enemy and he is ours. In fact we have been
successful so many times there is something of a sameness about it. It
is a good deal like what the old man said about leading a good life. It
is monotonous, but satisfactory. There are perhaps a few special reasons
why we won the championship this year, but the general principles are
the same, which have always made us win. First, by following out certain
traditions, which are handed down to us year by year from former team
captains and coaches; the necessity of advancing each year beyond the
point attained the year before; the mastering of the play of our
opponents and planning our game to meet it. Second, by the hard,
conscientious work, such as only a Yale team knows how to do. Third,
by going on to the field with that high courage and determination which
has always been characteristic of the Yale eleven, something like the
spirit of the ancient Greeks who went into battle with the decision to
return with their shields or on them. Sometimes they have been animated
with the spirit which knows no defeat, like the little drummer boy, who
was ordered by Napoleon in a crisis in the battle to beat a retreat. The
boy did not move. 'Boy, beat a retreat.' He did not stir, but at a third
command, he straightened up and said: 'Sire, I know not how, but I can
beat a charge that will wake the dead.' He did so and the troops moved
forward and were victorious. It is this same spirit which in many cases
has seemed to animate our men.

[Illustration:

Rhodes Woodruff Heffelfinger Gill Wallace
Stagg McClung Captain Corbin Bull
Wurtenberg Graves

PA CORBIN'S TEAM]

"But our victory is due in a great measure this year to a man who knows
more about football than any man in this country, who gave much of his
valuable time in continually advising and in actual coaching on the
field. I refer to Walter Camp, and as long as his spirit hovers over the
Yale campus and our traditions for football playing are religiously
followed out there is no reason why Yale should not remain, as she
always has been, at the head of American football."

Those were Corbin's recollections the year of that great victory. Time
has not dimmed them, nor has his memory faded. Rather the opposite.
From what follows you will note that a woman now enters the camp of the
Eli coaching staff, mention of whom was not made in Corbin's speech of
'88.

Pa Corbin prides himself in the fact that twenty-five years