Center Rush Rowland

by Ralph Henry Barbour

  CHAPTER XX

  BEFORE THE GAME

  Events rushed headlong past. Ira played a round twenty minutes atcentre in the Day and Robins' game and proved himself steady anddependable. He made mistakes, certainly, more than he liked to rememberafterwards, but he never messed a pass and he held his positionimpregnable against the attack of a not very strong enemy. His sinswere those of omission and were due to inexperience. On the whole,he put up a satisfactory game, and Coach Driscoll and the rest weresecretly very pleased even if they didn't say so. The contest was notinteresting from the point of view of the spectators except in thatit showed the home team to have developed well during the last week.There were ragged moments and some loose handling of the ball by thebacks, but the team showed fifty per cent more team play than it hadshown before. The new plays, not all of which were used, went smoothlyand gained ground. There was a noticeable improvement in kicking,also. Wirt and Captain Lyons made some punts that brought applauseand Walter Cole missed but one goal in six tries. Two were drop-kicksfrom the field and the rest followed touchdowns. Parkinson had notrouble running up twenty-three points in the first half and ten in thesecond, while her opponent failed to score until the last quarter whena field-goal saved her from whitewash.

  Practice was hard on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the nextweek, but Monday was an easy day and Friday held only a blackboardinstruction in the gymnasium for the first team. The school was quitefootball-crazy by this time and meetings were held almost nightly. Theold songs were sung and new ones tried and the cheer leaders went intotraining. Twice a week the Musical Clubs supplied music, and alwaysearnest, enthusiastic youths waved their arms and predicted victory forParkinson to a wild and approving chorus of cheers.

  Ira no longer sought the field for strenuous half-hours of coaching. Hepractised with the first team substitutes and got as much and no morework than they did. Sometimes, when he allowed himself to visualisethe mighty Beadle, he had qualms of stage fright and heartily wishedhimself back in private life. It wasn't that he was afraid of anythingBeadle might do to him in the way of punishment, for he didn't mindtaking blows or giving them, but he was certain that Beadle would, inthe language of the gridiron, "put it all over him." And Ira didn'tlike to come out second-best, even if it was only in playing centrerush in a football game!

  Ernest Hicks came again shortly after that second call and spent thebetter part of an hour bolt upright in one of the more uncomfortablechairs and talked far over Ira's head, eventually arising and takinghis departure as abruptly and noisily as usual. Ira returned thevisit and in the course of the next month a rather odd friendshipsprang up between the two. "Old Earnest," while grateful to Ira forthe restoration of his encyclopedia, sympathised with his benefactorbecause of the latter's regrettable ignorance on so many importantsubjects, and Ira was very sorry for Hicks because that youth hadstowed his brain so full of impractical knowledge! But they got on verywell together, and Ira had to acknowledge that "Old Earnest's" eruditeconversation was an excellent antidote for an hour of Mart Johnston'spersiflage.

  Ira ordered himself a suit about this time from the tailor recommendedby Gene, and Humphrey, not to be outshone, followed his example.Humphrey had a little money in the keeping of his "financial agent"and it worried him until it was spent. Ira's suit fitted him perfectlyand was becoming, but Gene, cordially commending it, was forced to themental reservation that Ira had somehow looked more like Ira in his oldduds!

  The St. Luke's Academy game aroused the school to new heights offootball ardour, for it proved to be a see-saw, nerve-racking affairfrom kick-off to last whistle. St. Luke's was theoretically an easyaggregation to subdue and had been given her location in the season'sschedule for that reason, but something had happened since last year atSt. Luke's, and the big, rangy team that trotted onto Parkinson Fieldthat Saturday afternoon was quite a different proposition to that oflast Fall. Coach, captain and players scented trouble at first sight ofthe purple-legged team and even the spectators had an inkling that thehome team's "easy game" was to prove less simple than had been expected.

  Parkinson received a bad fright in the first minute of play, whenCole dropped St. Luke's kick-off and recovered it on his six-yard.Two attempts at the purple line netted but four yards and, amidst atense and uneasy silence, Wirt dropped well back of his goal line topunt. Even after that Parkinson was still in danger, for Wirt's kick,purposely sent high to avoid blocking, was caught in a current of airand came down but thirty-odd yards from goal. St. Luke's sprang alateral pass from a wide formation and got seven yards, but when sheattempted to repeat the play on the other side of the line Brad managedto pierce the running interference and bring down the man with the ballfor a three-yard loss. In the end St. Luke's tried a goal from thethirty-four yards and kicked short.

  There was no scoring until the second quarter was almost over. ThenParkinson electrified the watchers by pulling off a forward-pass,Wirt to Price, that covered nearly thirty-five yards. From St. Luke'stwenty-six to her twelve, Parkinson advanced by line plunging, Wirt andWells alternating. Then St. Luke's braced and two tries availed little.Wirt went back to kicking position and Dannis broke through centrefor five. On the fourth down, with four to go, Wirt again droppedback, but again the play was a fake, for, after an interminable momentof suspense during which the Parkinson backfield became seeminglyinextricably mixed-up, Cole was discovered sneaking around the enemy'sleft flank. When he was down the tape had to be used. Parkinson hadgot her distance, though, by half the length of the ball, and from thetwo-yard line Cole went over on the second attempt. Lyons kicked aneasy goal.

  St. Luke's evened the score soon after the beginning of the secondhalf. Her big backs were fast and heavy, and got away quickly from athree-abreast formation close up to the line. Parkinson failed to stopthem after a lucky fumble had given the ball to the enemy near thecentre of the field. St. Luke's had to fight hard to win, but win shedid, finally pushing her left half across the Brown's goal line neara corner of the gridiron. A good punt-out put her in position to kickgoal and a moment later the score stood at 7--7. In that advance bothConlon and Donovan were severely battered, and the latter was takenout then and Conlon a few minutes later. Conlon's withdrawal calledon Ira, and Ira held the centre of the line fairly intact for a goodtwenty minutes. It was a far stiffer trial than he had had, and just atfirst the desperate plunges of the hard-fighting enemy quite took himoff his feet, physically and mentally. But when he once discovered thatno quarter was given or taken today he promptly revised his ideas andheld his own on most occasions.

  Parkinson dropped a field-goal over from the twenty-six-yard line justbefore the third quarter ended and St. Luke's came back with a secondtouchdown soon after the beginning of the fourth. As she failed to kickgoal, the score stood 13 to 10 when the last period was half gone.Parkinson was showing her quality and no one was surprised, althoughmany were vastly relieved, when, after a punting battle, Dannis gotaway and eluded the enemy as far as its seventeen-yards. Two tries atthe tackles resulted in short gains and then Wirt went back to kick.Ira followed advice and took so much time that the impatient St. Luke'splayers began to rage. But when the pass shot away it was straight andtrue and Wirt would have had plenty of time to get the ball out hadhe tried. But he didn't try. He trotted out to the left, and, just asthe enemy leaped at him, threw diagonally to Ray White, and Ray wentover the line without challenge. Lyons made the Parkinson total 17 bykicking a clever goal, and the remaining three or four minutes failedto change it.

  The school was highly elated over that contest, and the elation wasexpressed in a monster meeting that night in the Auditorium at whichthe team and first substitutes sat sheepishly on the stage and heardthemselves cheered and praised. Ira was glad he had managed to beatBrackett to the last chair in the back row, for the whole proceedingseemed much too emotional. Ira always rather resented having hisemotions disturbed, and tonight the singing and the cheering had theireffect.

  There was only light practice M
onday, but on Tuesday they went back tothe grind. There had been several mix-ups in signals on Saturday andCoach Driscoll was after them today hot and heavy. More new plays wereexperimented with. Eventually all but two were discarded and Parkinsonwent into the Kenwood game with fewer plays in her repertoire than anybrown team in years. Evening sessions began in the gymnasium at whichthe plays were diagrammed on the blackboard and afterwards walkedthrough on the floor. Each man had to know what to do in every play,and the coach was not satisfied until the lot were gone through with inperfect precision and smoothness. And that didn't happen until Thursdayevening. In the scrimmages, and there were hard ones on Wednesday andThursday, Ira found himself starting at centre each time, for Conlonhad been fairly badly used up in the St. Luke's game and too much workmight have put him stale. He got in for a few minutes, however, eachafternoon, and Ira couldn't see that he was any the worse for wear.

  During the final fortnight of the season the players were supposed tobe in bed before ten o'clock and unnecessary noise in the dormitorieswas frowned on. Ira obeyed the rule, but as his neighbour across thecorridor had evidently not heard the request for silence, he didn'talways get to sleep promptly. The stout youth knew more different waysto make a racket than a cage full of monkeys, Ira decided!

  On Friday there was a half-hour of signal work and some practice laterfor the kickers. Then the regulars trotted off and the third-string menand the second team pushed each other around for fifteen minutes forthe benefit of the school which had marched to the field with bannersand songs and cheers. That contest ended the second team's activitiesfor the year. The regulars were dressed and waiting for them on thegymnasium steps when they came back and there was a fine and hearteningexchange of cheers. Then the marchers arrived and cheered first andsecond, coach, trainer, rubbers, manager and school, and went offagain, singing, to parade twice around the yard and once through thetown. The final mass meeting came off that evening, but neither Ira norany other member of the team was there. They walked or trotted throughthe plays in the gymnasium, listened to a few words of final advicefrom Mr. Driscoll and then went home to bed and, in most cases, sleep.Anyone who has lived through a night before the Big Game knows that oneor two, at the least, didn't find slumber very speedily.

  Saturday was cold, raw and cheerless at dawn, but in the middle of along forenoon the sun peeped out for a few minutes. The wind peepedout too, however, and, unlike the sun, it stayed out. The football menhad been excused from recitations and at ten o'clock they were takenin four big automobiles on a long ride that ate up most of the timeremaining until the early lunch hour. When they returned they foundtown and campus in the hands of the enemy, for blue pennants were to beseen on every side. Kenwood ate her dinner at The Inn, just outside oftown on the Sturgis road, and came rolling up to the field at a littlebefore two. At two-thirty to the second, Captain Lyons having won thetoss and chosen the up-wind goal, Kenwood kicked off.