Milwaukee School of Engineering - EMF Yearbook (Milwaukee, WI)

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 TJBE 1920 ElMF ' zy weight was the major factor. Today it is the science of the game, the minds of one team pitted against those of the other; and therein lies the secret of football, the reason it always is so attractive, why crowds go wild and why the newspapers make the games a head line topic. You seldom read in bold print of a debating team’s victory, not that it does not deserve it but rather because it does not offer the wild field of competition that the sport of football holds out. Two hundred candidates may try for positions; there is only room for twenty-two and yet every one whether he wins a berth and the coveted monogram or not, feels elated because of the sheer joy of the sport. Me knows he has received a training that cannot be purchased. He has grounded himself in being alert, quick to perceive any changes in conditions, to depend upon himself in any emergency, or in other words, self confidence and nerve. All his faculties are developed and brought up to that high state of perfection, where the mind can conceive and learn with the maximum efficiency. To conclude, it may be said that football is the major sport because of its opportunities, because it always offers room for improvement, because if played in a clean manner, as it should be, it is not as rough as many other sports and offers that rare exhibition where a clean mind in a clean body is what counts in a game where it is mind against mind, team work against team work and where the best team wins. Only a few knew that every day for three months last fall, a little band of some twenty fellows could be found on the football campus from three o’clock until six. That little band was made up of fellows that have dark Red American blood trickling through their veins. Every day regardless of weather conditions found the same troupe of warriors on the field. The snow and mud that covered the field for weeks at a time only acted as a stimulant for vigorous action on the part of the boys and a muddy uniform made no great difference in the day’s program. It was cold out on the old field but lots of peppy work counteracted the biting wind. And when punting, run- ning and hitting the dummy failed to keep the boys warm, Mac. would let them mix in the good old football way. “Scrimmage,” Ah! that was a word that acted like magic. When Mac. said, “Boys, we will scrimmage tomorrow,” you could bet your last nickel that every man would report on the field at the appointed hour. Captain Wright and his boys went through a hard season of training. It must be remembered that training is not interesting and pleasing at all times. But men, with the genuine football spirit, that was displayed by our boys last fall, work for the real joy of this game, which is classed as the greatest American sport and can be relied upon as a test for real men. It is very encouraging to know that we will have all of the fellows back next year to act as a foundation for a strong team, and with the abundance of new material, we will be in a position to compete with the best schools in the country. 1 Page Three Hundred Sixty-nine

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 5 M § THE 1920 EMF- — IFnnthall w Coincident with the thought of college is that of football. The two have become inseparably joined together in the college life as only Americans know it. Few people pause to think what the football status of a school has to do with its popularity as an educational institution and yet it is a true and wcllknown fact that hardly a school or college of importance can be named without bringing to men its accomplishments on the athletic field, and more especially on the football gridiron ; in other words its position as a center of learning is judged by its athletic achievements. The United States is known by the progress of its well developed ath- letics. Its commercial ventures are backed by real men who learned to buckle real problems in the athletic field. Its college and universities are world famed because of the co-ordination of athletics and learning, learned men realizing that a man trained to the battles of the grid iron will make, equally good when put to the task of mental exercise or wrestling with prob- lems of the arts and sciences, thus co-ordinating the functions of the mind and body. When a boy has decided to go to a college or university and is choosing a school, he is unconsciously guided in making his choice by his previous knowledge of its athletic progress. He is naturally most impressed by the football record because this is the pre-eminent sport both in preparatory and high schools as well as colleges and universities. An American boy is more or less abnormal if he does not follow athletics and more especially football. He is not necessarily a player of note but if he has attended any preparatory school, he has that unborn sport spirit, like to that of a person’s patriotism, which makes him want to see his school “team.” his team triumph over all. Football is the major college sport because it combines nerve or in the vernacular of the field, grit and science. It is the .supreme co-ordination of the beautiful workings of the mind and body. One cannot work without the other. They must co-ordinate and the victorious team is not one which has eleven individual stars but rather one whose work was the co-ordinations of the perfect workings of the minds and bodies of eleven men, alert, their body trained to function and perform at the direction of the mind, all work- ing under the direction and guidance of one man’s brain. In newspaper accounts the “stars” names are alwavs mentioned. This in many cases is an injustice to the team as a whole, for seldom is it that one man can accomplish much without the co-operation and team work of his mates. Of course there is room for individual display of nerve, daring and a wide-awake mind. On the whole, however, the work is characterized by smooth, uniform action, the play carried out with clockwork precision like a well oiled machine, which in fact is what it amounts to. Football is all alluring; those that talk against it do not realize the beauty of the sport. That is its inherent characteristic. It offers chance for cunning, for the mind to show ascendancy ; it gives opportunity for well thought-out plavs, the chance to pick out the minute flaws in the opposite team and hammer away at it, so weakening the defense that all crumbles before the attack of a master mind. The old time football was a game where Page Three Hundred Sixty-eight

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•e Shorty gives the boys some dope. C. B. Wright, Capt. ’I9-’20. Left halfback, 185 lbs. Wright played a star game for the engineers last fall and was re-elect- ed captain for ’20. Just give Cap the ball and he is happy. Michigan claims this fellow. Arthur Clarence Norcott. Right end, 138 lbs. Arthur Clarence plays football and likes to dance: Arthur likes to grab them out of the air. Ask Mar- ciuctte about his 75 yard record. He is accustomed to pick the fruit off the trees in Oregon. Page Three Hundred Seventy