement.
That is why football can make 10000 |
intelligent human beings stand up and
roar in a frenzy Of excitement. And
growing out of this is the nervous strain
to which the players themselves arc
subjected.
Princeton this week is working not
hard but very intensely for the Harvard
game. A comeback is to be staged and
to do this lot OF work must be ac-
complished In the few days that are
left. The team for the game has been
virtually picked and is working together
as often as possible to get the cogs
tp the greatest possible smoothness.
Stinson and Snively, Keck and
Hooper, Baker and Morgan. Wilmer,
Lourie. Garrity, Gilroy and Cleaves
seems to be the way the team will start.
This, OF course, is subject to change
should another man prove himself bet
ter than one Of those named.
Straight Football
.. Very little was displayed last satur-
cay except straight football. and, al
though Harvard and Yale pencils were
scratching merrily all through the game,
tney did not write much dope. This
week Roper is diving down into his
Dag OF tricks to see what he can find
% disconcert the visitors. All this IL
done behind closed gates. He takes no
cnances. With two victories snatched
away Via tie forward pass route, Roper
LIB giving lot Of attention to defense
against any such repetition.
DEFENSE against forward pass is
merely matter of seeing that all eigi-
Die men are covered. There are five
men eligible to receive. There are five
oefensive men. So it would seem n
simple thing to assign one man to one
man But something will slip in the
pest or defenses. A man will cover q
teammates' man, leaving another un-
covered. Or he will let the man he is
covering get past him, and this is an
untorgiVable excuse. If the man gets
past the defensive man hasn't chance.
=, 80 the work is intense, but not hard.
~ Is a tight-lpped, silent crowd of
th Mea VINO are out there. They realize
tnat tnis IS the chance to wipe out the
smS S aereats handed them by Chicago
bn,l bI tne Navy. A mass meeting was
nela @ monday night, where 100 per