“In those days an injured player was not allowed to leave the field of play without the consent of the opponents’ captain.  One can easily grasp the fact that your adversaries’ captain was not apt to permit a player, battered almost to worthlessness, to go to the bench and to allow you to substitute a strong and fresh player.  Therein lies the tale of this game.

“Princeton was confident of winning but not overconfident.  We went out to Jarvis field on a tallyho from Boston, and I recall how eagerly we dashed upon the field, anxious for the scrap to begin.  It was a clear, cold day with a firm turf—­a condition that helped us, as we were lighter than Harvard, especially behind the line.  None of our backs weighed more than 155 pounds.

“Holden, the Crimson captain, was probably the most dangerous of our opponents.  He was a deceptive running back owing to the difficulty of gauging his pace.  He was one of the speediest sprinters in the Eastern colleges and if he managed to circle either end it was almost good-bye to his opponents.

“We were all lying in wait for Holden, not to cripple him or take any unfair advantage, but to see that he did not cross our goal line.  It was not long before we had no cause to be concerned on that score.  But before Holden was disposed of we suffered a most grievous loss in the disqualification of Hector Cowan, our left guard and our main source of strength.  Princeton worked a majority of the tricks through Cowan and when he was gone we lost the larger part of our offensive power.

“Cowan’s disqualification was unjustified by his record or by any tendency toward unfair play, though this statement should not be regarded as a reflection on the fairness of Wyllys Terry, the old Yale player, who was the umpire.  Walter Camp, by the way, was the referee.

“There never was a fairer player than Cowan, and such a misfortune as losing him by disqualification for any act on the field was never dreamt of by the Princeton men.  The trouble was that Terry mistook an accident for a deliberate act.  Holden was skirting Princeton’s left end when Cowan made a lunge to reach him.  Holden’s deceptive pace was nearly too much for even such a star as Cowan, whose hands slipped from the Harvard captain’s waist down to below his knees until the ankles were touched.  Cowan could have kept his hands on Holden’s ankles, but as tackling below the knees was foul, he quickly let go.  But Holden tumbled and several Princeton men were on him in a jiffy.

“Harvard immediately claimed that it was a foul tackle.  It was a desperate claim but it proved successful.  To our astonishment and chagrin, Terry ruled Cowan off the field.  Cowan was thunderstruck at the decision and protested that he never meant to tackle unfairly.  We argued with Terry but he was unrelenting.  To him it seemed that Cowan meant to make a foul tackle.  The situation was disheartening but we still felt that we had a good chance of pulling through even without Cowan.