THE GREAT FRESHMAN BATTLE.
The week of the Princeton game was a hard one for the Freshman team.
Coach Howard, assisted by several members of the 'Varsity coaching
staff, drove the team with all his might, but the results were
not encouraging. Frank had been established as quarterback on the
second team on the Monday following the Pawling game, and was making
good there. He was now a substitute to Madden, and twice had been
called over to the first eleven when Madden went out of the game
temporarily. Away back in his head was the hope that he might still
win out in the race for the quarterback position. But Madden had come
to Yale with a big reputation justly earned at Hill School, and was a
hard man to displace. When Frank's hopes were highest the crash came.
Bostwick, the captain and end, threw out his knee in a fierce
scrimmage, and was carried groaning to the side-lines.
"The fifth end hurt this fall, confound the luck," said Howard as he
stood looking down at the captain. "And no one to take your place
that's worth a cent."
"I'll be all right in a day or two," moaned Bostwick. "Stick some one
in till I get a brace on this thing. I can play in the game Saturday."
"Maybe you can and maybe you can't," said the coach. "Did you ever
see such beastly luck, and we were just beginning to round into
shape. Who am I going to put in there? There's half a dozen ends and
none of them worth a tinker."
He ran his eye over the squad which crowded around the injured
captain. "Here, Armstrong," he called, "did you ever play end?"
"A few times in prep. school, sir."
"Well you can learn it, can't you?" said Howard petulantly. "Bostwick
may pull through in time, and maybe he can't, and you are better than
anything I have."
"I'll do my best," said Frank, feeling his hopes for a place on
the team slipping away, for he knew well that in the short time
still left in the season his chances were small to learn that most
difficult of line positions--end.
"You are fast and about the only clean tackler I have on the squad,"
said Howard. "Get in and try it."
Bostwick, having been temporarily fixed up and led limping away in
the arms of two of the substitutes in the direction of the car, play
was resumed with Armstrong in his new position.
"Don't you let anyone get past you on the outside," commanded Howard.
"And don't be drawn in, no matter what happens. If you can't break
the interference, spill it so the defensive half can get the man with
the ball. Come on, try it."
Frank did try and tried hard. His ankle had improved, and under the
punts he went down the field like a streak of lightning, missing but
few tackles. But when the team was on the defensive, he showed the
weakness of inexperience.
"Outside of you that time," bawled the coach, and when the new end
moved out further, the play went inside. Sometimes he stopped the
interference and sometimes, digging desperately through the tangle of
legs, he got the runner on a driving tackle, which earned for him a
"Good boy, Armstrong," from Howard.
But it was bitter hard work, and never in his life had the welcome
"That's enough for to-day" found him so ready to quit. His body felt
bruised and sore all over from the driving work of the afternoon and
his legs were as heavy as lead, as in the gathering dusk he dragged
himself to the waiting trolley car which was there to carry the team
to the city.
"You did well to-day, Armstrong, for a starter," said the coach
kindly as he came through the car. "It's a hard dose I've given you."
Frank smiled a wan smile as he loosened his shoe laces.
"How heavy are you?"
"Guess about a hundred and forty-one or two," said Frank,
straightening up while the muscles of his back protested.
"Too light, too light," said the coach, shaking his head. "If you had
another ten or fifteen pounds on you, you'd do. But Bostwick may be
able to get into the game by Friday," he added, and passed along to
his seat.
Walking over from the training table that night, Turner railed
bitterly at Frank's luck. "You had a chance, a bare chance to get in
at quarterback for a part of the game anyway, in spite of your bad
start, and now you are dished, sure as shooting. The Captain will be
O. K. It didn't look like a bad injury to his knee."
"Can't be helped," said Frank. "We've got to take our medicine in
this old game. That's part of the training at Yale, isn't it?"
"It is, but it's not easy stuff to swallow."
"Well, there's nothing to do but swallow it, and I'm going to be
game, but it hurts. Bostwick may not make it, and I may get in
against Princeton, after all."
Turner shook his head. "I don't think there's a chance; you are only
filling in. I can see the handwriting on the wall. He'll come back,
and you will be his substitute. The only chance is that he may get
hurt again, but I hope he won't for he is the best we've got on that
side of the line."
"I hope he comes back," said Frank fervently, "because with me in
there I wouldn't give three cents for our chances."
"Which are not any too good with the best we have."
It proved to be as Jimmy said. Bostwick was put under heroic
treatment in the baking oven for sprained and injured limbs, and
to the great joy of all, Frank included, appeared on the field on
Thursday. He was a little stiff because of the hampering action of
the brace that Howard had devised for him, but went to his old place
in the line while Frank was sent to the side-lines.
The practice went well. "We still have a chance against the Tiger
cubs," said the coach. "Only a signal drill for fifteen minutes
to-morrow," he called out as the squad was leaving the field. "Get to
bed early and don't worry yourselves to death. We're going to give
them the time of their lives Saturday."
The cheerfulness of the coach was largely assumed, for the Princeton
cubs were coming up from Tigertown with a long string of victories to
their credit. Only twice during the whole season had they been scored
on, and one of these was a lucky drop-kick. The Yale Freshman team,
on the contrary, had staggered through the season with a showing far
from creditable, and the critics were all predicting a big score for
the visitors.
But in spite of the gloomy forecastings, the Yale Freshmen went into
that game with a determination to do or die, and while they did not
win, neither did the much-heralded Princeton cubs win. Frank watched
from the side-lines the desperate battle up and down the gridiron.
He saw his roommate giving the best that was in him in the struggle,
and prayed fervently that Bostwick might last it out. Every man on
the team was a hero that day, and when the final whistle blew, with
Captain Bostwick still on his feet and playing a whirlwind game in
spite of his injured knee, the score stood at a tie, nothing to
nothing.
Going in on the car the coach had nothing but praise for the team.
"We didn't lick them, but it is a good start for Harvard next
Saturday," he said. "We have a week left, and we'll give the Johnnies
a run for their money, all right."
"Armstrong," the coach added, as he dropped down beside him in the
trolley car, "I'm sorry you didn't get in, but better luck next time."
"O, that's all right," returned Frank. "I was mighty glad to see
Bostwick go through, he showed his sand with that bad knee."
"He certainly did, and he deserves a lot of credit. But I'm going to
keep you at end just the same because I may need you."
"All right, sir," said Frank, but he well knew it was the end of his
ambitions for a place on the team excepting for an accident to the
Captain, which he did not want to think about.
Four days of practice the week after the Princeton contest brought
the team to a condition of fitness which they had not before reached
that year, and on Friday afternoon, escorted to the train by a
hundred of their class, the team with substitutes, coaches, trainers
and a goodly crowd of supporters, set out for Cambridge. As the
'Varsity was away, the Freshman game had the honor of being staged on
the main gridiron.
That game in the towering Stadium was one that hung long in Frank's
memory. It was a game of desperate attack and defense. Three times
in the first period the rushing red-legged players had the Blue team
down inside the five-yard line, and three times they were stopped
by the stone-wall defense. All through the first half the Yale team
fought on the defensive, crumpling up before the fierce rushes of the
Harvard players, but somehow stiffening as the goal line approached.
So certain were the Harvard players of scoring a touchdown that they
disdained to try for a goal from the field, and each time they were
stopped by the men from New Haven they took the ball back with dogged
determination, only to lose it again.
"We have them now," said Howard as his men were being cared for
between the halves. "Go after them. They've shot their bolt, and it's
our turn."
After the kick-off in the third quarter, Turner raised great hopes by
running the ball back through the Harvard team, and, before he was
tackled, laid it only twenty yards away from the Harvard goal line.
A smash at center earned only two yards.
"Armstrong, get ready, I'm going to send you in to try for a goal,"
said the coach, running down to where Frank was sitting, shivering
with the excitement of the struggle that was going on out in the
field. Frank slipped off his sweater, and made ready, but the chance
he so longed for never came.
Madden's signal was mixed somehow, and the man who was to take the
ball wasn't where the quarter expected him to be. He started to run
with the ball himself, but was upset by a savage tackle, and dropped
the pigskin, which went bounding backward toward his own goal. Half
a dozen players took a driving shot at the leather, but it eluded
them as if it had been greased. Finally a lanky Harvard end wound his
body around it at midfield. Yale's chance to score at that particular
moment was lost.
Frank gritted his teeth and slipped on his sweater again. The battle
was once more taken up with renewed vigor. The advantage lay first
with one team and then with the other, but never again did Yale have
so good a chance to score.
Again striking its stride, after a lot of futile punting, the Yale
Freshmen got together and began to plough through their opponents.
Turner was playing like a demon while the little Yale contingent
matched yell for yell with the Harvard supporters on the other side
of the field. Turner on two tries reeled off twenty-five yards, and
put the ball just across the center of the field. A forward pass
netted fifteen yards more, and again the coach began to look for a
chance to score, not for a touchdown, for the attack had not shown
itself capable of beating down that splendid defense, but by a
drop-kick if the opportunity came.
But again when hope was high in every heart came a sudden disastrous
fumble, and again the red-legged end had the ball.
"Take it away from them," howled the Yale crowd.
"Throw 'em back."
"Eat the Johnnies up."
But that husky Harvard team was not a whit disturbed by the ferocious
cries from the Yale side of the field. They settled down to business
again, and slowly, but surely, worked the ball down toward the Blue
goal line.
The tired boys from New Haven fought on grimly in the fourth period,
making the gains against them shorter and shorter as they were pushed
back. Turner intercepted a forward pass which would have surely made
a touchdown for Harvard, and for a time there was a respite for the
Yale Freshmen for the fullback kicked the ball far down the field,
only to have it caught and brought back past Bostwick, this time, for
thirty yards.
At it again went the two teams, Yale defending stubbornly, but
vainly, against the powerful rushes of the Harvard backs, who, now
that the end of the game was drawing near, threw their last bit of
energy into the attack. Through center and tackle went the bull-like
rushes of the backs. Bostwick's end was circled for fifteen yards,
and he was laid out for a while, but revived soon after a little
dabbing of the sponge on his face.
"I want you to be ready, Armstrong," said the coach, hurrying up
to Frank whose eyes were glued on the field, and whose heart was
pumping with the excitement of the struggle. He was straining almost
as hard as his mates out on the field, lunging his shoulder into the
substitute who sat next to him, in the unconscious effort to help
stop the Harvard rushes.
"Touchdown, touchdown," sang out the Harvard Freshmen supporters.
"We want a touchdown!"
"Hold 'em!"
"Hold 'em, Yale!" was the defiant cry from the opposite side of the
field.
"Show the Johnnies where you come from!"
With the ball on the Yale ten-yard line it looked as if no power in
the Yale team, at least, could stop the victorious march. Bostwick
was again laid out, but was up on his feet after a minute of
attention.
"Good old Bostwick," cried Frank, stirred by the game fight his
captain was making.
"Long cheer for Bostwick!" and the dancing cheer leaders led a
ringing yell for the fighting captain, which seemed to stiffen up the
boys out on the field. They stopped the next Harvard rush without a
yard of gain. Standing like heroes together, the Freshmen line did
the impossible, repulsed the fierce assaults the Harvard team could
give, and took the ball.
"Y-a-a-y----" yelled the Yale stand, rising as one man. Hats and caps
went into the air. The cheer leaders tried to get order, and give a
cheer, but no one paid any attention to them. The crowd continued to
yell like Comanches, as the lines settled themselves again.
"Time must be nearly up," said a substitute.
"It can't be," cried Frank, gritting his teeth in a frenzy. "They
must have five minutes more to play. They've got to have it," and he
drove his heels into the unoffending ground as if at that distance
he could help in the charge that was to be delivered against the red
host.
"What's Madden going to do, rush it?" inquired a voice.
"I hope not," said Howard. "A short kick would mean a free catch
and a chance for a placement goal. Good boy," he shouted as Madden
changed the signal, and the fullback, who had gone back behind the
goal line, came running up again to the regular formation.
"Put it through them!"
"Smash it out, boys!"
The signal came sharp and clear from the lips of the quarterback,
high above the background of yells from the partisans.
"Turner's ball," whispered Frank to himself.
The pass was swift and true. Turner took the ball from Madden's hands
at full speed. The play was intended to be a slice off tackle, a play
that had gained a good deal of ground during the afternoon. But,
alas for the best laid plans of men, mice and football players, he
never reached his destination. The tired Yale line sagged and broke.
Through gaping holes poured a stream of Crimson-jerseyed men. Two
tacklers struck Turner, who was practically on his goal line, at the
same time, and swept him backward like chaff. So swift and sudden had
been the deluge that the halfback was carried off his feet and over
the goal line before he had even a chance to yell "down."
The crowd did not at once appreciate the significance of the matter,
but a few, recognizing a safety for Harvard, set up a scattered
cheer. A moment later the fateful information was flashed from the
scoreboard, "Safety," and the Harvard stand delivered itself of a
high-pitched yell.
A moment later the referee's whistle blew, and the great game was
over. A host of men swept from the stands and surrounded the victors,
cheering and prancing about.
With Bostwick at its head, trying hard not to limp, and with faces
drawn and mud-stained, the beaten team walked wearily to the dressing
rooms where they were joined by the substitutes.
"You didn't win but I'm proud of you all," said Coach Howard,
slapping the jaded players on the back as they came through the door.
"You were up against a better team, fifty per cent. better."
"Here, Bostwick," he added a minute later to the captain, who, sunk
in gloom and with hanging head, was pulling off his wet football
clothes, "cheer up. We can't always win. The main business is that
you and your team played a magnificent up-hill game. I'm satisfied
and Yale will be satisfied for you gave the best in you. That's
always the test. You'll have another chance next year."