“I have always claimed that Charlie de Saulles put the Yale ’97 team on the map.  Charlie de Saulles, with his three wonderful runs, which averaged not less than 60 yards each, really brought about the victory.

“Frank Butterworth as head coach will always have my highest regard; he did more than any one alive could have done to pull off an apparently impossible victory.”

“One great feature of this game was Ad Kelly’s series of individual gains, aided by Hillebrand and Edwards, through Rodgers and Chadwick.  Kelly took the ball for 40 consecutive yards up the field in gains of from one to three yards each, when fortunately for Yale, a fumble gave them the ball.  When the fumble occurred, I happened at the time to break through very fast.  There lay the ball on the ground, and nobody but myself near it.  The great chance was there to pick it up and perhaps, even with my slow speed, gain 20 to 30 yards for Yale.  No such thought, however, entered my head.  I wanted that ball and curled up around it and hugged it as a tortoise would close in its shell.  My recollection is now that I sat there for about five minutes before anybody deigned to fall on me.  At all events, I had the ball.

“Gordon Brown played as a freshman on my team.  He had a football face that I liked.  He weighed 185 pounds and was 6 feet 4 inches tall.  Gordon went up against Bouve in the Harvard game, and the critics stated that Bouve was the best guard in the country that year.  I said to Gordon, ’Play this fellow the game of his life, and when you get him, let me know and I’ll send some plays through you.’  After about sixty minutes of play Gordon came to me and said, ‘Jim, I’ve got him,’ and he had him all right, for we were then successful in gaining through that part of the Harvard line.  Gordon Brown was a very earnest player.  He would allow nothing to stop him.  He got his ears pretty well bruised up and they bothered him a great deal.  In fact, he did have to lay off two or three days.  He came to me and said, ’Do you think this injury will keep me out of the big game?’ ’Well, I’ll see if the trainer cannot make a head-gear for you.’  ‘Well, I’ll tell you this, Jim,’ said Gordon, ’I’ll have ’em cut off before I’ll stay out of the game.’  This amused me, and I said, ’Gordon, you have nothing of beauty to lose.  You will keep your ears and you will play in the big games.’

“Gordon Brown’s team, under Malcolm McBride as head coach, was a wonder.  This eleven, to our minds, was the best ever turned out by Yale University.  They defeated Princeton 29 to 5, and the powerful Harvard team 28 to 0.  Their one weakness was that they had no long punter, but, as they expressed it to me afterward, they had no need of one.  At one time during the game with Harvard they took the ball on their own 10-yard line and, instead of kicking, marched it up the field, and in a very few rushes scored a touchdown.  Harvard men afterwards told me that after seeing a few minutes of the game they forgot the strain of Harvard’s defeat in their admiration of Yale’s playing.  This team showed the highest co-ordination between the Yale coaching staff, the college, and the players, and they set a high-water mark for all future teams to aim at, which was all due to Gordon Brown’s genius for organization and leadership.”