ALOHA
"Hail and Farewell," crowded by the Hawaiians into one pregnant word!
Would that this message might mean as much in as little compass. I can
promise only brevity and all that brevity means in so vast a matter as
football to a man who would love nothing better than to talk on forever.
We know that football has really progressed and improved, and that the
boys of to-day are putting football on a higher plane than it has ever
been on before. We are a progressive, sporting public.
Gone are the old Fifth Avenue horse buses, that used to carry the men to
the field of battle; gone, too, are the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the
Hoffman House, with their recollections of great victories fittingly
celebrated. The old water bucket and sponge, with which Trainer Jim
Robinson used to rush upon the field to freshen up a tired player, are
now things of the past. To-day we have the spectacle of Pooch Donovan
giving the Harvard players water from individual sanitary drinking cups!
The old block game is no more. Heavy mass play has been opened up.
To-day there is something for the public to _see_; something interesting
to watch at every point; something significant in every move. As a
result, greatly increased multitudes witness the game. No longer do
football enthusiasts stand behind ropes on the side lines. The
popularity of the game has made it necessary to build huge _stadia_ for
the sport, to take the place of the old wooden stands.
College games, for the most part, nowadays are played on college
grounds. Accordingly the sport has been withdrawn from the miscellaneous
multitude and confined to the field where it really belongs and the
spirit of the game is now just what it should be--exclusively
collegiate.
Best of all, the modern style of play has made the game more than ever a
heroic see-saw, with one side uppermost for a time only to jar the very
ground with the shock of its fall.
Yet, victorious or defeated, the spirit through it all is one of
splendid and overflowing college enthusiasm. While there is abounding
joy in an unforeseen or hard won victory there is also much that is
inspirational in the sturdy, courageous, devoted support of
college-mates in the hour of defeat.
Isaac H. Bromley, Yale '53, once summed up eloquently the spirit of
college life and sport in the following words:
"These contests and these triumphs are not all there is of college life,
but they are a not unimportant part of it. The best education, the most
useful training, come not from the classroom and from books, but from
the attrition of mind on mind, from the wholesome emulation engendered
by a common aim and purpose, from the whetting of wits by good-natured
rivalry, the inspiration of youthful enthusiasms, the blending together
of all of us in undying love for our common Mother.
"As to the future: We may not expect this unbroken round of victories to
go on forever; we shall need sometimes, more than the inspiration of
victory, the discipline of defeat. And it will come some day. Our
champions will not last forever. Some time Stagg must make his last home
run, and Camp his final touchdown. Some day Bob Cook will 'hear the dip
of the golden oars' and 'pass from sight with the boatman pale.'
"It would be too much to think that all their successors will equally
succeed. It might be monotonous. But of one thing we may be
assured--that whatever happens, we shall never fail to extend the meed
of praise to the victors. We shall be hereafter, as in the past we have
always been, as stout in adversity as we have been merry in sunshine."
* * * * *
"Then strip, lads, and to it
Though sharp be the weather;
And if, by mischance you should happen to fall
There are worse things in life
Than a tumble on heather
And life is itself, but a game, of football."
[Transcriber's Note:
Many words in this text were inconsistently hyphenated or spelled, so I
have normalized them. The majority are football terms that originally
appeared inconsistently as "full-back," "fullback," and "full back,"
for example.]