Evening star., 1924-09-21
TOLD BY GILMORE DOBlE
Head Coach, Cornell.

n n ANY years ago | saw cru
wv cial Western Conference
game. Two elevenS battled
to a finish in slippery morass Of
mud. One Of these teams outclassed
the other in the sheer ruthlessnesS
OF its power, but that other possess
ed. among the II brains that ranip-
ulated the separate cogs of its ma
chinery, one brain touched by the
magic gold OF pure genius. This
mind not only dominated the 10 that
worked with it, but also the II rang
ing themselves desperately against
it-minds which ached with desire to
destroy. to annihilate, cropping fu-
tilely for means OF so doing.
Nowadays you' hear lot about
psychology. In those days, outside
OF college classrooms it wasn't such
fluent subject of discussion. Not so
many experts had discovered the pc
cuniary advantages of correspondence
courses in the science But if any
honeSt-t goodness psychologist could
have dropped in on the Chicago-Wis-
cons.n foot BALI game at Madison.
Wis, October %. 1905, he would have
witnessed practical demonstration
of it that would have left him humble.
Lesson in Psychology.
For Walter Eckersall, the greatest
quarterback that ever ran back a
kick. was pitting his quick thinking
analythical brain against the bulk and
strength of the most powerful aggre-
CATION in the Conference that year
and the result was a lesson in psych-
ology that never has been beaten
Alonzo A. Stagg, Maroon coach, had
taken TO Madison team as well
coached as it was possible for it to
be. 1t was equipped with the finest
ensemble of plays the "Old Fox" could
devise. But the condition of the rain
swept field favored the huskier
Badgers and it is probable that with
out Eckersall TO execute his STRAIT
egies they would have failed.
j wish that some one could write
the story of that game as it should
be written-not as il looked from the
stands. but as it really developed in
the shoulder-to shoulder impacts of
the struggle. II would be the great
est gridiron epic ever set down, out
rivaling fiction with its chronicle of
audacious. brilliant achievement
Others may think differently. but
hold that the tactics used against
Wisconsin by Eckersall that drenched
October afternoon were the finest in
the history of the game. There never
was anything like it before: very
likely there never will be- anything
like it again.
A Plot Like TnIe's.
| sat in the stands, a scout for~the
Minnesota eleven. A student of the
game myself, the struggle had devel-
oped far past the initial stages be-
fore ] caught the drift of the cam
paign which the Ingenious lieutenant
of the crafty Stage was launching
against the Badgers. Then | per-
ceived his intent and sat back to wit
ness the advancing stages of a plot
as artistically and as infallbly de-
veloped as any conception in the
pages of Edgar Allan Poe.
Before the game Wisconsin had
been the favorite. It's chances were
considered to have been bettered by
the pouring rain, which made a quag-
mire of the field. new one. Surely
the speed of Eckersall, the great run
ming quarterback, would be lost in
the mud and Chicago would be de-
prived of its greatest asset.
But when a great genius like the
Maroon star is concerned, you always
must reckon with some hidden re-
serve which he has ready to tap for
an especially needed occasion. Prsc-
tically every one that braved the
weeping skies believed that his eff