“It may be said by some of the players to-day that the punts in those days were more easily caught than those of to-day.  There is nothing to a remark like that.  The spiral kick was developed in the fall of ’82, and I know that both Richards and myself knew the fellow who developed it.  From my experience in the Princeton game I can testify that Alex Moffat was a past master at it.

“One rather amusing thing I remember hearing years ago while standing with an old football player watching a Princeton game.  The ball was thrown forward by the quarterback, which was a foul.  The halfback, who was playing well out, dashed in and caught the ball on the run, evaded the opposing end, pushed the half back aside and ran half the length of the field, scoring a touchdown.  The applause was tremendous.  But the Umpire, who had seen the foul, called the ball back.  A fair spectator who was standing in front of me, asked my friend why the ball was called back.  My friend remarked:  ’The Princeton player has just received an encore, that’s all.’

“While the game was hard and rough in the early days, yet I consider that the discipline and the training which the men went through were of great assistance to them, physically, morally and intellectually, in after years.  Some of the pleasantest friendships that I hold to-day were made in connection with my football days, among the graduates of my own and other colleges.

“When fond parents ask the advisability of letting their sons play football, I always tell them of an incident at the Penn-Harvard game at Philadelphia, one year, which I witnessed from the top of a coach.  A young girl was asked the question: 

“’If you were a mother and had a son, would you allow him to play football?’

“The young lady thought for a moment and then answered in this spirited, if somewhat devious, fashion: 

“‘If I were a son and had a mother, you bet I’d play!’”

Memories of John C. Bell

In my association with football, among the many friendships I formed, I prize none more highly than that of John C. Bell, whose activity in Pennsylvania football has been kept alive long since his playing day.  Let us go back and talk the game over with him.

“I played football in my prep. school days,” he says, “and on the ’Varsity teams of the University of Pennsylvania in the years ’82-’83-’84.  After graduation, following a sort of nominating mass meeting of the students, I was elected to the football committee of the University, about 1886, and served as chairman of that committee until 1901; retiring that season when George Woodruff, after a term of ten years, terminated his relationship as coach of our team.

“I also served, as you know, as a representative of the University on the Football Rules Committee from about 1886 until the time I was appointed Attorney General in 1911.