Yale did not learn how that ball came to be put in play until some time after the game, which was the last of the season, when Long Tommy happening to meet up with Hanson and several other Yale players in a New York restaurant, told with great glee how he gave the signal that stopped Yale’s triumphant advance.

* * * * *

Numerals and combinations of numbers were not used as signals until 1889.  Prior to that, phrases, catch-words and gestures were the only modes of indicating the plays to be used.  For instance, the signal for Hector Cowan of Princeton to run with the ball was an entreaty by the captain, who in those days usually gave the signals, addressed to the team, to gain an uneven number of yards.  Therefore the expression, “Let’s gain three, five or seven yards,” would indicate to the team that Cowan was to take the ball, and an effort was made to open up the line for him at the point at which he usually bucked it.

Irvine, the other tackle, ran with the ball when an even number of yards was called for.

For a kick the signal was any phrase which asked a question, as for instance, “How many yards to gain?”

One of the signals used by Corbin, captain of Yale, to indicate a certain play, was the removal of his cap.  They wore caps in those days.  A variation of this play was indicated if in addition to removing his cap he expectorated emphatically.

Hodge, the Princeton quarterback, noticing the cap signals, determined that he would handicap the captain’s strategy by stealing his cap.  He called the team back and very earnestly impressed upon them the advantage that would accrue if any of them could surreptitiously get possession of Captain Corbin’s head-covering.  Corbin, however, kept such good watch on his property that no one was able to purloin it.

Sport Donnelly, who played left end on Princeton’s ’89 team, was perhaps one of the roughest players that ever went into a game, and at the same time one of the best ends that ever went down the field under a kick.

Donnelly was one of the few men that could play his game up to the top notch and at the same time keep his opponent harassed to the point of frenzy by a continual line of conversation in a sarcastic vein which invariably got the opposing player rattled.

He would say or do something to the man opposite him which would goad that individual to fury and then when retaliation was about to come in the shape of a blow, he would yell “Mr. Umpire,” and in many instances the player would be ruled off the field.

Donnelly’s line of conversation in a Yale game, addressed to Billy Rhodes who played opposite him, would be somewhat as follows: 

“Ah, Mr. Rhodes, I see Mr. Gill is about to run with the ball.”

Just then Gill would come tearing around from his position at tackle and Donnelly would remark: 

“Well, excuse me, Mr. Rhodes, for a moment, I’ve got to tackle Mr. Gill.”