Good-by Heff! the boys will miss you,
      And the old men, too, and the girls;
    You tossed the other side about as if they were ten-pins;
    You took Little Bliss under your wing and he ran with
          the ball like a pilot boat by the Teutonic. 
    You used eyes, ears, shoulders, legs, arms and head
          and took it all in. 
    You’re the best football rusher America, or the world,
          has shown;
    And best of all you never slugged, lost your temper or
          did anything mean;
    Oh come thou mighty one, go not away,
    The team thou must not fail: 
    Stay where thou art, please, Heffelfinger, stay,
      And still be true to Yale—­
    Linger, yet linger, Heffelfinger, a truly civil engineer. 
      His trust would ne’er surrender; unstrap thy trunks,
      Excuse this scalding tear. 
    Still be Yale’s best defender!  Linger, oh, linger,
      Heffelfinger. 
    Princeton and Harvard, there is cause to fear
    Will dance joy’s double shuffle when of thy Western
      flight they come to hear.  Stay and their tempers
      ruffle.  Linger, oh, linger, Heffelfinger.

John Cranston

“My inspiration for the game came when my country cousin returned from Exeter and told me he believed I had the making of a football player,” says John Cranston, who was Harvard’s famous old center and former coach.  “At once I pestered him with all kinds of questions about the requirements, and believed that some day I would do something.  I shall always remember my first day on the field at Exeter.  Lacking the wherewithal to buy the regulation suit, I appeared in the none too strong blue shirt and overalls used on the farm.  I remember too that it was not long before Harding said:  ’Take that young countryman to the gymnasium before he is injured for life; he doesn’t know which way to run when he gets the ball; he doesn’t know the game; and he looks too thick headed to play the game anyway.’

“As boys on neighboring farms of Western New York, three of us, who were later to play on different college teams, hunted skunks and rabbits together.  Had we been on the same team we would have been side by side.  Cook was a great tackle at Princeton; Reed one of the best guards Cornell ever had; and I, owing to some good team mates, played as center on the first Harvard eleven to defeat Yale.  It is said that Cook in his first game at Exeter grabbed the ball and started for his own goal for a touchdown, and that Reed after playing the long afternoon in the game which Cornell won, asked the Referee which side was victorious.

“I well remember that at Exeter we were planning how to celebrate our victory over Andover, even to the most minute detail.  We knew who was to ring the academy and church bells of the town, and where we were to have the bonfire at night.  We were deprived of that pleasure on account of the great playing and better spirit of the Andover team.  A few of our Exeter men then and there made a silent compact that Exeter would feel a little better after another contest with Andover.  The following three years we defeated Andover by large scores.