16
THE FULL-FIELD RUN
[Nov.
 W. F. STEFFEN. (CHICAGO.) November, 1908. 100 yards. |
 W. E. SPRACKLING. (BROWN.) November, 1909. 105 yards. |
 E. E. MILLER. (PENN. STATE.) October, 1911. 95 yards. |
 R. E. CAPRON. (MINNESOTA.) November, 1911. 95 yards. |
in his attempt to force Wesleyan’s right flank, thus drawing all of the Wesleyan players also over to the left. As Rinehart and Walbridge met, the former handed the ball to the latter, the pass being concealed by the close mass of Lafayette players about them. Rinehart, feinting to have the ball, continued his flight up the left side-line, preceded by five of his comrades as interference. The remaining four Lafayette players, who were the most skilful interferers on the eleven, suddenly parted to the right, and, out-flanking the last straggling Wesleyan men coming across the field, swept them also into the trap on the left, while Walbridge, swift as Mercury with his winged shoes, and only detected by a few Wesleyan men who were helpless to reach him, swept up the field, and over the line.
It was another Lafayette man who achieved the next full-field run of this kind. This player was Edward G. Bray. Bray's run holds a place of singular distinction in the list of these runs. First, it was the only one of two full-field runs from kick-off which have the honor to have won a game; second, although made in the first fifteen seconds of play, it was the only score of the day: and, third, it was achieved against a brilliant Pennsylvania eleven in a sensational, spectacular dash of one hundred yards replete with repeated displays of strength, skill, and speed.
Of the 15,000 spectators who assembled at Franklin Field on that crisp autumn day, October 21, 1899, probably not one dreamed of the remarkable play that was to occur on the kick-off, and eventually win the game. Lafayette won the toss and chose the western goal. Pennsylvania kicked off. The ball, sailing high from the powerful foot of T. Truxton Hare, floated down to Lafayette’s ten-yard line. With the kick, the entire Pennsylvania eleven, except Woodley, swept down the field in a great, converging crescent. On the tips were the two end-rushers, Combs and Stehle, cautiously following the side-lines and alert for any stratagem. In the center came Overfield, McCracken, and Snover, with a secondary defense behind them composed of Davidson and Kennedy. The ball, with a sharp impact, struck the tenacious arms of Bray, and the great full-back instantly leaped into flight, Settling the ball securely in his left arm, with head well back and right arm free, he sprang from line to line, going straight up the middle of the ficld, with his comrades forming before him a V-shaped wedge, apex forward. The two elevens, with a tremendous crash, came together upon Lafayette's thirty-five-yard line. For the fraction of a second, they stood still as the recoil and shock shook every man, and then, like a great pair of folding-doors, Pennsylvania’s