Myron Witham relates a humorous incident that happened in practice when McCornack was coach at Dartmouth.  “Mac’s serious and exacting demeanor on the practice field occasionally relaxed to enjoy a humorous situation.  He chose to give a personal demonstration of my position and duty as quarterback in a particular formation around the end.  He took my place and giving the proper signal, the team or rather ten-elevenths of the team went through with the play, leaving Mac behind standing in his tracks.  Mac naturally was at a loss to locate the quarter, during the execution of the play and madly yelled, ’Where in the devil is that quarterback?’ But immediately joined with the squad in the joke upon himself.”

McCornack coached Dartmouth in the falls of 1901 and 1902.  He brought the team up from nothing to a two years’ defeat of Brown and two years’ scoring on Harvard.  The game with Harvard in the fall of 1902 resulted in a score of 16 to 6, Dartmouth out-rushing Harvard at least 3 to 1.

McCornack then resigned, but left a wealth of material and a scientific game at Dartmouth, which was as good as any in the country.  This was the beginning of Dartmouth’s success in modern football, and for it McCornack has been named the father of modern football at Dartmouth.

The greatest compliment ever paid McCornack, in so far as athletics were concerned, was by President William Jewett Tucker of Dartmouth, who told an alumnus of the institution: 

“The discipline that McCornack maintained on the football field at Dartmouth was to the advantage of the general discipline of the institution.”

For ten years after McCornack had stopped coaching at Dartmouth, the captain of the Dartmouth team would wear his sweater in a Harvard game as an emblem to go by.  The sweater is now worn out, and no one knows where it is.

If Eddie Holt’s record at Princeton told of nothing else than the making of a great guard, this would be enough to establish Holt’s ability as a guard coach.  Eddie and Sam Craig played alongside of each other in the Yale defeat of ’97.  Holt says: 

“The story of the making of Sam Craig is the old story of the stone the builders rejected, which is now the head stone of the corner.  Sam never forgot the ’97 defeat and I never have myself.  After this game Sam gave up football, although he was eligible to play.  Two years later, after Princeton had been defeated by Cornell, something had to be done to strengthen the Princeton line.  Sam Craig was at the Seminary.  I remembered him,” said Holt, “and went over to his room and told him that he was needed.  I shall never forget how his face lit up as he felt there was an opportunity to serve Princeton and a chance to play on a winning team; a chance to come back.  He responded to my hurry call, eager to make good.  Coaching him was the finest thing I ever did in football.  Good old Sam, I can see him now, standing on the side lines telling me that he guessed he was no good.  You can never imagine how happy I was to see him improve day by day after I had taken a hold of him.  The great game he played against Yale in ’99 will always be one of my happiest recollections in football.  My joy was supreme; the joy that comes to a coach as he sees his man make good—­Sam sure did.”