For the next two years football was played by fifteens, but since 1879 it has been played by elevens only. In the fall of 1878, the Yale Faculty permitted absence from recitation on account of football, to enable the team to play Harvard in Boston, which action put football on the same basis as baseball, and marked an epoch in its history. The victorious Yale team, having defeated Harvard by one goal to none, were met at the station at two A.M. by three hundred students, who were thus probably the first to inaugurate the present custom of a triumphant reception to the team winning an important victory.
OVER THE HURDLES.
It was largely owing to the overconfidence of the Yale team engendered by this game, that they were defeated by Princeton a few days later. It was the more unfortunate that Princeton should have won this game in that it caused them to introduce the “block” game, which has done so much harm to football in America. The “block” game consists of a defensive style of play, whose sole object is to prevent the scoring of the opposing team, by which the college having won the year before may still retain the nominal glory of the championship. For the three ensuing years the Yale-Princeton games were draws. During these years the Yale-Harvard games were all well-fought contests, the Yale men winning by a more thorough understanding of the game, and by the aid of fine individual players.
POLE VAULTING NO. 1.—THE RISE.
In 1881, a change in the rules was made with the idea of destroying the “block” game, by which safety touch-downs were made to count. This rule could be avoided, however, by making touch-in-goals, which were only technically different from safeties.
Yale began her football season in 1882 three weeks earlier than usual, and consequently played more practice games. In the Yale-Harvard game, Yale forced the play, making a touch-down a few moments after play began. The Harvard eleven, although they found themselves outmatched by the “finest rush-line ever put on an American field,” to their credit be it said, played the game for what it was worth and did not attempt any “blocking” tactics. The chief feature of the Yale-Princeton game was the long-distance kicking of Moffat for Princeton and of Richards for Yale, which was described as resembling a game of lawn-tennis. The most brilliant play of the game was the superb goal kicked from the sixty-five-yard line by Haxall of Princeton.
A new system of counting by points was introduced in 1883, by which a goal from touch-down was made to count six points, a goal from field five points, a touch-down two points, and a safety one. Up to this time goals from touch-downs and from field had been equivalent, and four touch-downs had equaled one goal.
The Yale team of ’83 had a giant rushline averaging 185 lbs., while the whole team averaged upwards of 173 lbs. In the Yale-Princeton game, which was distinguished by many brilliant plays, Yale made a touchdown and goal eight minutes after play began, after which no scoring was done by either side.