Ox team

“ She wore a calico gown and a sunbonnet, and drove her ox-team with genuine skill; and the last touch to the picture she made was furnished by the presence of a beautiful biplane which whirred lightly in the air above her. The obvious comparison was too good to ignore, so I told my hearers that their women to-day were still riding in ox-teams while the men soared in the air, and that women's work in the world's service could be properly done only when they too were allowed to fly.
In Oregon we were joined by Miss Lucy Anthony. ”

“ Besides, they are much more economical, a team of six mules costing six hundred dollars, while an eight-ox team only costs upon the frontier about two hundred dollars. Oxen are much less liable to be stampeded and driven off by Indians, and can be pursued and overtaken by horsemen ”

“ The lone ox was led behind the wagon.
Again I hired a horse team to haul the wagon to Lexington. At Lexington I thought the loss of the ox could be repaired by buying a pair of heavy cows and breaking them in to work, so I purchased two out of a band of two hundred cattle.
"Why, yes, of course they will work," I said, in reply to a bystander's question. "I have seen whole teams of cows on the Plains in '52. Yes, we will soon have a team," I declared with all the confidence in the world, "only we can't go very far in a day with a raw team, especially in this hot weather." ”

“ They propose to work sums in teams and teamlands. They spend immense pains in ascertaining that here there is ‘land for half a team’ or ‘land for half an ox.’ We are accusing them of laborious folly unless we suppose that they can at a moment’s notice convert teams into oxen. ”

“ All the while I was searching for an ox or a steer large enough to mate the Dave ox, but without avail. Finally, after looking over a thousand head of cattle in the stockyards of Omaha, I found a five-year-old steer, Dandy, which I broke in on the way to Indianapolis. This ox proved to be very satisfactory. He never kicked or hooked, and was always in good humor. Dave and Dandy made good team-mates.
"As dumb as an ox" is a very common expression, dating back as far as my memory goes. In fact, the ox is not so "dumb" as a casual observer might think. ”

“ Give me Indians on the Plains to contend with; give me fleas or even the detested sage-brush ticks to burrow into the flesh; but deliver me from cheap notoriety seekers!
I had decided to take along one helper, and a man by the name of Herman Goebel went as far as The Dalles with the outfit. There William Marden joined me for the journey across the Plains. Marden stayed with me for three years, and proved to be faithful and helpful.
And now a word as to my oxen. The first team consisted of one seven-year-old ox, Twist, and one unbroken five-year-old range steer, Dave. ”

“ In the fields the ox was master.
Concerning the number of oxen which were grouped to form a team, usage has varied. The Domesday terms bearing on the subject have caused much controversy. Canon Isaac Taylor argued that eight oxen made up the team [1268] . This view is supported by Dr J. H. Round, and, to some extent, by Professor Vinogradoff and Professor Seebohm. The last-named authority believes that eight oxen, yoked four abreast, made up the full manorial plough-team at the time of Domesday, as well as in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. ”

“ Our brethren and sisters are on the Plains with their hand-carts, and there is snow on the ground, and many are bare-footed, and destitute of comfortable clothing, and we want some men and teams to fix up this day, and be ready to start for them to-morrow. We want horse and mule teams, if they can be had; but if they cannot, we want ox teams. ”

“ If the practice is not interesting enough to burn an indelible impression of every rudiment of football into the player's working knowledge, it is wasted. The coach can best instruct his men by putting on his football suit and illustrating exactly what he wants done, not only in fundamentals, but in team play. Confidence of the members of the team, one in the other, and constant interest in how each comrade is developing will in time form a team spirit, a factor quite as potent in carrying a pig-skin as an extra hundred pounds of muscle. ”

“ Again we start our march toward their goal, far up the field. It is still a fight, every inch of it, but the visitors are playing now solely to save the name of their Alma Mater from disgrace. Defeat is certain, but the spirit of the team inspires its men to keep playing the game with a zeal that cannot but rouse our admiration. Occasionally their brace gives them possession of the ball and once their feared, fleet runner brings back a punt for a thrilling dash of 30 yards, but he cannot play the whole game alone to a successful conclusion. ”

“ In an inter-varsity match I saw the Oxford team which was fifty per cent. better allow itself to be shoved all over the field: it kept the game a tie only by the rarest good fortune. It transpired later that the gayeties of Brighton, whither the team had gone to put the finishing touches on its training, had been too much for it. In an American university 127 such laxity would be thought the lowest depth of unmanliness, but I could not see that any one at Oxford really resented it; at most it was a subject for mild sarcasm. You can't expect a team to be in the push everywhere! ”

“ There is a fresh breeze from the west and this makes it practically certain that the west goal will be selected by the captain who wins the toss. The effect of the opening rush is most important, for it is a remarkable team that can summon enough reserve power to win a game after having been played off its feet in the opening half. ”

“ After all a football team is but a small army and the discipline must be just as rigid as if something even more important than the mere winning or losing of a game were at stake. Orders must be obeyed unquestioningly after the team is on the field. The soldier who refuses to follow the mandates of his commanding officer is court-martialed, and the quicker the team gets rid of a member who willfully refuses to obey instructions, the better it is for the team. Rules for training, practice and play must be strictly adhered to if the team is to be a successful one. ”

“ The teamster, if he does his duty, works harder than any man in camp. Under a good teamster, the oxen receive care almost as tender as though they were race-horses with thousands depending on their health and condition. With proper attention and management, they should be in [674] as good flesh in the spring as when they began hauling early in winter.
"The last thing at night before 'turning in,' the teamster lights his lantern and repairs to the ox-hovel. In the morning, by peep of day, and often before, his visits are repeated, to hay and provender, and card, and yoke up. ”

“ As early as the men are able to stand it, about one-quarter of each day's work ought to be devoted to scrimmage practice. The first two weeks of formation and signal drills are sufficient to put the men into condition for the rough wear of scrimmage. In completing an offense the coach must not only give every man on the team a thorough preliminary drill in offensive tactics, but, if he hopes for a strong, varied attack, he must allow each man a thorough trial in carrying the ball during actual scrimmages. No rules can be laid down for building up an offense. ”

“ The mere fact that they had won, satisfying as it was, counted for little compared with the enormous benefit of the game in welding the team together. It had taken eleven stars and molded them into a team. No individual brilliancy, however great, can atone for the lack of team work. To-day they had tested each other, supported each other, played into each other's hands, forgotten [73] that they were anything but parts of one great, smoothly moving, swiftly running machine. ”

“ From across the field a loyal encouragement is still given by the visitors to their beaten team. The hopes of months are going down to defeat, but the men who are beaten have done their best and, when the final whistle is blown and the game is over, the players of each team gather close together and cheer each other after the style of true sportsmen who have tested each others' mettle with mutual respect. ”

“ From each team a man detaches himself and, with a man in citizens' clothes, looks over the field. He is the captain and his companion is the coach. He tests the consistency of the surface of the field, notes the direction of the wind, the effects of the sunshine and the other conditions which, if properly observed, will give one side an advantage over the other at some stage in the progress of the game. A couple of wet spots are carefully noted, for in a close game these things may mean victory or defeat. ”

“ It is often good policy to place a fast and slow man together on a squad, where, instead of retarding the speed of the fast man, the slow player develops as much ginger as his speedier companion. Wind and endurance, which fit men for the strenuous work later on and which may even be the foundation for producing the fastest eleven of the season, are certain products of this squad drill. The team which is picked from such preliminary formations has an entire set of linesmen, familiar with the duties of the back field positions. ”

“ In the mass-meeting of the school the night before the games, when the boys gathered in loyal force to give their team a “send-off” for the morrow, nothing that was said by student or graduate or friend stirred such response in the hearts of the school as the short, plain, virile exhortation of the captain.
And no athletes need personal inspiration as do the members of a track team. The football player stands shoulder to shoulder with his fellows, the strong helps the weak and shares with him the glory of victory. ”

“ Individual strength, wit, courage and agility must be there, but they must weld themselves into a chain that makes every advantage possessed by one of the members of the eleven a common asset--one that is used to its utmost and on every possible opportunity. For the last time, it is team play and only team play that will yield success, and no eleven can get along without it. ”

“ In preparing these cogs of the football mechanism it is proper to have ideals, yet the materials offered for the construction of a football team are never all that are desired and, as for ideals, seldom does even a single candidate on an entire team come up to the mark set in the coach's mind. There is constant danger that the existence in the mind of the coach of an ideal team may actually injure the eleven in actual process of development. ”

“ For instance, the negotiations for a resumption of athletic relations with Yale University were on the Harvard side managed by and through the Athletic Committee. Moreover, the Athletic Committee has in its hands the appointment of coaches for the crew, and for the football, baseball, and athletic teams. The captain of a crew or a team is, to be sure, elected by the undergraduates themselves, the established system being that the crew should, before disbanding itself, elect the captain for the ensuing year. ”

“ Eleven men make up a football team now, as in the early days of the game, but modern requirements make it necessary that these eleven men play constantly to one end. If one of them lags, errs or is inefficient, it is almost impossible for the others to get results, no matter how well directed may be their efforts. ”

“ The objective point of our own team is the final white line over there to the left, while the enemy's eleven will strive in the opposite direction. Each man on each team will have a part to perform, whether it be the carrying of the ball himself or assisting his comrades, and unless each man does that part his team will fail in its attempts. There is one main way in which the ball is legally advanced. This is in the arms of a runner. Passed from hand to hand it may be, and each scrimmage necessarily starts that way, but the passes must never be made in the direction of the opponents' goal. ”

“ A gate opens at the farther end of the grounds, there is a vociferous cheer from the nearest section and the team in whose success our hopes are centered, trots out on the field, to be met by a tumult of welcome. Big fellows they are, stout of limb and victors through the season over every team they have met. ”

“ How many times it occurs that, when the line has been successfully assaulted and a runner penetrates into the enemy's territory, one of his comrades who has also broken through is able to grasp the man with the ball and carry him out of the arms of the tacklers into the enemy's country still further! It is team play. ”

“ Work for the center, quarter back and all the other men. In the early season, before such a thing as a team exists, its place can be, to a great extent, filled by a division of all the material into squads of four. These are little, rudimentary teams consisting of a center, quarter back and two halves. All the men who appear fitted for center can play the position on these squads and the quarter back material can pass the ball. Every other position on the team will fit into the half back work of these squads of four. ”

“ Just as that regiment whose soldiers rely upon one another is a better one than another, in which the members have no confidence in their comrades, so, in a hockey team it is absolutely necessary that each player should be able to depend upon his confrères.
A team should feel that it can defeat any seven that opposes it, and each individual man of a team ought to believe that, if necessary, he can pass any one of his adversaries. ”

“ The work of each man in playing his position is shown in the chapters on Offense and Defense. As the season progresses, each individual should be studied, not only to discover his capabilities in his own position but to teach where, on certain shifts of the play, he can be used to best benefit the team as a whole. ”