Ring Lardner
Evening Public Ledger/October 28, 1914
Michigan Team Leaves Today on Tripe East — Determined to Conquer Harvard or Die
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 28.—The Evening Ledger correspondent had to pay for his own breakfast yesterday because he got up too late for training table. To switch back to the first person, I landed at athletic headquarters about 9 o’clock and found Yost, the assistant coaches, Schultz and Cole, and the freshman coach, Douglass, amusing themselves with a new game of indoor football, in which the spinning of a wheel plays a prominent part.
The game held the interest of Yost, Douglass and Cole for only a little while, and they went about their several duties, but Mr. Schultz and Mr. Lardner played a full game of four periods. Mr. Schultz was Michigan and Mr. Lardner Harvard.
Harvard scored a touchdown and field goal before Michigan got started, but the Wolverines braced, and at half time the count was 15 to 14 in the Crimson’s favor. In the second half Michigan rolled up 16 points in short order and held Harvard scoreless until the last minute of play, when a 40-yard forward pass gave Haughton’s men one more touchdown. The goal was missed and the final score was 30 to 21 in favor of Michigan.
Mr. Schultz was in good humor the rest of the day, even when he was instructing the willing but inexperienced Wolverine linesmen at Ferry Field in the afternoon.
The varsity squad reported to the coaches at 2:50 o’clock, and the main feature of the afternoon’s program was signal practice. There was no real scrimmage, but two squads of forwards were sent against each other for drill in blocking and opening holes.
Benton, at left end, rehearsed kicking goals from touchdowns, which is pretty good evidence that Michigan intends to make touchdowns next Saturday, for no time is being wasted on the Pennsylvania and Cornell games these days.
Lecture on Signals
Larry Splawn and Tommy Hughitt punted for a spell, and Splawn tried his point-kicking toe, with good results. It was dark when a halt was called, but the coaches had an indoor class in signals at night, and the boys also were required to listen to a lecture from Yost. They were finally dismissed, with orders to be at the Michigan Central Station at 2:42 o’clock this afternoon, when the start will be made for Auburndale, near Cambridge.
From the time the train leaves Ann Arbor until it arrives at Auburndale there will be no practice for the Wolverines, owing to the Pullman Company’s failure to build cars anywhere near the size of football fields. But there may be more lectures and a rule quiz or two from Mr. Yost, who finds it an easy matter to make his voice heard above the well-known noise and confusion of a journey on the steam cars.
The team expects to reach Auburndale about noon on Thursday, and in the afternoon will engage in signal practice on the nearest convenient field. It is barely possible that Yost, in order to accustom his bunch to the ferocity of Harvard, will send the Michigan first string men Into a scrimmage against the animals at Norumbega Park.
Haughton will turn over the Stadium to the visitors on Friday afternoon, so it can be seen at a glance that he is a better sport than Connie Mack, or, perhaps, he is profiting by the experiences of Connie subsequent to his refusal to let the Braves frolic at Shibe Park.
List of Team
Following is the list of varsity candidates who will leave for the East this afternoon.
Captain Haynesford, Watson, McHale, Cochran, Reimann, Benton, Staatz, Dunne, James, Rehor, Qulal, Norton, Finkbeiner and Whalen, and backs Hughitt, Bushnell, Zetger, Hubel, Splawn, Maulbetsch, Lyons, Bastlan, Roehm and Catlett.
Mr. Whalen is to be taken along as a reward for past services and not because there is any chance of his helping the cause. His ankle was badly twisted in the fatal Syracuse encounter.
Maurice Dunne, son of the Governor of Illinois, is first substitute left end and will get into the Harvard game if Benton wears out or shows signs of slipping. Staatz, who will start at right end, is another of the innumerable Michigan men who have been hurt, but his leg has yielded to strenuous treatment, and he gets round the field now as if nothing had been the matter.
Greenness seems to be the only fault of Michigan’s regular tackles, Cochran and Reimann. They are both husky kids and apparently willing to take all that’s coming to them. They will get plenty if the Harvard tackles are anything like they have been in recent years. Young Cochran has a complexion that an actress might envy and it is the earnest prayer of all Michigan that the big Harvard brutes don’t spoil it for him.
Hupghitt was in all the practice yesterday, and his arm seemed less stiff than it has been. The rest he will be forced to give it on the train may be just what it needs.
The Michigan boys are not frightened by reports that Harvard’s mastery of the Canadian passing game will give it a big advantage. The fact that Michigan will pass through Canada on the way East should more than offset this.
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