Life — October 19, 1928 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“Inside Stuff—Football” by John Kieran Foorsatt is a highly scientific ame. It’s a contest of com- inations with the most mi- nute details drilled into the players through weeks of in- tensive study and hard work, It’s a battle of ideas, of systems, of logarithms, of secret psychology and applied mechanics. Yes, indeed, football is a highly scientific game. This will prove the point: Before he came to coach at N. Y. U., “Chick” Meehan took a good Syracuse team to Worcester, Mass., to play Holy Cross. It was a scoreless tie late in the last quarter. Men had been knocked out on each side, and Holy Cross was down to its third assistant quarterback, He was a chap named Smith and belonged to the “whispering quarterback” school. That is, he wasn’t always sure he had the signals right so he used to whisper the details after he had run out of numbers. Quarterback Smith called for a forward pass; the center snapped the ball back and the riot was on. Mr. Smith gazed around him in dis- may. Every pro spective receiver was either making a forced landing on one ear or plowin up the ground wit his face. The Syra- cuse wingmen were rushing in on him, and he still had the ball. If he had had a shovel, he would have dug a hole and buried himself as the only way of escape. Not knowing what else to do, he drop-kicked a field goal from practically midfield. He had never kicked a field goal before. The final score was Holy Cross 3, Syracuse 0, Football is a highly scientific game. ee8e Ir is known, of course, that the boy who makes his mark on the college gridiron never lacks for business opportunities in Wall Street or elsewhere upon gradua- tion. A football hero is an asset in almost any business you can think of. There’s no need to give names and addresses, but: A smaller college was leading Harvard in the last quarter. The Crimson team, however, was piled ahead toward the goal line with enough time left to score a touchdown, kick the extra point and win the game. Most of the plays were going through one position—tackle. A substitute tackle on the bench was glar- ing at the coach, expecting the word to go in. He didn’t get it, and Harvard pushed within ten yards of the line. The youngster, disregarding the coach, tossed off his blanket, ran out on the field, chased away the tackle through whose position the pounding Harvard backs had come, and took that place in the defensive line. Three plays came directly at him. He piled them up—and broke his collarbone stopping the third rush. He saved the game. He was a hero. Just a few weeks ago an alumnus of that institution stopped in an Eighth Ave- = nue “beanery” before entering Madi Square Garden to see a fight. The _ the white coat behind the counter wa the hero of the Harvard game. e e e Tuere is discord in the Midwest. It is charged that Michigan “lured away” football player “who had already enrolled at the University of Chicago. There are always plenty of charges about “ri ers,” in the Midweg and in every other district where foot ball excitement is in tense (which is a long way of saying The football “ringer” is undoubtedly the most mysterious form of animal life. Tt is never where you look for it. You hear that there are some at Alpha Insi- tute, You go there and they prove to you not only that there are none at Alpha, but that there are plenty at Beta College. You go to Beta. Foiled again! They prove to you that the ringers are all back at Alpha. Probably they passed you on the way. The conclusion is that a “ringer” isa good player on the other fellow’s team “Says here they've made war illegal.” “Yeah? Say, just what the hell does that word ‘illegal’ mean, anyhow?” comicbooks.com