Part 8 (2/2)
”Good-by, champions.h.i.+p! No hopes now, fellows!”
”If Thor doesn't play in the Big Games--good night!”
A greater sensation could not have been caused even had kindly white-haired Prexy announced his intention of challenging Jess Willard for the World's Heavy-Weight Champions.h.i.+p. Dropping that human battering-ram, Thor, from the football, squad was something utterly undreamed-of. Coach Corridan raised his hand for silence, and the youths subsided.
”Hear me carefully, boys,” he urged, ”I know that old Bannister has come to regard John Thorwald as invincible, to use his vast bulk as a foundation on which to build hopes of the Champions.h.i.+p, which is a bad policy, for no team can be ateam and win. I realize that as a football player, Thor hasn't an equal in the State today, and if he had the right spirit, he would have few in the country. It would be ridiculous to decry his prowess, for he is a physical phenomenon. But you remember T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.'s, splendid defense of Thor, a week or so ago? Hicks gave you a full and clear explanation of the big fellow, and showed youhe does not know what college spirit is, what loyalty and love for one's Alma Mater mean! His masterly speech changed your att.i.tude toward Thor, and even before he decided to play football, for Mr. Hicks' sake, you admired him, because of his indomitable purpose, his promise to his dying mother. Now I am telling you why he may be dropped from the squad, because I want you fellows to give Thor a square deal, to remember what Hicks told you of him, and to keep on striving to awaken him to the true meaning of campus years, to make him realize that college life is more than a mere buying of knowledge. I want to keep him on the squad, if humanly possible, and I shall outline my plot later.
”Tomorrow we play Latham College. It is the last game before the big games for The State Intercollegiate Football Champions.h.i.+p. Sat.u.r.day after this, we play Hamilton, and the following week Ballard, the Champions! The eleven I send in against those teams must be a solid unit,in spirit and purpose--every member of the Gold and Green team must be welded with his team-mates, and they must forget everything but that their Alma Mater must win the Champions.h.i.+p! With no thought of self-glory, no other purpose in playing than a love for old Bannister, every fellow must go into those games to fight for his Alma Mater! Now, as for Thor, I need not tell you that he is not in sympathy with our ambition; he simply does not understand campus tradition and spirit. He is as yet not possessed of an Alma Mater; he plays football only because of grat.i.tude to Mr. Thomas Haviland Hicks, Sr., and he hates to lose the time from his studies for the practice.
The football squad knows that his presence is a veritable wet blanket on enthusiasm and the team's fighting spirit.”
It was true. That intangible shadow of something wrong, brooding over training-table, shower-room, and Bannister Field, that self-evident truth which almost every collegian had for days confessed to himself yet hesitated to voice, had been given definite form by Coach Corridan talking to the eleven. The good that Thorwald might do for the team by his superb prowess and ma.s.sive bulk was more than offset and nullified by his att.i.tude.
To the blond Colossus, daily practice was unutterable mental torture. His mind was on his studies, to which his bulldog purpose shackled him; he begrudged the time spent on Bannister Field; he was stolid, silent, aloof.
He scarcely ever spoke, except when addressed. He reported for practice at the last second, went through the scrimmage like a great, dumb, driven ox, doing as he was ordered; and when the squad was dismissed he hurried to his room. He was among the squad, but not of them; he neither understood nor cared about their love for old Bannister, their vast desire to win for their Alma Mater; he played football because he was grateful to Hicks, Sr., for helping him to get started toward his goal, but as Coach Corridan now told the 'Varsity, he killed the squad's enthusiasm,
”All of this cannot fail to damage the , the , of the eleven,” declared Coach Corridan, having outlined Thor's att.i.tude. ”I know that every member of the squad, if Thor played the game because of college spirit, for love of old Bannister, would rejoice at his prowess.
But as it is they are justly resentful that he is not in the spirit of the game. What we may gain by his playing, we lose because the others cannot do their best with his example to hurt their fighting spirit. I do not want, nor will I have on my eleven, any player who plays for other reasons than a love for his Alma Mater, be he a Hogan, Brickley, Thorpe, or Mahan. I have waited, hoping Thorwald would be awakened, as Hicks explained, but now I must act. Tomorrow's game with Latham must see Thor awakened, or I must, for the sake of the eleven, drop him from the squad for the rest of the season.
”Yet I beg of you, in case the plan I shall propose fails, remember Hicks'
appeal! Do not condemn or ostracize John Thorwald in any degree. He has three more seasons of football, so let us keep on trying to make him understand campus life, college tradition. Be his friends, help him all you can, and sooner or later he will awaken. Something may suddenly shock him to a true understanding of what old Bannister means to a fellow. Or perhaps the awakening will be slow, but it must come. And Bannister can win without Thor, don't forget that! We'll make one final effort to awaken Thor, and if it fails, just forget him, boys, so far as football goes, and watch the Gold and Green win that champions.h.i.+p.”
”What is your scheme, Coach?” questioned Captain Butch Brewster, his honest countenance showing how heavily the responsibility of team-leader weighed upon him. ”You are right; as Thor is now, he is a handicap to the eleven, but--”
”My idea is this,” explained the Slave-Driver earnestly. ”Select some student to go to Thorwald and try to show him that unless he gets into the game and plays for old Bannister, he will be dropped from the squad. If possible, let the fellow make him understand that, in his case, it will be a shame and a dishonor. Now, Butch, you and Hicks can probably approach Thor, or perhaps you know of someone who--”
T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.'s, cherubic countenance showed the light of dawning inspiration, and Coach Corridan paused, as the sunny youth exhibited a desire to say something, with him not by any means a phenomenal happening; given the floor, the blithesome youth burst forth excitedly: ”Theophilus--Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e is the one! He has more influence over Thor than any other student, and the big fellow likes the little b.o.n.e.r.
Thor will at least listen to Theophilus, which Is more than any of us can gain from him.”
After the meeting had adjourned, and the last inspection had been made in the other dorms, the Seniors being exempt, several members of the Gold and Green team--Captain Butch, Beef, Pudge, Monty, Roddy, and Bunch, together with little Theophilus Opperd.y.k.e, dragged from his studies--foregathered in the cozy room of T. Haviland Hicks, Jr.; those who had heard the coach's talk were still stunned at the ban likely to be placed on the Brobdingnagian Thor. On the campus outside Creighton Hall, a horde of Bannister youths, incited by Tug Cardiff, who gave them no reason for his act, were making a strenuous effort to awaken the Prodigious Prodigy, evidently depending on noise to achieve that end, for a vast sound-wave rolled up to Hicks' windows--”Rah! Rah! Rah! Thor! Thor! Thor!
He's--all--right!”
”Listen!” exploded T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., indignantly. ”You and I, Theophilus, would give a Rajah's ransom just to hear the fellows whoop it up for us like that, and it has no more effect on that sodden hulk of a Thor than bombarding an English super-dreadnaught with Roman candles!
Howsomever, Coach Corridan exploded a shrapnel bomb on old Bannister's eleven tonight.”
Then Hicks carefully outlined to the dazed little b.o.n.e.r the substance of the coach's talk to the team, and Theophilus was alarmed when he thought of Thor's being dropped from the squad. When Captain Butch had outlined the Slave-Driver's plot for striving to awaken the Colossus to a realization of what a disgrace it would be to be sent from the gridiron, though he did not announce that the Human Encyclopedia had been elected to carry out Coach Corridan's last-hope idea, Theophilus sat on the edge of the chair, blinking owlishly at them over his big-rimmed spectacles.
”After all, fellows,” quavered Theophilus nervously, ”Coach Corridan, if he drops Thor from the squad, won't create such a riot on the campus as you might expect. You see, the students, even as they built and planned on Thor, gradually came to know that there is vastly more to be considered than physical power. That great bulk actually acts as a drag on the eleven, because Thor isn't in sympathy with things! Still, if he could only be aroused, awakened, wouldn't the team play football, with him striving for old Bannister, and not because he thinks he ought to play, for Hicks' dad?
Oh, Ihope the Coach's plan succeeds, and he awakens tomorrow; I know the boys won't condemn him, if he doesn't, but--I--I want him to understand!”
”It's his last chance this season,” reflected T. Haviland Hicks, Jr., enshrouded in a penumbra of gloom. ”I made a big boast that I would round up a smas.h.i.+ng full-back. I returned to Bannister with the Prodigious Prodigy. I made a big mystery of him, and then--biff!--Thor quit football.
Then I explained the mystery, and got the fellows to admire him, and when Thor decided to play the game I thought 'All O.K.; I'll just wait until he scatters Hamilton and Ballard over Bannister Field, then I'll swagger before Butch and say, ”Oh, I told you just to leave it to Hicks!”' But now Thor has spilled the beans again.”
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