“We traveled far to play in those days; west to Boulder, Colorado, handicapped by an altitude of 5000 feet, south to Kansas City and north as far as St. Paul and Minneapolis.  We were generally about 500 miles from our base.  We were not able to take many deadheads.”

Harry Kersburg is one of the most enthusiastic Harvard football players I have ever met.  He played guard on Harvard in 1904, ’05 and ’06 and is often asked back to Cambridge to coach the center men.  From his playing days let us read what he prizes in his recollections: 

“My college career began at Lehigh, with the idea of eventually going to Harvard.  As a football enthusiast, I came under the observation of Doctor Newton, who was coaching Lehigh at that time.  Doc taught me the first football I ever knew.  In one of the games against Union College Doc asked me before the game whether if he put me in I would deliver the goods.  I said I would try and do my best.  He said, ’That won’t do.  I don’t want any man on my team who says, “I’ll try.”  A man has got to say “I’ll do it.”  From that time on I never said, ‘I’ll try,’ but always said ‘I’ll do it.’

“I shall never forget the day I played against John DeWitt.  I did not know much about the finer points of football then.  I weighed about 165 pounds with my football clothes on, was five feet nine inches tall and sixteen years old.  I shall always remember seeing that great big hawk of a man opposite me.  I did not have cold feet.  I knew I had to go in and give the best account of myself I could.  It was like going up against a stone wall.  John DeWitt certainly could use his hands, with the result that I resembled paper pulp when I came out of that game.  DeWitt did everything to me but kill me.  After I got my growth, weight and strength, plus my experience, I always had a desire to play against DeWitt to see if he could the same thing again.

“In a Harvard-Yale game one year I remember an incident that took place between Carr, Shevlin and myself,” says Harry.

“Tom Shevlin usually stood near the goal line when Yale received the kick-off.  As a matter of fact he caught the ball most of the time.  The night before the Yale game in 1905, Bill Carr and myself were discussing what might come up the following day.  Inasmuch as we always lined up side by side on the kick off, we made a wager that if Harvard kicked off we would each be the first to tackle Shevlin.

“The next day Harvard won the toss and chose to kick off, and as we had hoped, Shevlin caught the ball.  Carr and I raced down the field, each intent on being the first to tackle him.  I crashed into Shevlin and spilled him, upsetting myself at the same time.  When I picked myself up and looked around, Carr had Shevlin pinned securely to the ground.  After the game we told Shevlin of our wager and he said that under the circumstances all bets were off as both had won.”

Former U. S. Attorney-General William H. Lewis, who is one of the leading representatives of the colored race, needs no introduction to the football world, says Kersburg.  ‘Bill,’ or ‘Lew,’ as he is familiarly known to all Harvard men, laid the foundation for the present system of line play at Cambridge.  He was actively engaged in coaching until 1907 when he was obliged to give it up due to pressure of business.