He, therefore, took occasion to say to Thomas during a lull in the game,
"If you get a chance, reach over when Wurtenburg--the Yale
quarter--isn't looking, and pinch the Yale center so that he will put
the ball in play when the backs are not expecting it." The Yale center,
by the way, was Bert Hanson. Yale continued to advance the ball on two
or three successive plays and finally had a third down with two yards to
gain. At this critical moment the looked-for opportunity arrived.
Wurtenburg called a consultation of the other backs to decide on the
next play. While the consultation was going on Long Tommy reached over
and gently nipped Hanson where he was expecting the signal. Hanson
immediately put the ball in play and as a result Janeway broke through
and fell on the ball for a ten yards gain and first down for Princeton.

To say that the Yale team were frantic with surprise and rage would be
putting it mildly. Poor Hanson came in for some pretty rough flagging.
He swore by all that was good and holy that he had received the signal
to put the ball in play, which was true. But Wurtenburg insisted that he
had not given the signal. There was no time for wrangling at that moment
as the referee ordered the game to proceed.

Yale did not learn how that ball came to be put in play until some time
after the game, which was the last of the season, when Long Tommy
happening to meet up with Hanson and several other Yale players in a New
York restaurant, told with great glee how he gave the signal that
stopped Yale's triumphant advance.

* * * * *

Numerals and combinations of numbers were not used as signals until
1889. Prior to that, phrases, catch-words and gestures were the only
modes of indicating the plays to be used. For instance, the signal for
Hector Cowan of Princeton to run with the ball was an entreaty by the
captain, who in those days usually gave the signals, addressed to the
team, to gain an uneven number of yards. Therefore the expression,
"Let's gain three, five or seven yards," would indicate to the team that
Cowan was to take the ball, and an effort was made to open up the line
for him at the point at which he usually bucked it.

Irvine, the other tackle, ran with the ball when an even number of yards
was called for.

For a kick the signal was any phrase which asked a question, as for
instance, "How many yards to gain?"

One of the signals used by Corbin, captain of Yale,