Collier's for October 9, 1937 11 HAT a pity Mack Sennett, mas­ played as if it had not been touched. tangled in a piled-up mass, Tichenor Tichenor was almost to the Vanderbilt ter of slapstick screen comedy in But with the foot—never again! was to trot casually around end. goal line before anyone discovered him Wanother era, never thought of the Thus have football rules grown. It It worked. Tichenor was almost to the Football Rules Committee. He could has been going on for all the years that Vanderbilt goal line before anyone dis­ have written a hilarious scenario out of football has been played. Each year a covered him. He scored a touchdown tice, but Pop was Pop and his Indians its record. coach or player takes advantage of a and although his team eventually lost, were wards of The Great White Father, Each season some coach or player has rule and works a hardship on the other 9 to 6, it was a momentous play. Curi­ so they deserved some privileges be­ thrown a custard pie into the face of team. The Rules Committee steps in ously, it set the stage for that famous yond the ordinary. gridiron law. The committee promptly and changes the rule. The next year the Carlisle Indian play eight years later in In quite recent years a University of has rushed into action, a year behind committee catches another chocolate the Harvard stadium that was to startle Pennsylvania team put over a similar the culprits, madly pursuing them over eclair squarely on the nose and fever­ the East and make the Carlisle Indians camouflage trick that escaped analysis the back fences of intercollegiate foot­ ishly edits the rules again. famous as masters of football trickery. for quite a while. The team featured a ball. Ford Sterling, Fred Mace, Mack It all may have started back in 1895 For in the pine stands that day when spin attack on nearly every play. The Swain and Sliin Summerville never un­ in a game played between Vanderbilt Tichenor scored his touchdown on Van­ back first receiving the ball on snap from reeled a more lively chase than have the University and Alabama Polytechnic derbilt, was the young head coach at the center would turn his back to the oppo­ old men of the gridiron Supreme Court Institute, Auburn, when occurred the University of Georgia, The name of the sition and offer it sometimes to one, trying to curb the mischief done by first recorded instance of a football Georgia coach was Glenn S. Warner. sometimes to two of the other backs who those who play and direct the game. player hiding a football under his jersey Warner waited eight years before he passed him. It was impossible to tell There is the matter of Larry Kelley's and running for a touchdown. pulled that old one out of his notebook which back had the ball and the magic "soccer kick" that gave Yale a 12 to 7 for the Harvard game. That day in 1903, of Pennsylvania deception that year was victory over the Navy last fall. Whether The First Hidden-Ball Touchdown Dillon caught the kickoff in the sta­ widely heralded. intentional or accidental, that kick of dium, hid the football under his jersey a free ball resulted in a rule change that The late John Heisman, then a young and ran for a touchdown. Fair Harvard But Zuppke Ruined the Play is in effect this year. Kelley thereby coach making gridiron history in the never knew it had been worked long goes down in gridiron history, not only cotton belt, was at Auburn. Heis, des­ ago in the deep South. After so long a time a scout noticed as an All-America end and winner of the tined to take sharp advantage of the Many of the plays that resulted in that each Penn player had enormous most valuable player award for the sea­ rules in his subsequent career, conceived rule changes have gone down as the soft brown elbow pads on the outside of son, but as the last man to kick a free the idea of tucking the football under most spectacular in the annals of the his jersey. When the backs folded their ball and get away with it. the back of a player's loose sweater. game. arms in a certain way—a variation of That oblate spheroid pie that Larry Heis gave his boys the play especially A short time after Dillon's run in the the old Carlisle Indian trick—it was booted into the faces of the Rules Com­ for the Vanderbilt game and delegated Harvard stadium, Pop Warner and his next to impossible to tell which one was mittee has been declared illegal. No Reynolds Tichenor, his diminutive Indians came out with a new one. All hugging the ball and which ones were longer may officials decide whether such quarterback, to carry the ball. The play the Indian backs had half a football hugging elbow pads. a kick was intentional or accidental. The was to be worked on the old revolving sewed on their jerseys. By bending over This trick was spiked before the sea­ old discretionary powers have been re­ wedge, a murderous mass play of the and folding their arms, each back gave son was over and the Rules Committee moved by an approved ruling which era. One of the Auburn backs was to the appearance of having the ball. Many could act. Penn journeyed out to Cham­ states that if the ball is propelled with receive the ball and, behind the screen a tackier brought down an Indian, but paign to play the University of Illinois. the foot, it goes to the defending team at of the wedge, was to slip it under the lo, he did not have the ball. As often as Bob Zuppke, cagey as they come in the the point of the kick. If the ball is hit flapping folds of little Tichenor's jersey. not the carrier of the real ball had gone coaching profession, was all set. He, too, with the shin or the knee, it is auto­ Then while the ponderous wedge moved off by himself to score a touchdown. had read the rules, the same rules the matically declared accidental, and is forward and the players became en­ This strategy was hailed as sharp prac- (Continued on pa^e 12) PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 12 Collier's for October 9, 1937 v^'^'^^B^": -"'W- The Red Doctor BY SAX ROHMER ILLUSTRATED BY RONALD McLEOD In which Bazarada, master of illusion, successfully demon­ strates his ability to appear in two places simultaneously. An­ other interesting adventure of the world's greatest magician WOKE with a start. It was not late—twenty minutes to midnight, I dis­ I covered; but I had been working steadily since eight o'clock on my notes concerning the theft of the jade serpent from Burlington House. I had fallen asleep at my desk. The sound which had aroused me was a slight one—the rustling of paper. -^^-i:-:'. My hands closed upon the chair arms and I stared across the study. A man was seated there with the pages which I had written! The key of the flat was in my pocket; I had no resident servant; there was a night porter on duty in the lobby below. But the fact remained that a man, whose thick, dark curling hair receded at the temples from a fine brow, whose cleanly chiseled fea­ tures had an old Roman quality, who wore impeccable evening dress and whose cynical regard was fixed upon me from beneath drooping lids, sat holding my manuscript. "Buzzy!" I said. The first momentary chill was gone. I had become used to this sort of thing. Bazarada, whom I always think of as Buzzy, had appeared and disappeared throughout several years of my life in just this man­ ner. Obstacles, human and mechanical, meant no more to Buzzy than cobwebs to you or me. "Sorry to wake you, Maurice." He smiled, that smile which was more a quivering of the upper lip than anything else. I had ceased long ago to say to Bazarada, "How did you get in?" I stood some point at the back of my head. I had learned to "It is all perfectly clear, so far, Buzzy. But—" up and crossed to my small buffet. sustain it but had never got used to it. "Wait. One night the nephew comes to see this "Whisky and soda, Buzzy?" "Did you ever hear of'Ned Regan?" rather terrifying old lady. She has a jewel safe in her "A very small one, Maurice. I have read your "Ned W. Regan, of Regan's detective agency?" wardrobe and she asks him to unlock it. She keeps account of my exploit at Burlington House (which, of "That's the man." the key under her pillow. He does so, and he checks course, must not be published until I give the word) "What about him?" the contents with her. All correct. She is laboring with interest. It's inaccurate, however, in several "He has offered me a little problem," said Baza­ under an impression that someone plans to rob her. particulars." rada. "Nothing that has come my way since the She is pacified, however; asks him to pour out a glass "Oh!" jade serpent has interested me so much." of water and to set her sleeping tablets handy. He "Yes. I didn't remove the original necklace and His gaze became abstracted.