afterward he
brought his old team mates together and gave them a dinner. The menu
card tells of the traditional coaching system of Corbin's great team of
'88 and beneath the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Camp appears in
headlines:

"HEAD COACHES OF THE YALE FOOTBALL TEAM OF 1888"

"The head-coaches of the Yale team," says Corbin, "were really Mr. and
Mrs. Walter Camp. They had been married in the summer of 1888 and were
staying with relatives in New Haven. Mr. Camp had just begun his
connection with a New Haven concern which occupied most of his time.
Mrs. Camp was present at Yale Field every day at the football practice
and made careful note of the plays, the players and anything that should
be observed in connection with the style of play and the individual
weakness or strength. She gave her observations in detail to her husband
at supper every night and when I arrived Mr. Camp would be thoroughly
familiar with that day's practice and would be ready for suggestions as
to plays and players to be put in operation the next day.

"This method was pursued during the entire season and was practically
the only systematic coaching that the team received. Of course there
were several old players like Tompkins '84, Terry '85 and Knapp '82, who
came to the field frequently.

"At that time it was customary for me to snap the ball back to the
quarter with my foot. By standing the ball on end and exercising a
certain pressure on the same it was possible to have it bound into the
quarterback's hands. It was necessary, therefore, for me to attend to
this detail as well as to block my opponent and make holes through the
line for the backs.

"While the rules of the game at that time provided for an Umpire as well
as a Referee, the fact that there was no neutral zone and players were
in close contact with each other on the line of scrimmage gave
opportunity for more roughness than is customary at the present time.
Neither were the officials so strict about their rulings.

"Prior to this time it had been customary to give word signals for the
different plays, these being certain words which were used in various
sentences relating to football and the progress of the game. As center,
I was so tall that a system of sign signals was devised which I used
entirely in the Princeton game, and the opponents, from the talk, which
continued as usual, supposed that word signals were being used and were
entirely ignorant of the sign signals