“While at Cornell in 1892, Osgood made, by his own prowess, two to three touchdowns against each of the strong Yale, Harvard and Princeton elevens, and in the Harvard-Pennsylvania game at Philadelphia in 1894, he thrilled the spectators with his runs more than I have ever seen any man do in any other one game.

“But I would belittle my own sense of Osgood’s real worth if I confined myself to expatiating on his brilliant physical achievements.  His moral worth and gentle bravery were to me the chief points in him that arouse true admiration.  When I, as coach of Penn’s football team, discovered that Osgood had quietly matriculated at Pennsylvania, without letting anybody know of his intention, I naturally cultivated his friendship, in order to get from him his value as a player; but I found he was of even more value as a moral force among the players and students.  In this way he helped me as much as by his play, because, to my mind, a football team is good or bad according to whether the bad elements or the good, both of which are in every set of men, predominate.

“In the winter of 1896, Osgood nearly persuaded me to go with him on his expedition to help the Cubans, and I have often regretted not having been with him through that experience.  He went as a Major of Artillery to be sure, but not for the title, nor the adventure only, but I am sure from love of freedom and overwhelming sympathy for the oppressed.  He said to me: 

“’The Cubans may not be very lovely, but they are human, and their cause is lovely.’

“When Osgood, with almost foolhardy bravery, sat his horse directing his dilapidated artillery fire in Cuba, and thus conspicuous, made himself even more marked by wearing a white sombrero, he was not playing the part of a fool; he was following his natural impulse to exert a moral force on his comrades who could understand little but liberty and bravery.

“When the Angel of Death gave him the accolade of nobility by touching his brow in the form of a Mauser bullet, Win Osgood simply welcomed his friend by gently breathing ‘Well,’ a word typical of the man, and even in death, it is reported, continued to sit erect upon his horse.”

Gordon Brown

There are many young men who lost a true friend when Gordon Brown died.  He was their ideal.  After his college days were over, he became very much interested in settlement work on the East Side in New York.  He devoted much of his time after business to this great work which still stands as a monument to him.  He was as loyal to it as he was to football when he played at Yale.  Gordon Brown’s career at Yale was a remarkable one.  He was captain of the greatest football team Yale ever had.  Whenever the 1900 team is mentioned it is spoken of as Gordon Brown’s team.  The spirit of this great thoroughbred still lives at Yale, still lives at Groton School where he spent six years.  He was captain there and leader in all the activities in the school.  He was one of the highest type college men I have ever known.  He typified all the best there was in Yale.  He was strong mentally, as well as physically.