“I remember once in my senior year our divergence of views on this question, about three weeks before the final game, nearly split our team, and that as a result I nearly received the doubtful honor of becoming the captain of a defeated Yale team.  Camp, fearful of wet weather and possible snow at the Thanksgiving game, and with Channing, Eaton and Fred Remington as the heavy Yale ends and everybody ‘big’ in the rush line excepting myself, was trying to develop us with as little kicking as possible, and was sensitive because of the protests from the rush line that there was no kicking.  We were all summoned one evening to his room in Durfee; the situation explained, together with his unwillingness to assume the responsibility of captain unless his ideas were followed; his fear of defeat, if they were not followed, his willingness to continue on the team as a halfback and to do his best and his resignation as captain with the suggestion of my taking the responsibility of the position.  Things looked blue for Yale when Walter walked out of the door, but after some ten minutes’ discussion we decided that the open game was the better, despite Camp’s opinion to the contrary, but that we could not play the open game without Camp as captain.  Some one was sent out to bring Walter back; matters were smoothed out; we played the open game and never lost a touchdown during the season.  But during the four years I was on the Yale varsity we never lost but one touchdown, from which a goal was kicked and there were no goals kicked from the field.  This goal was lost to Princeton, and I think was in the fall of ’78, the year that Princeton won the championship.  The two men that were more than anybody else responsible for the record were Eugene Baker and Walter Camp, but behind it all was the old Yale spirit, which seems to show itself better on the football field than in any other branch of athletics.”

Theodore M. McNair

On December 19th, 1915, there appeared in the newspapers a notice of the death of an old Princeton athlete, in Japan—­Theodore M. McNair—­who, while unknown to the younger football enthusiasts, was considered a famous player in his day.  To those who saw him play the news brought back many thrills of his adventures upon the football field.  The following is what an old fellow player has to say about his team mate: 

“Princeton has lost one of her most remarkable old time athletes in the death of Theodore M. McNair of the class of 1879.

“McNair was a classmate of Woodrow Wilson.  After his graduation he became a Presbyterian missionary, a professor in a Tokio college and the head of the Committee that introduced the Christian hymnal into Japan.