“What was particularly galling to us was that we had allowed two touchdowns to slip from our grasp.  Twice we had carried the ball to within a few yards of the Harvard line and had dropped the ball when about to cross it.  Both errors were hardly excusable and were traceable to over-anxiety to score.  With Cowan on the field we had found that he could open up the Harvard line for the backs to make long runs but now that he was gone we could be sure of nothing except grilling work.

“Soon after occurred the most dramatic and lamentable incident which put Holden out of the game.  We had been warned long before the contest that Holden was a fierce tackler and that if we, who were back of the Princeton line, wished to stay in the game it would be necessary to watch out for his catapultic lunges.

“Holden made his tackles low, a kind of a running dive with his head thrust into his quarry’s stomach.  The best policy seemed, in case Holden had you cornered, to go at him with a stiff arm and a suddenly raised knee to check his onslaught and, if possible, shake him off in the shuffle, but that was a mighty difficult matter for light backs to do.

“First the line was opened up so that I went through.  Harding, the Harvard quarter, who was running up and down the Crimson line like a panther, didn’t get me.  My hand went against his face and somehow I got rid of him.  Finally I reached Holden, who played the fullback position while on the defensive, and had him to pass in order to get a touchdown.  There was a savage onslaught and Holden had me on the ground.

“A few moments later Ames, who played back with Channing and me, went through the Harvard line and again Holden was the only obstacle to a touchdown for Princeton.  There was another savage impact and both players rolled upon the ground, but this time Holden did not get up.  He got his man but he was unconscious or at least seemingly so.  His chest bone had been broken.  It was a tense moment.  We all felt a pang of sympathy, for Holden was a square, if rough, player.  Harvard’s cheers subsided into murmurs of sorrow and Holden was carried tenderly off the field.

“The accident made Harvard desperate, and as we were without Cowan we were in the same mental condition.  It was hammer and tongs from that time on.  I don’t know that there was any intention to put players out of business, but there was not much mercy shown.

“It appeared to me that some doubt existed on the Harvard side as to who caused Holden’s chest bone to be broken, but that the suspicion was mainly directed at me.  Several years later an article written at Harvard and published in the Public Ledger in Philadelphia gave a long account of how I broke Holden’s chest bone.  This seemed to confirm my notion that there was a mixup of identity.  However that may be, it soon became evident in the game that I was marked for slaughter.