The coaches were glad to have Plebe Daly come out for the squad, but
they knew and he knew quite as well as they, that there are no short
cuts to the big "A." Now began a remarkable demonstration of football
genius. Not only did the former Harvard Captain make the team, but his
aid in coaching was also eagerly sought. An unusual move this, but a
tribute to the new man.

Daly was modesty itself in those days as he has been ever since, even
when equipped with the yellow jacket and peacock feather of the head
coach. As player and as coach and often as the two combined, Daly's
connection with West Point football covered eight years, in the course
of which he never played on or coached a losing team. His record against
the Navy alone is seven victories and one tie, 146 points to 33. His
final year's coaching was done in 1915. From West Point he was sent to
Hawaii, whence he writes me, as follows:

"There are certain episodes in the game that have always been of
particular interest to me, such as Ely's game playing with broken ribs
in the Harvard-Yale game of 1898; Charlie de Saulles' great playing with
a sprained ankle in the Yale-Princeton game of the same year; the
tackling of Bunker by Long of the Navy in the Army-Navy game of
1902--the hardest tackle I have ever seen; and the daring quarterback
work of Johnny Cutler in the Harvard-Dartmouth 1908 game, when he
snatched victory from defeat in the last few minutes of play."

Undoubtedly Daly's deep study of strategy and tactics as used in warfare
had a great deal to do with his continued ascendency as a coach.
Writing to Herbert Reed, one of the pencil and paper football men, with
whom he had had many a long argument over the generalship of the game,
he said in part: