GEORGE W. WOODRUFF, OF YALE.

This object these various momentum mass-plays not only achieved, but achieved with such a surplus of power that arms and legs of valiant defenders were endangered, so that the public began to protest against the unnecessary roughness of the evolutions, and the sport began to pass into a period of such disorganization that its very existence was threatened. In the quarrels that arose directly and indirectly from the execution of these momentum-mass plays, Harvard ceased to play with Yale, Princeton with Pennsylvania, and other ancient academic rivalries and friendships halted. As a consequence, the rules of the sport were changed in 1896, and the momentummass play, powerful, famous, and spectacular, was abolished by the simple mandate of the Rules Committee:

No player of the side in possession of the ball shall take more than one step toward his opponent's goal, before the ball is in play, without coming to a full stop.

Although this rule removed the momentum element from offensive foot-ball, yet it did not take away the mass feature. Thus two great foot-ball geniuses, famous players, famous coaches, and famous tacticians brought to a culminating perfection in 1896 two marvelous mass plays, radically different, but so powerful that they swept the team of each to victory through game after game. The first of these was the justly celebrated play of George W. Woodruff, known as guards-back, and the second was the equally celebrated play of Philip King, of Princeton, known as the revolving tandem.

Guards-back, as its name indicates, was formed

by arraying both guards behind the line and upon the same side, usually behind the opening between the opposing tackle and guard, and by shifting the back-field men also across to the side, behind the guards, with the middle back, usually the full-back, slightly in advance of the other two backs. This formation not only arrayed the preponderating weight of the team against one point, but did so in such a way that the direction of the play automatically would change during the execution. If the opposing tackle remained out, the play crashed between him and the guard; if he charged in, the play, without a signal and without a check, plowed outside of him, thus comprising in sheer power and ingenuity one of the most remarkable and one of the most successful plays ever invented. With this mechanism of attack, the University of Pennsylvania, whose coach Mr. Woodruff was, employing it continually throughout a game, won victory after victory, season after season. The manoeuver only passed away when outlawed by a rule designed to accomplish that object by requiring five men to be upon the line of scrimmage when the ball was put in play, and requiring the two line-men behind the line to be either five yards back or outside of the men on the end of the line.

Philip King's great play, the revolving tandem, was conceived and worked out in the space of two hours. It became Princeton's chief manoeuver of attack during the season of 1896, achieving for the orange and black Princeton's greatest victory over Yale in the number of touch-downs scored, and also crushing Harvard in a memorable game on Soldiers' Field, at Cambridge. King's

preliminary formation found the two ends playing two yards behind the line, just to the outside of their respective tackles. At the snap of the ball, one tackle sprang from the line, his opponent being blocked by the end stepping obliquely forward and whirling across between his center and quarter-back, aiding the opposite end and tackle to make the opening. In the meantime, the back field with lightning swiftness was in motion toward the same side, the two backs on that side cleaving between the opposing tackle and end. When the opponents' charge was felt and the opening began to choke, Princeton's formation, now compact, began to revolve toward the outside, thus whirling the player with the ball out around the end and defensive back into a clear field; or, if the defensive end warily remained out, whirling the player with the ball through the opening between the opposing end and tackle.

During the period, however, in which guardsback was winning triumph after triumph for Pennsylvania, there was an old Yale foot-ball player studying medicine in the former university. Like many veterans of the gridiron with a fondness for the tactical feature of the sport, this

medical student, with miniature field and players upon a table in his room, enjoyed the diversion from time to time of studying the tactics of the sport. This man was Henry L. Williams, well remembered as a famous half-back at Yale twenty-four years ago and also as a champion hurdler for the blue, and equally known to-day as the inventor of the two greatest foot-ball creations of the past fifteen years-the tackle-back and the Minnesota shift.

Notwithstanding the extraordinary perfection of guards-back, Williams saw that another play was possible, based upon the same idea, but wholly different in construction. To him, the necessity of playing the backs five yards behind the line, in guards-back, seemed a weakness in the great play. Therefore, after prolonged and profound study, he evolved a new formation in which a tackle from one side was brought back and stationed behind the tackle upon the other side of the line, with the three backs arrayed in the form of a triangle directly behind the rear tackle, the entire formation requiring a distance not more than three and one half yards from the rush-line in which to form, thus saving the additional yard and a half required by guards-back,

to cover which in the forward charge frequently had been the latter formation's undoing. From

THE TACKLE-BACK.

Yale defeating Harvard with the powerful play, November 24, 1900. this formation Williams then worked out an entire system of plays, striking all points in the line,

The first opportunity to put these plays into execution was given Williams by Penn Charter School, of Philadelphia. This school instantly swept all opponents from the field and captured the championship of the school teams of Philadelphia. Yale, Williams's alma mater, at once investigated the system, but over-conservatism, which unfortunately characterizes the large institutions of the east, caused Yale's foot-ball leaders to reject the tactics as too radical. Penn Charter, notwithstanding, continued in employing the system and continued in winning championships. And now occurred a spectacular vindication of these plays. The final week in November, 1899, had arrived, and Army was facing its great battle with Navy, with an abundance of grit but with a weak team, poor plays, and a bad record. In this crisis, the foot-ball leaders at West Point sent for Williams. He arrived Monday evening, and, before taps had sounded that night across the Plains at West Point, had outlined to his charges the principles of his playing system. Only three playing days remained. In this brief time the Army mastered Williams's plays, and upon the following Saturday met the Navy at Philadelphia in a tremendous battle. Williams's great engine of attack lanced and hammered until the

Late in the ensuing fall, their eleven burst upon public attention with an astoundingly powerful attack. Williams's system as executed by Yale had surpassed in brilliancy the expectations of those who knew it. Instantly, far and wide the play became known as the tackle-back. Yale closed the season by soundly defeating both Harvard and Princeton, and one year later every team in the country was employing the tackleback formation of attack.

Williams's second great creation was the Minnesota shift. As generally known, the Minnesota shift is a complete and complex system of plays which are made from a rapid shift of the team from a primary central strategic formation into a wholly different formation and position for attack. The principle involved in the plays is simple. The offensive cleven knows from the signal what the second offensive formation will be, and the exact place upon the field where it will be formed, and they also know the play that will be launched from that formation. The defense, not knowing at what point the offensive line will be strengthened, are thus compelled to protect all points in their own line, and are prevented from

Williams, the university's coach, and in turn by that team was introduced to the foot-ball world.

Again it was Yale that gave Williams's new play its national popularity. Originally taught to Minnesota by Williams, it easily won its road to victory in the west. The crisis of the season of 1910 found Yale demoralized by the havoc in its prelimina y schedule wreaked by minor elevens. One week before the team's final trials, Harvard and Princeton grimly awaited their battles with Yale, confident of an overwhelming victory, with their chief ambition not to win but to make a record score. In this crisis for the blue, Thomas L. Shevlin, Yale's old end-rush and captain, came to New Haven, took the team in charge, and in one week taught the eleven the system of the Minnesota shift. The following week Yale met Princeton and beat the Tiger five points to three. One week later, Yale met Harvard, and Harvard left the field beneath a score board which read "Harvard o, Yale o."

From that day to this, the Minnesota shift has been the dominating formation in present-day tactics of the gridiron.

I'm not of much account at home,
For when I'm on my steed
Commanding all the regiments
That follow where I lead,

Why, that 's the time I 'm sure to hear

"Oh, Johnny! there's a thick

White bundle in my table drawer,

Run up and get it, quick!"

Or, "Johnny! Grandma 's lost her specs, Look 'round and find them, dear."

Or else it 's "Hop along to bed!"

Just when I want to hear

The rest of what they 're laughing at.