Page:St. Nicholas - Volume 41, Part 1.djvu/29

1912] the center of the field. The Harvard men did not mass upon him in that primitive day as would now occur, but met him with a scattered formation. Through this broken field Watson raced and dodged, flinging off tackler after tackler, and crossed the line, scoring the first touch-down ever scored against Harvard by Yale; Yale's previous victories were achieved by goals from the field.

Six years later occurred another instance of this rare play. This time, the warriors were Harvard and Pennsylvania, and the battle-feld was famous old Jarvis Field, at Cambridge. Pennsvlvania was varying the opening plays by a mixture of dribbles and kick-offs. Upon one of the latter the ball sailed down to Harvard's full-back, Joseph Hamblen Sears, a renowned name upon the gridiron twenty-five years ago. This swift and powerful runner leaped into flight straight up the center of the field. Dodging Pennsylvania’s ends and tackles, the first to meet him, he suddenly swerved to the right, and, by a marvelous zigzagging run, threaded his way in and out among Pennsylvania’s remaining rushers and backs, until he flashed by every one and burst into a clear field, over which he leaped to the goal-line—accomplishing a full-field run of eighty-five yards, and a touch-down.

And now came and went eight years in which the kick-off and the possibility of the full-field run from a kick-off passed from the game. With the return of the kick-off in 1894, curiosity eagerly awaited the achievement of the first full-field run from kick-off to touch-down. 1894, 1895, and 1896, however, came and went without the accomplishment of this great feat. 1897 likewise opened, waxed, and drew to a close, when, suddenly, George B. Walbridge, of Lafayette, in a game against Wesleyan, made the run. Even in this instance a cunning stratagem was necessary to clear the way for the powerful but fleet-footed Walbridge.

This stratagem still available was a variation of the triple pass adapted to a kick-off. Wesleyan won the toss of the coin, and, selecting the ball, kicked off. Duffy, of Lafayette, caught the ball on his twenty-yard line, and, quickly turning around, passed it five yards farther back to the giant Rinehart, who instantly dashed obliquely across the field to the left, as though to turn up the left side-line. Walbridge, who had been stationed on the ten-yard line well to the left, now advanced slowly forward, as though to interfere for Rinehart. In the meantime, the remaining Lafayette players were crossing the field and concentrating in front of Rinehart to protect him