MEMORABLE MOMENTS
• When the Nomads were up against Knute Rockne’s Notre Dame, Rockne could not understand why so many of his players were suddenly breaking their ribs. Player after player was hauled out of the game on a stretcher and the team doctor admitted that perfectly normal ribs were breaking like kite sticks. Rockne got suspicious and found that the Nomads were wearing steel knee braces. Rockne hit the roof while the Nomad coach feigned ignorance. “Guess they didn’t want to hurt their knees,” he said. From then on a new rule was on the books that made it illegal for any player to wear steel knee braces. • On October 7, 1916, the powerful Georgia Tech team invited little Cumberland College to play on Tech’s field. Cumberland did not have a regular team, but they rounded up some guys. The game didn’t go well for Cumberland, and later fullback A.L. Macdonald recalled making “our longest gain of the day when I lost 5 yards.” One Cumberland player is said to have fumbled the ball and yelled at a teammate to pick it up. But with five big Georgia Tech guys bearing down on him, he yelled back, “You pick it up! You dropped it!” The game was called in the third quarter and the final score was Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0.
• Quarterback Harry Adams was playing for Montana in a game against Washington State in 1920. He had a badly injured ankle but insisted on playing anyway. When a punt went over his head, he limped along to retrieve it, but by the time he picked it up he was flanked by two very large Washington ends who were running at him full tilt getting ready to tackle him. “Don’t hit him, he’s hurt!” yelled one of the ends. At that point both players very carefully picked Adams up and gently laid him on his back on the field.