No greater honor can be accorded a football man than the invitation to come back to his Alma Mater and take charge of the football situation.  Such a man has been selected after he has served efficiently at other institutions, for it takes long experience to become a great coach and there are very few men who have given up all their time to consecutive coaching.

Successful coaches, as a rule, are men who have a genius for it, and whose strong personalities bring out the natural ability of the men under them.  Successful football is the result of a good system, plus good material.

Of the men who coach to-day, the experience of John H. Rush, popularly known as Speedy Rush, stands out as unique.  Rush never played football, for he preferred track athletics, but he understood the theory of the game.  At the University School in Cleveland where Rush taught for many years, he took charge of the football team, and although coaching mere boys, his results were marvelous, and in 1915, when the Princeton coaching system was in a slough of despond, it was decided to give Rush an opportunity to show what he could do at Princeton.

[Illustration: 

Metcalf Peterson Mumford Monroe Elmer Stover Donnell Norton Dwyer Weed
Bullwinkle McCabe Franklin Schulte Thorpe Moffat Simmonds
DeGraff Buermeyer Cochran Fairfield Todd Thompson
Calder Aimee Noble Gallagher Wadleton

COLUMBIA BACK IN THE GAME, 1915]

Rush makes no boasts.  He is a silent worker, and football people at large were unanimous in their praise of his work at Princeton in the fall of 1915.  Whatever the future holds in store for this coach, Princeton men at least are sure that an efficient policy has been established which will be followed out year after year, and that the loyal support of the Alumni is behind Rush.

There was never a time in Yale’s history when so much general discussion and care entered into the selection of its football coach as in 1915.  From the long list of Yale football graduates the honor was bestowed upon Tad Jones, a man whose remarkable playing record at Yale is well known.  Football records tell of his wonderful runs.  His personality enables him to get close to the men, and he was wonderfully successful at Exeter, coaching his old school.  Tad Jones represents one of the highest types of college athletes.

In 1915 when the college authorities decided Columbia might re-enter the football arena, after a lapse of ten years, it was a wonderful victory for the loyal Columbia football supporters.  A most thorough and exhaustive search was then made for the proper man to teach Columbia the new football.  The man who won the Committee’s unanimous vote was Thomas N. Metcalf, who played football at Oberlin, Ohio.  Metcalf earned recognition in his first year.  He realized that Columbia’s re-entrance into football must be gradual, and his schedule was arranged accordingly.  He developed Miller, a quarterback who stood on a par with the best quarterbacks in 1915.  Columbia had great confidence in Metcalf, and the pick of the old men, notably Tom Thorp, one of the gamest players any team ever had, volunteered their aid.