Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-12-31
NV Is Years on the Cridiron
XXXIV-My First Year at V. M. |.
BY WILLIAM A. ROPER.
HEAD COACH PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

I arrived at Lexington, Va, Septen11
Der /, 1908, to take up my job OF
coaching the Virginia Military Tnsti-
tute foot ball team Hammond John
son, the captain of the team, and
three or four other trim looking
cadets met me at the train. | was
given a room in the mess hall and
told / was to get my meals there,
too. in a dining room with the young
er officers, most of whom were re-
cent graduates of Virginia Military
Institute. / naturally was anxious to
get to work and asked when we could
start foot ball. Much to my regret l
was told that the fool ball squad could
not get out on the field until in the
afternoon and that we had only an
hour a day to play.
l met the foot ball squad on the
parade ground that afternoon at the
allotted time. About 35 candidates
turned out for practice. They We're
a fine looking lot of boys, not very
heavy, but it did not take me long to
see that they were in the best physical
condition. The regular life and the
strenuous drills kept the cadets in
splendid shape all the time, and there
was not the same need for extra long
practice sessions that one finds at
the ordinary school or college.
First Coaching Lesson.
Right in this practice session, I got
my first important coaching lesson.
was the only instructor on the field
with about 80 players. | soon found
out what a real job it was to keep
them all busy. even if the practice
period was a short one. While l was
cLA Al n
or hold the ball, the linemen would
he standing around wasting valuable
time WhenI turned my attention to
the linemen, the backs seemed to
have nothing to do.
1t hardly seemed to me that practice
had gotten started when a bugle blew
and the whole crowd raced off the
field. The captain told me they had
Just Is minutes to get ready for dress
parade, which explains their haste.
When / got back to my room, /
started to figure out what | had done
on the field and it seemed to me that
very little had been accomplished,
mainly because / had not been able
to keep the entire crowd busy all
the time. | decided then and there
that the next morning / would plan
out very carefully on a piece of paper
just what l wanted to do on the field
in the afternoon. l spent most of
the next morning making out a prac-
tice schedule, putting down what each
man was to do every minute of the
time. l also made a canvass Of the
younger officers and found that one
or two of them had played on the
team the year before. | Immediately
invited them to come out on the field
and help coach the squad. / already
had found out after one days eX-
perience what a real job it was to
coach 35 men single-handed.
Smoother Practice Results.
Practice ran off much smoother the
next afternoon and | felt a great deal
more sure of myself. l kept my sched-
ule of practice in my back pocket SO
that / could readily refer to it, and
we really got a good deal Of work
done. The difference in the practice
In those two days convinced me how
| important it was to prepare a sched-
ule in advance of exactly what was
| TO be done on the field. We played
| our first game about the end Of
| Stepember. The team was in splendid
condition and our opponents were not
so we had very little difficulty win
| ming. Our first big game was sched-
/
the University of North Carolina.
Herman Olcott, who had played CEN
ter at Yale while I was playing at
| Princeton, was coach of the North
| Carolina team, so l felt pretty sure
| knew in advance just what sort of
a game we were up against. OF
course, scouting was not as developed
as it is now, and if l had wanted to
scout them, I had no one to send to
| see them play. I took up a great deal
| of time on the field explaining the
Yale tackle-back play to the team and
showing them just how ! thought it
should be stopped. / told them ]
felt sure this would be North Caro-
lina's plan of attack. What was my
chagrin and establishment to find
when the game opened the North
Carolina offense was entirely different
from what I predicted.