The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-10-05
AS TOLD BY j. w. HEISMAN
Head Coach, Rice Institute; Former
Coach OF Georgia Tech and Univer.
sity of Pennsylvania

In the first place, this Everett Strup.
per was small package of condensed
lightning when you turned him loose
in an open field with a ball you wanted
delivered somewhere in the neighbor.
hood of the enemy's goal line. He was
high-powered motor. His arm and
small, but he was put together like d
legk did Just what his mind told them
to do, and believe me his mind worked
faster than Ty Cobb's when he's rum
ming the bases. Dodging and twisting,
stiff-arming and hipping, he'd run the
gauntlet Of men big enough. you'd
think. to pick him up and spank him ;
and most of the time, too, he'd get
away from them, try as hard as they
would.
Should Be AIl.American
Sounds like one of those fellows
Walter Camp selects for his All-Ameri.
can. doesn't he? Well, want to say
right now that if l had been picking
| IL men for an all-star, all-country team
| in the year 1915 A. d., this Strupper
boy certainly would have been on it.
| This despite the fact that he was just
| II years old, was but five feet, seven
! inches in heighth, weighed only 14U
pounds, stripped, and-here's the big
gest sumner Of it all-deaf
Yes, sir, deaf. He couldn't hear any
thing but regular shout. But he
could read your lips like flash. M
| lad that ever stepped on football
field had keener eyes than Everett had
The enemy found this out the minute
he began looking for openings through
| which to run the ball.
Never On All-American
But, so far as l know, nobody ever
chose Everett Strupper for an All
American. The answer is easy. All
his playing was done in the south and
none of the big critics in the nortli!
and east saw him perform. South Of
the Mason and Dixon line it was differ
ent. He had real reputation down
there.
Yet-and this will surprise you-al-
though Everett was the outstanding star
of my Georgia Tee team of 1915 only
used him as substitute. Strange, you
think? Well, as coach l had a system
and that system was built around Strup-
per. In l. nutshell it was this: let
the other boys play the game as long
as it looked like they could win; but,
|
Everett. BY that time the opposition
would be a bit weary. Going in fresh
as daisy and full of pep and ambition,
1T was ten-to-One bet he'd put over
the winning punch.
It Worked Out All Right
The proof of the pudding is in the
eating. This system worked out fine.
Lots of folks thought l was foolish not
| NkA aha rf ha
game. The answer is, we won our
games.
The season of 1915 was fine one for
Georgia Tech-one of the best during
the sixteen years in which l coached
the team. Coming up to our last and
biggest game of the season, our Thanks
giving Day engagement with Auburn,
we had mopped up every opponent on
our schedule. As Auburn had made
similar record, our little set-to would
settle the championship of the South
eastern conference.
Auburn Was Strong
Now Auburn had an exceedingly good
team, including one of the best men l
ever saw, a lad named Taylor, nick
named Babe" on account of his size.
Babe" was the star of the team, an
all-Southern guard, weighing 21O
pounds, and being as fast as they make
them. On offense he played guard, but
on the defense he switched to left half
back and he was a bear at smashing
interfences and getting the man with the
ball. To beat Auburn and this fellow
Taylor we knew we would have to travel
fast.
BY way of lettering our chances de-
vised special play which we hadn't
used in any other game of the season.
1t was spread formation built par
ticularly for Everett Strupper. TO
execute it the linemen stationed them
selves five yards apart in a line meas.
uring thirty yards from end to end the
quarterback stood just behind and be-
three backs took positions ten yards