“It was a pretty game to play and a pretty game to look at.  Would that the rules could be so worded as to make the football of Camp’s time the football of to-day!

“Walter Camp’s natural ability as a football player was recognized as soon as he entered Yale in 1876.  He made the ’varsity at once and played halfback.  It was in the first Harvard football game at Hamilton Park that the Harvard captain, who was a huge man with a full, bushy beard, saw Walter Camp, then a stripling freshman in uniform, and remarked to the Yale Captain: 

“’You don’t mean to let that child play; he is too light; he will get hurt.’

“Walter made a mental note of that remark, and during the game the Harvard captain had occasion to remember it also, when in one of the plays Camp tackled him, and the two went to the ground with a heavy thud.  As the Harvard captain gradually came to, he remarked to one of his team mates: 

“‘Well, that little fellow nearly put me out!’

“Camp’s brilliant playing earned him the captaincy of the team in 1878 and 1879.  He had full command of his men and was extremely popular with them, but this did not prevent his being a stickler for discipline.

“In my day on the Yale team with Camp,” Vernon states, “Princeton was our dire opponent.  For a week or so before a Princeton game, we all agreed to stay on the campus and to be in bed every night by eleven o’clock.  Johnny Moorhead, who was one of our best runners, decided one night to go to the theatre, however, and was caught by Captain Camp, whereupon we were all summoned out of bed to Camp’s room, shortly before midnight.  After the roundup we learned the reason for our unexpected meeting.  There was some discussion in which Camp took very little part.  No one expected that Johnny would receive more than a severe reprimand and this feeling was due largely to the fact that we needed him in the game.  Imagine our surprise, therefore, when Camp, who had left us for a moment, returned to the room and handed in his resignation as captain of the team.  We revolted at this.  Johnny, who sized up the situation, rather than have the team lose Camp, decided to quit the team himself.  What occurred the next day between Camp and Johnny Moorhead we never knew, but Johnny played in the game and squared himself.”

Walter Camp’s name is coupled with that of Chummy Eaton in football history.  “Eaton was on the left end rush line,” says Vernon, “and played a great game with Camp down the side line.  When one was nearly caught for a down, the other would receive the ball from him on an over-head throw and proceed with the run.  Camp and Eaton would repeat this play, sending the ball back and forth down the side of the field for great gains.

“In one of the big games in the fall of 1879, Eaton had a large muscle in one of his legs torn and had to quit playing for that season.”  Vernon was put in Chummy’s place.  “But I couldn’t fill Chummy’s shoes,” Vernon acknowledges, “for he and Camp had practiced their beautiful side line play all the fall.