There is no question that the American game of football will go on for years to come.  If the future football generals develop a better all-around man than Eddie Mahan, captain of the great Harvard team of 1915, whose playing brought not only victory to Harvard but was accompanied by great admiration throughout the football world, they may well congratulate themselves.  From this peerless leader, whose playing was an inspiration to the men on his team, let us put on record, so that future heroes may also draw like inspiration from them, some of Mahan’s own recollections of his playing days.

“I think the greatest game I ever played in was the Princeton game in 1915, because we never knew until the last minute that we had won the game,” says the Crimson star.  “There was always a chance of Princeton’s beating us.  The score was 10 to 6.  I worked harder in that game than in any game I ever played.

“Frank Glick’s defensive work was nothing short of marvelous.  He is the football player I respect.  He hit me so hard.  The way I ran, it was seldom that anybody got a crack at me.  I would see a clear space and the first thing I knew Glick would come from behind somewhere, or somebody, and would hit me when I least expected it, and he usually hit me good and hard.  It seemed sometimes that he came right out of the ground.  I tell you after he hit me a few times he was the only man I was looking for; I did not care much about the rest of the team.

“One of the things that helped me most in my backfield play was Pooch Donovan’s coaching.  He practiced me in sprints, my whole freshman year.  He took a great interest in me.  He speeded me up.  I owe a great debt of gratitude to Pooch.  I could always kick before I went to Harvard, back in the old Andover days.  I learned to kick by punting the ball all the afternoon, instead of playing football all the time.  I think that is the way men should learn to kick.  The more I kicked, the better I seemed to get.”

Among the many trophies Eddie Mahan has received, he prizes as much as any the watch presented to him by the townspeople of Natick, his home town, his last year at Andover, after the football season closed.  He was attending a football game at Natick between Natick High and Milton High.

“It was all a surprise to me,” says Eddie.  “They called me out on the field and presented me with this watch which is very handsomely inscribed.

“Well do I recall those wonderful days at Andover and the games between Andover and Exeter.  There is intense rivalry between these two schools.  Many are the traditions at Andover, and some of the men who had preceded me, and some with whom I played were Jack Curtis, Ralph Bloomer, Frank Hinkey, Doc Hillebrand and Jim Rodgers.  Then there was Trevor Hogg, who was captain of the Princeton 1916 team, Shelton, Red Braun, Bob Jones.  The older crowd of football men made the game what it is at Andover.  Lately they have had a much younger crowd.  When I was at Andover, Johnny Kilpatrick, Henry Hobbs, Ham Andrews, Bob Foster and Bob McKay had already left there and gone to college.