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Show THE OLD GUARD REPORTS IT IS reported to be a "long way to Tipperary." Also, it is a long way from Walter Camp's first All-America All-America football team. That selec-. tion was made in 1889, which is a ' matter of 53 years back in football history or any history. In sport this is something you can call faraway and long ago. Naturally one gets a thrill when he runs across one of the few left from that old-time old-time outfit, such as Pudge Heffelfinger of Yale, still my top football player. I mean a star in 1889 at the age of 20, and still a star (ask Bo McMiUin) in 1922, 33 years later. And I mean a 60-minute star. So there was something of a thrill in meeting A Grantland Rice Charming of Princeton, and in look-, ing back into the past. Charming of Princeton was also on Mr. Camp's first team a running mate of Snake Ames, one of the star college athletes ath-letes of all time, a slender back who had to take the physical beating of mass play for 60 minutes every game. Then and Noiv "There isn't any question at all," Mr. Chancing told me, "that modern mod-ern football is far superior to the game we played. It is faster, smarter, smart-er, more interesting. It has greater action. "In those days we never had to bother with forward passes, reverses, re-verses, spinners, mousetrapping, changing defenses, wing backs, T-formations T-formations and a dozen things I might mention that the modern player has to face. "We had only three factors to consider con-sider then power, speed and durability. dura-bility. We never had to figure in advance all the complex things that might happen to an offense or a defense. de-fense. Actually, we never had to think much. It was largely a matter mat-ter of overpowering the other team by power and speed. The modern game is a far better game for ev- erybody players and spectators. 'We Were Tougher' "We had just one advantage over this present bunch," 1889 All-America Charming said. "Undoubtedly we were tougher. We could take more. In those days we had no automobiles, no night clubs, no motion mo-tion pictures, no radios, no distractions. distrac-tions. We had only football. "I'll give you several examples. Pudge Heffelfinger was on that 1889 All-America. Thirty-three years later lat-er he played 60 minutes in a professional pro-fessional game with Bo McMillin in Ohio, and he was still the roughest, toughest man in that game. He played against the best pros of 1921 and 1922 and he turned them into tenpins. "Talk about running guards. Fudge was a great running guard in 1889. And he was 53 and McMiUin was 22 when they played together, yet Pudge kept saying to Bo, 'More speed, kid. Don't get In my way.' And McMillin was one of the best and one of the toughest, in a football foot-ball way, this game ever has known. "Pudge dislocated his right shoulder shoul-der in the first play of that game, but still starred through the whole distance. More Evidence "I'll give you more evidence that we could take it," Mr. Channing said. "Shep Homans was Snake Ames' substitute at fullback for Princeton, but Shep never got to play a second while Snake was around. After Snake had been graduated, grad-uated, Homans was All-America for two years at fullback, and in 18 games his substitute never got into a game not even for a play. "We were 60-minute players then. I mean all of us. Heffelfinger, Hare, A. A. Stagg Ames, Stagg don't forget Stagg. At 80 be is still just as active, just as alert, just as keen as he was over 50 years ago. "I'd like to tell you more about such great people as Brinck Thome and Frank Hinkey. Hinkey weighed a hundred and fifty pounds, and they thought he was too rough. He put 100 per cent of everything he had in every play he made, and so did Ames and Heffelfinger and Thome and many others. "At that time the softening influences influ-ences of modern civilization hadn't come along to help kill off our legs and our stamina. Certainly, the kids today are just as game as we ever were. And they are football smarter. 1 "Can yon pick from this crop to-' day a Stagg who still will be leading : his men at the age of 80 or a Hef-felfinger Hef-felfinger who might be playlug in a game at 66, as he did for charity in Minneapolis? "Yes, they are faster, smarter and more interesting than we ever were. But we were tougher." |