Evening star., 1937-11-21


Y dred people stood around the
football field on The Plains
at West Point to watch a football
game. The players were clad in the
laced canvas jackets of the day. padded
trousers of the same material, woolen
stockings and knitted caps.
The players on the team which was
to put the ball in play formed wedge
with the center at the apex toward
the opponents. back behind him, and
the other players formed in two files
inclining toward the apex, with the
leading file of each to- the center's
right and left.
The center. as the starting whistle
sounded, touched the ball to his toe
passed it to the back who was sheltered
by the sides of the, wedge and the
whole mass moved forward toward the
goal Of their rivals. 1t was the ordi-
nary way of starting college football
game in that period.
The center who put the BALI in play
by touching it to his toe was Midship-
man Noble E. Irwin, later an admiral
In the U. S. Navy. The back who took
the ball was Charles r.. Enrich. who
died at Hong Kong, China, 10 years
later, a junior officer Of the same serv-
Ice, and the captain Of the opposing
team was Cadet Dennis M. Niche,
who met a soldiers death at San
Juan, Cuba. during the Spanish
American War.
So began the Arny-Navy football
games which have continued, with Ger
tain interruptions. to the present.
Service people and thousands OF others
are thrilling with anticipation as an
other contest draws near, for the teams
of the Naval and Military Academies
meet again Saturday. Al years to a
day after that first contest, this time
In Philadelphia Municipal Stadium,
one of the great athletic arenas OF the
world.
MOT by any means the oldest Of
football rivalries in which colleges
engage, the meeting between the Army
and Navy teams, by general consent,
is the one which carries with it the
ultimate in eclat and color, for not
only do the teams battle for their
schools and their hosts of alumni as
do the others, but they also fight for
the glory OF the two great branches OF
our service of arms.
The stadium at Philadelphia seats a
few more than 100000. so that each
service distributes some $4,000 tickets.
For the tickets allotted to the Navy
there have been this year quarter Of
a million applicants, and. presumably,
about the same for the Army A mil
lion people would undoubtedly see the
game If it were possible for them to
do so.
The writer. whose home town has
always been Annapolis, and to whom
Navy athletes have always been
heroes, did not see the first game.
though he was in close touch with it
and remembers the departure and re-
turn of the Navy warriors, bearing the
laurels Of victory in this first service
school contest.
It was the first game of football an
Army team had ever played, while the
Navy had been playing the game for
. number of years and were veterans
in comparison. Football had been in
troduced at the Point by that same
Cadet Niche who was captain and
coach for two years. coach for another
year and who lost his life at San
Juan. The Army team now plays its
iV, Mochin Cf,I
named for the father of the game at
West Point
THE score was "a to 0 in favor of the
= Navy, and, incidentally, the only
real licking a Navy team has evel
given the Army. Ten to o, in 1906
was the next highest score by which
the Navy has won since. Capt. En-.
rich was the star Of the game, scoring
four of the five Navy touchdowns anc
kicking two goals after touchdowns
Next year, when the game was
played at Annapolis, the writer was or
the JOB. A lad of Is, he had taken over
covering Naval Academy athletics fol
his father. who had done that worl
Tor many years. The writer covered
that game and the games of 1882 and
1888 for the papers.
In 1891 the Army staggered the
other service by bringing team to
Annapolis which won from the Navy
81 to is. Niche and Timberlake, the
latter the forbear Of the Army's most
noted football family. as Capt. JONAS
n. Ingram was Of the Navy's, were IL
the Army backfield. But the writer
\ remembers in particular big, active
guard named Clark, who did a lot oi
bali carrying. as linesmen did In those
days, and who scored three of thu
Army's touchdowns. t.
BY next season the Navy had coach
from Yale. name Crosby, and also hat