In other colleges, the instances of football skill developed by brotherly emulation have been nearly as well marked.  Dartmouth, for instance, produced the Bankhart brothers—­Cornell, the Starbucks—­one of them, Raymond, captaining his team—­the Cools, Frank and Gib—­the latter being picked by good judges as the All-America center in 1915—­and the Warners, Bill and Glenn.

The greatest three players from any one family that ever played the backfield would probably be the three Draper brothers—­Louis, Phil and Fred. All went to Williams and all were stars; heavy, fast backs, who were good both on defense and offense, capable of doing an immense amount of work and never getting hurt.

At Pennsylvania, there have been the Folwells, Nate and R. C. Folwell and the Woodruffs, George and Wiley, although George Woodruff, originator of the celebrated “guards back,” was a Yale man long before he coached at Pennsylvania.  It is impossible for any one who saw Jack Minds play to forget this great back of ’94, ’95, ’96 and ’97, whose brother also wore the Red and Blue a few years later.

Doubtless there have been many more fathers, brothers and sons who have been equally famous and I ask indulgence for my sins of omission, for the list is long.  Principally, I have recalled their names for the reason that I knew or now know many of these great players intimately and so have learned the curious longing—­perhaps “passion”—­for the game which is passed from one to the other of a football family.  In a way this might be compared with the military spirit which allows a family to state proudly that “we have always been Army (or Navy) people.”  And who shall say that the clash and conflict of this game, invented and played only by thoroughly virile men, are not productive of precisely those qualities of which the race may, some day, well stand in need.  If by the passing down from father to son and from brother to brother of a spirit of cheerful self-denial throughout the hard fall months—­of grim doggedness under imminent defeat and of fair play at all times, whether victor or vanquished—­a finer, truer sense of what a man may be and do is forged out of the raw material, then football may feel that it has served a purpose even nobler than that of being simply America’s greatest college game.

CHAPTER XVII

OUR GOOD OLD TRAINERS

There are not many football enthusiasts who analyze the factors that bring victory.  Many of us do not appreciate the importance attached to the trainer, or realize the great part that he plays, until we are out of college.  We know that the men who bore the brunt of the battle have received their full share of glory—­the players and coaches.

But there arises in the midst of our athletic world men who trained, men who safeguarded the players.  Trainers have been associated with football since the early eighties, and a careful trainer’s eye should ever be on the lookout wherever football is played.  Players, coaches and trainers go hand in hand in football.