Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/28

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very moment they meet him, that, occasionally, it happens that not one of these defensive players can free his arm to seize him, while the runner, tenaciously keeping upon his feet, is whirled and rammed straight through the defensive mass into a comparatively clear field, in which he then has to elude only one or two tacklers. In an open field, it is not difficult to dodge one and two tacklers in succession, but it is extraordinarily difficult in an open-field dash to dodge an entire eleven. Hence, on a full-field run from kick-off, fortune favors the bold runner who directs his flight squarely into the central bulwark of the defenders, and not at their apparently exposed flanks resting against the side-line.

While the kick-off, substantially in the form of the present day, always has been possible under the rules, in practice it has not always been a method of play. From 1876 to 1880, the initial play was a kick-off as it is to-day, except the kick might be a punt or drop-kick, as well as a place-kick. About 1880, however, some unknown genius devised the “dribble.” This was only a technical kick-off by which the kicker kicked the ball forward a foot or two to be picked up by himself or by a comrade for a run. In 1884, Princeton produced the famous “V trick,” which still further distorted the kick-off, although still technically observing it. In the trick, the player with the ball technically kicked off by striking the ball with his foot while the ball was in his hands and without releasing it. In 1892, the V trick gave way to Harvard's celebrated “flying wedge.” in which the ball was still put into play in the same manner as in the V trick. In 1894, the flying wedge was abolished by rule, and the old-fashioned kick-off reëstablished and limited to a place-kick. During the first year or two, it was a common sight to see a player hold the ball for the kicker. Eventually the little tee of earth prevailed, and from that day to this the game has had a real kick-off and the opportunity for a full-field run from kick-off to touch-down.

A search through the accounts of the games from 1876 to 1881 finds only a single instance of a full-field run from kick-off to touch-down. Harvard was playing Yale at Boston, November 20, 1880. A hard, grueling battle was drawing to a close without a score by cither cleven. Just as the last five minutes began, Walter Camp kicked a goal from the field for Yale. The teams quickly lined up for a kick-off, and Cutts, of Harvard, sent a long, swirling kick to Yale's twenty-yard line, where it was caught by R. W. Watson, captain of Yale. With the catch of the ball Watson leaped into flight, and sped straight up