always eagerly sought. By virtue of
long experience at the Academy and because of an aptitude for analysis
of the game itself he has been invaluable in harmonizing practice and
play with peculiar local conditions.
Any time the stranger seeks to delve either into the history or the
constructive coaching of the game at the Academy, the younger men, as
well as the older, will always answer your questions by saying "Go ask
Koehler." Always a hard worker and serious thinker, he is apt to give
an almost nightly demonstration during the season of the foundation
principles of the game.
Not only West Pointers, but also Yale and Princeton men, who had to face
the elevens under Koehler's coaching will remember Romeyn, who, had he
been kicking in the days of Felton, Mahan and the other long distance
artillerists, might well have held his own, in the opinion of Army men.
Nesbitt, Waldron and Scales were among the other really brilliant
players whom Koehler developed. He was in charge of some of the teams
that played the hardest schedules in the history of West Point football.
One year the cadets met Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Syracuse and
Penn State. Surely this was a season's work calculated to develop
remarkable men, or break them in the making. Bettison, center, King
Boyers at guard, and Bunker at tackle and half, were among the splendid
players who survived this trial by fire. Casad, Clark and Phillips made
up a backfield that would have been a credit to any of the colleges.
Soon, however, the Army strength was greatly to be augmented by the
acquisition of Charles Dudley Daly, fresh from four years of football at
Harvard. Reputations made elsewhere do not count for much at West Point.
The coaches were glad to have Plebe Daly come out for the squad, but
they knew and he knew quite as well as they, that there are no short
cuts to the big "A." Now began a remarkable demonstration of football
genius. Not only did the former Harvard Captain make the team, but his
aid in coaching was also eagerly sought. An unusual move this, but a
tribute to the new man.
Daly was modesty itself in those days as he has been ever since, even
when equipped with the yellow jacket and peacock feather of the head
coach. As player and as coach and often as the two combined, Daly's
connection with West Point football covered eight years, in the course
of which he never played on or coached a losing team. His record against
the Navy alone is
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