Lafayette’s great team]

I realized it at the moment, and although I knew that it would probably put me in the substitute ranks for the rest of the season, I was wild with joy to see Edwin develop at this particular moment, and perform his great play.  His day had come, his was the reward, and Joe Beacham had been laid low.  As for the girl, she subsided abruptly, and is said to have remarked, as Crowdis smashed the Cornell machine:  “Well, I never did like a fat man anyway!”

One day in a practice game, against the scrub, this year, Garry Cochran, who was standing on the side lines resting from the result of an injury, became so frantic over the poor showing of the varsity, pulled off his sweater and jumped into the game in spite of the trainers’ earnest entreaty not to.  He tried to instill a new spirit into the game.  It was one of those terrible Monday practice games, of which every football player knows.  The varsity could not make any substantial gains against the second team, which was unusually strong that year, as most of the varsity substitutes were playing.  How frantic Bill Church was!  He was playing tackle alongside of Edwin Crowdis, against whom I was playing.  My chances of making the Varsity were getting slimmer.  Very few practice days were left before the men would be selected for the final game.  I was making the last earnest stand.  The varsity line men were not opening up the scrub line as easily as they desired, and we were all stopping up the offensive play of the Varsity.  I was going through very low and tackling Crowdis around the legs, trying to carry him back into the play.  Church was very angry at my doing this, and told Crowdis to hit me, if I did it again, but Edwin was a good-natured, clean player; in fact, I doubt if he ever rough played any man.  Finally, after several plays, Church said, “If you don’t hit him, I will,” and he sure made good his threat, for on the next play, when I was at the bottom of the heap in the scrimmage, Church handed me one of those stiff “Bill Church blows,” emphasizing the tribute with his leather thumb protector.  There was a lively mixup and the scrub and Varsity had an open fight.  All was soon forgotten, but I still “wear an ear,” the lobe of which is a constant reminder of Bill Church’s spirited play.  Nothing ever stood in Church’s way; he was a hard player, and a powerful tackle.

Slowly but surely, Cochran’s great team was perfecting itself into a machine.  The victory against Harvard at Cambridge was the team’s worthy reward for faithful service and attention given to the details of the game.

As a reward for service rendered, the second team with the Varsity substitutes were taken on the trip, and as we saw the great Princeton team winning, every man was happy and proud of the joy and knowledge of giving something material towards their winning.  Sore legs, injuries and mistakes were at such a time forgotten.  All that was felt was the keen sense of satisfaction that comes to men who have helped in the construction.