Fordham Plays a Slugging Game
For half an hour before the first section of the special pulled out, the Gridley Band played its liveliest tunes. A part of the time the band played accompaniment to the school airs, which the crowd took up with lively spirit.
There is a peculiar enthusiasm which attaches to the Thanksgiving Day game. This is due partly to the extra holiday spirit of the affair. Then, too, there is the high tension that precedes the last game of the season.
With a team that has won every game to that point, yet often with great difficulty, the tension of spirits is even higher.
As the first section of the special rolled in at the railway station the part of the crowd that was "going" began to break up into groups headed for the different parts of the train.
Herr Schimmelpodt went, of course, to the car that carried the team. The boys wouldn't have been satisfied to start or to travel without him. The big German had come to be the mascot of Gridley High School.
Just before the train started Herr Schimmelpodt waddled out to the rear platform of the car.
In his right hand he brandished a massive cane to which the Gridley
High School colors were secured.
"Now, listen," he bellowed out. "Ve come back our scalps not wigs! You hear dot, alretty?"
While the cheering was still going on, and while the band was crashing out music, the first section pulled out, making room for the second section.