Evening star., 1936-11-22

-DHE last-minute victory - that's the
greatest thrill of football. 1t arouses a
lot of kindred sensations in your mind:
j sort of a pleasant combination of
catching train, arguing traffic officer out of
ticket and finding lot of money.
The hero. in fiction, always waits until the
Last minute of the game to gallop down the
field; but in real life he may even wait till the
sound of the gun to turn on full speed.
Lafayette once ran up against a situation
like that in game with Penn State. 1t was on
October e. 1929. The game had only few
seconds to 60; Lafayette had the ball and was
leading by 8 too.
They punted. The ball went high in the air.
and before it came down, the game ended At
least, time ran out; In such cases the game
always goes on until the end of the play. The
ball came down into the waiting arms of
French. who took one hasty look at the
charging wall of Lafayette tacklers in front of
him and passed the ball to Dietrich. Dietrich
passed the taclxlers.
Sixty yards further down the field Dietrich
stepped across the goal line. The final score
was Penn State 6. Lafayette 3.
It's positively dangerous to have the ball
in the air when the game ends No less
quarterback than the famous Prichard of
Army proved that in game against Colgate.
The game was being played at West Point,
and Colgate clung to 60 lead going into the
last few seconds of the contest With one down
left, the visiting quarterback called for a kick.
The ball rose high in the air. and the timers
whistle screamed. ending the game Prichard
stood waiting, and when the pigskin finally
settled in his hands, he lifted up his feet and
went.
When he got through going, Colgate was
sadder and wiser team. For Prichard had
lugged the ball all the way to the goal line and
had run up six big points. That tied the score.
Then came the extra point - and the COL
gate team stumbled off the field muttering.
Seven to six! Can va beat that!'
There's certain wild gleam in the eye of
in any one section of the country are more
unhinged than those of another section is
probably unfair. Anyway. it's bound to give
rise to lot of jealousy. Putting my foot into
it boldly, however, III venture the observa-
ton that the California fans make greater
claims foT their teams than any Others that
have ever come to my notice.
Everything must be done on big scale on
the West Coast, or not at all. 1t was there that
team made not only one touchdown after
the final gun. but too!
1t happened in game on Armistice Day,
1881. The College of the Pacific was leading
Sacramento Junior College, 6 to o. The boys
from the state capital had possession of the
ball near their own goal line, and there was
time for only one more play. They called for a
long pass. Cole took the ball from center, ran
back and threw it far down the field. Tom
Wilson. Pacifc's great passing back, inter-
cepted tucked the ball under his arm and ran
back up the field While he was running the
gun went off.
Tom ran all the faster - ran across the goal
line. The operators of the sooreboard pulled
some numbers out of the rack and then looked
around in astonishment as Umpire Jimmy
Cave walked back onto the field with the ball
tucked under his arm. The ruling of the
officials was that Wilson had interfered with
eastman, who ran out to catch the pass, and
Sacramento was given one more play.
The boys lined up again, and once more
tried to pass. This time Ralph Francis, Col
lege of the Pacific end, intercepted it and ran
II back for another touchdown The game