own goal. Shep Homans, his fullback, took in the impending catastrophe
at a glance and dashed forward, laid the halfback low with a sharp
tackle, thereby preventing a safety. The game was unimportant, the
Princeton's score was large, so the unfortunate player, although the
butt of many a jest, soon survived all jokes and jibes and became in
time a famous player."

"The first Princeton-Yale game in 1873 being played under the old
Association rules was waged with a round ball. In the first scrimmage a
terrific report sounded across the field. When the contending players
had been separated the poor football was found upon the field a
flattened sheet of rubber. Two toes had struck it simultaneously or some
one's huge chest had crushed it and the ball had exploded.

"Whenever men are discussing the frantic enthusiasm of some fellows of
the game I always recall the following episode as a standard of
measurement. The Rules Committee met one night at the Martinique in New
York for their annual winter session. Just as the members were going
upstairs to convene, I had the pleasure of introducing George Foster
Sanford to Fielding H. Yost. The introduction was made in the middle of
the lobby directly in the way of the traffic passing in and out of the
main door. The Rules Committee had gone into its regular session; the
hour was eight o'clock in the evening. When they came down at midnight
these two great football heroes were standing in the very spot where
they were introduced four hours before and they were talking as they had
been every minute throughout the four hours about football. Members of
the Committee joked with the two enthusiasts and then retired. When they
came down stairs the next morning at eight o'clock they found the two
fanatics seated upon a bench nearby still talking football, and that
afternoon when the Committee had finished its labors and had adjourned