Fred H. Harrison
Athletics for All

CHAPTER VI

Andover and Exeter: The Growth of a Rivalry

NOTHING DOES MORE to generate enthusiasm for the athletic program of a school or college than the existence of a traditional rival, contests with which are, almost literally, matters of life and death to the undergraduates. These games, usually the last of the term, mark the success or failure of the season as a whole. Indeed, many teams believe that they can lose every game prior to that with the traditional rival and still have a successful season if the rival is beaten in the final game. A classic example of this is "The Game" between Harvard and Yale, with the annual contest between Amherst and Williams providing a similar, if less prestigious, example. Contests with a traditional rival also stimulate alumni interest in an institution. Some alumni often seem to care more about victory over the traditional rival than do the undergraduates themselves, and have been known, on occasion, to demand the scalp of a coach unfortunate enough to have fielded a team that lost the final game.

Phillips Academy was indeed fortunate, from the point of view of its athletic program, to have a ready-made rival already in existence to the north. As Andover class and club teams reached the point where they were ready for competition with outside schools, there stood the Phillips Exeter Academy, with a background very similar to that of Andover and with an undergraduate body perfectly capable of fielding teams that were as good as, if not better than, those of the Blue. It was, therefore, natural that Andover and Exeter should start competing against each other at a very early date in the history of American interscholastic sports and that the relationship thus established should have developed into the oldest continuous independent school rivalry in the country.

The Phillips Exeter Academy had been founded in 1781, three years after Andover, by Sam Phillips' Uncle John. In the beginning, while the Phillips family was still active in the two schools, the two institutions worked together very closely. Uncle John was on the original Andover Board of Trustees, serving for a few years as its President, and being one of the most generous benefactors of the school. Sam Phillips served on the Exeter Board and followed that school's progress closely. With the passing of the Phillipses from the scene, the two academies drew apart. Andover, saddled with its Theological Seminary, remained rigidly Calvinist, while Exeter became the more liberal, theologically, of the two. But the two schools remained distinct and except for athletic contests did almost nothing cooperatively together until after World War II. And to a large extent this isolation of the two academies one from the other was due to the bitter rivalry that athletic competition between the two engendered. Even though there were some bumpy times, as will be shown below, in the early days of the rivalry, it has generally been a splendid one, attracting national attention, as is attested by the fact that for years the New York Times used to send a special correspondent to the Andover-Exeter football games. The first Andover-Exeter baseball game has already been described in Chapter II, the first football game between the two schools in Chapter III. This chapter will cover the growth of the rivalry in the last part of the nineteenth century.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance attached to the football and baseball fortunes of the school in those early days. The morale of the academy rose or fell with the successes and failures of those two varsity teams. As an example of its relative importance, the Phillipian devoted most of the front page of the first three issues at the opening of the school to a detailed explanation of the rules of football. Great excitement prevailed on the campus in the fall of 1880. Captain John Howard's team of six rushers and five backs went into the Exeter game undefeated. They had beaten M.I.T. and Lawrence High School, upset the Harvard Freshmen, and tied Adams Academy. In a very frustrating afternoon, having pushed Exeter back to her goal line eleven times, Andover failed to score and the game ended in a tie; neither team had crossed the other's goal line with the ball or kicked a goal from the field. In discussing the game in particular and the season in general, the Philo Mirror had this to say:

Last, but not the least on our list, came the game with Exeter. What shall we say of it? The facts tell the story. Eleven safety touchdowns for Exeter, and none for Andover; while Exeter's captain refuses to play off a game resulting in a tie.

And in summing up the events of the Fall, we have good reason to congratulate ourselves upon both our Eleven and its captain, for never has the captain's position been better filled than this year. We have proven conclusively to Quincy, and our would-be Waterloo, Exeter, that there is such a place as Andover, and moreover, that we know how to play football.(1)

As an interesting sidelight to the game, the great Captain Howard sent a letter to the editor of the Phillipian thanking him, the Theologues, and the Headmistress of Abbot for their support during the season. For the first time, the girls had been allowed to attend the game---another tradition established.

For the next four years Andover dominated the football rivalry with Exeter. In 1881 students for the first time were permitted to go to the game and over two hundred of them watched in the pouring rain as Captain Sam Bremmer's stalwarts defeated the "Exies" one touchdown and one goal to nothing. The following year Captain F. S. Mills led what was described by some as the best Andover football team yet to four wins and one close loss to Yale Freshmen. After one postponement, the Exeters were defeated by a score of three touchdowns to nothing on a field from which three inches of snow had been cleared. The star of the Andover team was a plunging back by the name of Wallace, who had entered Andover a physical weakling, but who had been enticed into athletic training by Frank Dole, the boxing and general athletics instructor in the gym.(2)

In 1883 there were rule changes in football which affected the scoring: a goal obtained by a touchdown had counted four points, one obtained by a field kick five points. The kicking game was still the most important aspect of the game at that time; therefore, a field goal outpointed a touchdown.(3) A touchdown now counted two points and a field goal three points. The Andover team that year went undefeated and gave up only six points in three games. Ably led by Captain D. E. Knowlton, one of the finest athletes ever to represent Phillips Academy, they defeated Exeter 16 to 6. At a school meeting in December the team was presented a handsome banner by the students with a suggestion that it be hung in Academy Hall.(4)

Another remarkable athlete on that team was Billy Odlin, a center and a talented kicker, who was to captain both the 1884 and the 1885 teams. After Andover he went to Dartmouth, started football there, and captained the team for four consecutive years. The 1884 team, which played only two games, pulled off an extraordinary upset by defeating Exeter 11 to 8. On the Exeter team that year were Cranston and Harding, later standouts at Harvard; and Wurtenburg and Morrison, later famous at Yale.(5) The Andover string had run out, however, Exeter defeating the "Ministers" the next three years in a row by respective scores of 29 to 11, 26 to 0, and 44 to 4. Exeter was to be humiliated no longer. An interesting footnote to the Andover schedule in 1885 was that it included a game with the "Gentlemen of Boston," a group of ex-college players, who replaced the Harvard Freshmen, a traditional opponent. The Harvard faculty earlier in the year had disallowed student participation in intercollegiate football on the grounds that the game had become too brutal and smacked too much of professionalism. The Harvard-Yale game in the fall of 1884 had been a blood bath.(6)

It would be naive to assume that some of the less savory aspects of football had not crept into the Andover-Exeter rivalry. The too-rapid proliferation of schedules, which now took school teams as far south as Georgetown and as far north and west as Cornell, and the pressure to win in the vortex of increasingly intensified competition led to the slackening of academic requirements by both schools to permit the importation of less gifted scholars with known athletic ability in particular sports such as football and baseball. Each school was not averse to accusing the other of brutality or professional tactics. The 1886 team, whose ranks included Billy Graves, son of Professor Graves, and Cecil K. Bancroft, the Doctor's eldest son as quarterback, suffered a humiliating defeat by a score of 26 to 0 at the hands of a talented Exeter eleven. The Red quarterback had outwitted the Andover team, retaining possession of the ball by taking advantage of the rules and running back ten yards when his team had not made the necessary five yards in three downs. "1882-Introduction of the rule on 'downs' and 'yards' to gain as follows: If on 3 consecutive downs a team has not advanced the ball five yards or lost ten yards, it must give up the ball to the other side at the spot where the final down is made."(7) In an editorial discussing the recent game the Phillipian showed its annoyance:

Exeter played a regular Yale game last Saturday in not kicking the ball more than once throughout the afternoon; perhaps we may get a point or two from their playing.

Some of the experience which we have passed through this season may well lead us to renew the subject of interscholastic athletics in general and school athletics in particular. The proper object of school and college athletics should be, not professionalism but education. Professionalism is inconsistent with the line of work in which we are engaged, both in its principles and in its methods, since it endeavors alone to train the brute nature and aims at nothing higher than the skillful use of that nature; it also tolerates an unscrupulous practice of resorting to trickery in order to more surely accomplish its ends.

In our recent contests with Exeter we have been unpleasantly surprised to find that our opponent's tactics have savored strongly of professionalism, and while we cannot but praise the strong, intelligent work of their representatives, we are forced to condemn the unscrupulous trickery to which they resorted for the accomplishment of their ends. Take for example the late foot-ball game. Instead of the open, manly dealing which we always ought to expect from Exeter we were met with such devices as playing the game with sixteen men instead of with eleven, while the entire backing, for the most part, which our opponent's team received gave evidence of the same spirit. It would otherwise be hard to interpret the showers of abuse and even kicks which our team received whenever they happened to fall on their opponents' out of bounds.

The double disgrace of being shutout by Exeter and being shellacked by the Harvard varsity 86 to 0 led the student body to change the system the following year. No longer would the captain also serve as the coach of the team. For example, Sam K. Bremmer, captain of the 1881 team, had contributed his services as coach. Unfortunately for the Blue, outside coaching was not enough to overcome the talents of the Exeter team; they won by the lopsided score of 44 to 4.

The following year, however, the tide was finally turned. There appeared on the Andover campus that fall a rather spectacular array of talent led by Laurie Bliss, the brother of the captain "Pop" Bliss and including Lou Owsley as quarterback and "Big" Coxe as guard. On another very rainy day at Andover, the Exeters were beaten 10 to 0, yielding a touchdown to the Blue in each of the two halves. The first was scored by Captain Bliss in combination with brother Laurie on a trick play later to become known as a "cross-buck." It is a curious coincidence that the Andover eleven included only one letterman from the previous year---the captain. The starting eleven averaged twenty years of age. Is it reasonable to assume, without malice, that the Phillips "recruits" were superior to the Exeter "imports" that year?

The football team of 1889, which lost its chance to play Exeter, was captained by Laurie Bliss, who had succeeded his brother as the leader of the Blue, and was managed by Jim Sawyer, an individual whose significant contributions to the school would be measured over two generations. Also on that team, which played a nine-game schedule, losing only to the Harvard and Dartmouth varsities, was Frank A. Hinkey, probably the most celebrated football player in Andover-Yale annals. He had played for a championship English Commons team the year before and was brought up to the varsity because of his uncanny defensive ability. In his two years as the left end for Phillips Academy, the team played fourteen games, including the college varsities of Tufts and M.I.T., and gave up a total of only nineteen points; ten of the victories were shutouts. Hinkey became a three-time All American at Yale and captained the Eli team in their famous contest with Harvard at Springfield in 1894. On the occasion of his premature death in 1925, Grantland Rice, the famous New York sports columnist, called him the greatest end in the history of the game and stated: "Never, since he came up from the club system at Andover through his four years at Yale, did any team gain a yard around his side."(8)

Frank Hinkey, PA. 1892. Andover's most celebrated football player.

The 1880's had seen dramatic, if haphazard, growth of athletics in both schools. Pride in their achievements had grown inordinately. However, emotional immaturity, the result of overemphasis on competing and winning at any cost, led to a temporary suspension of the relationship, and it would happen again in the mid-1890's. Nevertheless, the real value of the athletic rivalry between Andover and Exeter in the decade is perhaps best exemplified by an article written for the Phillips Bulletin by E. J. Phelps, P.A. 1882, on the occasion of his fiftieth reunion. Phelps, it seems, had gone to Yale from Andover and upon graduating had entered the newspaper world for a brief time. One of his friends at the newspaper was an ex-Harvard football player named Victor Harding, and although they both left the paper to pursue other careers, the two kept up their acquaintance over a period of thirty-five years. In 1930 Phelps, as a member of the Chicago Board of Education, addressed a group of high school students and their parents. He chose to speak about honesty and the courage to tell the truth at all times. Phelps illustrated his theme by recounting an incident in the Andover-Exeter football game of November 1881. The game took place on a rainy day when the field was a quagmire and the players so mud-caked as to be almost unrecognizable. Late in the game, with Andover leading 11 to 8, an Exeter player kicked a field goal. Phelps, himself, as the Andover student umpire, reported to the referee that the ball had been punted and not drop-kicked, thereby invalidating the goal. When the referee refused to change his mind, the Andover captain appealed to the Exeter captain, who then asked the kicker if the ball had been drop-kicked. The Exonian unhesitatingly replied that it had been punted. As a result the goal was nullified, and Andover won the game. As Phelps told the Illinois group, he had always admired the courage of the Exeter player and often wished he had met him. While finishing his talk, Phelps noticed his friend Victor Harding in the audience and realized that Harding must have a child in the high school. Coming up to his friend at the close of the speech, Harding mentioned that he had been interested in Phelps' story but said that the incident had occurred in 1884 and not 1881, as Phelps had claimed because he, Harding, had been the Exeter kicker. Since Harding had not entered Exeter until the fall of 1882, both men decided to investigate the matter more thoroughly through Lewis Perry, Principal of Exeter, and James Sawyer, Treasurer of Andover. The facts of the investigation proved that two such incidents had occurred, one in the Andover-Exeter game in 1881 and the other in the game of 1884. The situations were almost identical in that the Exeter kicker in each game admitted that the field goal had been punted. In the case of the 1884 contest, Harding's reply gave the victory to Andover, and the kick by Jones in the 1881 game prevented a tie.

Phelps' account of this experience in the Phillips Bulletin pointed out the remarkable coincidences in the situation. He had waited forty-nine years to discover "the Boy who kicked the Ball" only to find out that there were two of them and that his friend of thirty-five years was one of those Exonians for whom he had such admiration. As the final, remarkably ironic coincidence he added that in the Andover-Exeter game the previous fall, exactly fifty years after that first "punted field goal," the score was tied at 12 to 12 with one minute left in the fourth period; once again the stage was set. But this time Willis, the Exonian who had set up the opportunity by a forward pass, made a placement kick between the goal posts from the Andover ten-yard line to win the game for Exeter. Certainly most of the six thousand spectators who witnessed that "seat-squirmer" must have sensed something of the character and value of the traditional rivalry.(9)

In the baseball rivalry with Exeter the decade of the eighties began on an unhappy note. In 1879 the plan of holding two games was abandoned; in the single game that year, Captain Rogers' team won handily by a score of 12 to 2. In 1880 the Exeter team, hungry for revenge and accompanied by a hundred rooters, was trailing Andover 2 to 1 in the seventh inning of a tension-packed game when an unfortunate incident occurred. Exeter's third baseman, Bean, hit a ball down the first base line, and judging it to be a foul, did not run. Nichols, the Andover first baseman, played safe and touched the base, whereupon the ball was declared fair and Bean was out. After a heated argument during which the umpire refused to reverse his decision, the Exonians packed their bats and left, thereby forfeiting the game. Officially, however, the score still stands in the records as 2 to 1. The umpire's decision was a difficult one, but the Phillipian, in a none-too-diplomatic way, sided with the arbiter:

We cannot take the blame upon ourselves, as we only supported the umpire in a decision which we considered, and still consider, just. It is therefore with Exeter that the blame for the weakest, most childish and most contemptible ending that ever disgraced a good game must wholly, or in good part, rest.

The mudslinging between the two venerable institutions had started.

Nothing better illustrates the overpowering emotionalism which gripped both schools on the occasion of these contests than an account of the game of 1881 rendered by one of the Andover heroes. Chentung Liang Cheng, then the Chinese Prime Minister to the United States and known as Piyuk in his undergraduate days at Phillips Academy, had been invited to speak at the school's one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary in 1903. The tale needs no further embellishment:

I shall never forget the game with Exeter in 1881, in which I happened to take part. The game was to be played at Exeter, and for the first time ever students were allowed to go to the game. The faculty had given us a half-holiday and procured railroad tickets at half price for the 150 rooters who accompanied us. Feeling that the athletic reputation of the school was at stake, every member of the nine went into the game with a determination to win, and was, at the same time, encouraged by the contingent of Andover supporters.

Our opponents were first at the bat, but were easily disposed of by our left-handed pitcher, Captain Halbert, on account of their inability to hit his baffling curves. Then our turn came. In a twinkle we had two men on bases. It was my turn to go to the bat. I succeeded in smashing the ball to the center for a three-bagger. This enabled us to secure a commanding lead which our opponents could not overcome. The final score was 13 to 5. The results of the game were at once flashed to Andover. When the train arrived with the victorious nine, the whole school turned out to welcome them with torch lights, a brass band, and an omnibus drawn by enthusiastic students with a long rope. Even Rome could not have received Caesar with greater enthusiasm and pride when he returned from his famous campaigns in triumph.(10)

Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, hero of the 1881 Andover-Exeter baseball game, shown here with Principal Alfred E. Stearns and two Chinese students, at the 125th anniversary celebration of the founding of Phillips Academy in 1903.

The team of 1882 played only three games, losing to the Harvard and Yale Freshmen and then to Exeter by a score of 7 to 5. For the next two years, under the leadership of Captain Bill Vinton, one of Andover's great pitchers, the Exies were defeated, 16 to 5 and 13 to 5, respectively. Vinton, in the spring of 1884, won eight games, lost only one, and struck out one hundred batters. He went on to distinguish himself in professional baseball with the Philadelphia team in the National League.(11)

As in football, so in baseball there developed in the mid-eighties a change in attitude toward interscholastic athletics. The then current feeling toward professionalism is illustrated by an article in the Phillipian of May 1885, which, with no attempt at apology, revealed the fact that the Baseball Committee had presumed to hire the services of a professional named Sweeney, who had pitched well for Haverhill the previous year. Great dissatisfaction with this arrangement, which would deprive an Academy boy of a chance to make the team, was felt throughout the school and became so strong that the Committee reconsidered its action and released Sweeney from his contract. In the Exeter game, which Andover lost 9 to 1, Weyerhauser, the regular pitcher, was not well, but he recovered a few days later, as the Academy nine defeated a strong town team, for which Sweeney was the pitcher. Hindsight being far more logical than foresight, the Phillipian smugly second-guessed the Committee's original decision:

The Andover vs. P. A. game was watched with some interest owing to the plan, which has fallen through, of hiring Sweeney to pitch for us this season. Any candid person who examines the records of the two pitchers in the game will admit the utter folly of engaging him as our pitcher. The Phillipian thinks that, outside the question of school honesty and honor, this game shows that it would have been poor policy to hire Sweeney as a pitcher.

Despite the loud protests of the school newspapers, the intrusion of professionalism into amateur athletics would be a continuing problem. As an example, for instance, between 1886 and 1890, the number of scheduled baseball games per season jumped from nine to twenty-two.

To understand what happened in the Andover-Exeter baseball games of the next two years, one must consider the playing conditions under which they were conducted. The diamonds, if they could be so named, were bumpy and irregular, sometimes bestrewn with rocks and an occasional pot hole. The players' equipment was primitive, particularly the catching glove, which barely covered the hand for protection, and did little to facilitate the fielding of the ball---a far cry from the venus-flytrap mitts of today. The game in 1886, the first year of H. E. "Buck" Knowlton's captaincy, was a heartbreaker for the Blue. With Andover leading 6 to 1, Exeter scored six runs in the eighth inning to pull it out. The statistics tell an interesting story: Exeter had two earned runs, Andover three; Andover committed thirteen errors, Exeter sixteen; between both teams there were ten stolen bases, seven walks, two hit batsmen, six passed balls, and eighteen strikeouts. The following year, however, at Exeter, "Buck" and Andover had their revenge, defeating Exeter by a score of 22 to 6. Each team made two earned runs, but Andover got twenty-two men to first base on errors, Exeter committing forty of them. Dillon, the Exeter pitcher, walked sixteen batters and made ten wild pitches. The game took three hours and five minutes to play. Interesting highlights of the game were that Al Stearns, a ninth grade "prep," played centerfield for Andover, and that the Andover Brass Band, having been hidden during the contest, suddenly came blaring forth from the woods to lead the victory celebration.(12) The Phillipian could hardly contain its exultation.

The pitcher on the Andover 1888 team, captained by E. N. Brainard, was Al Stearns, destined one day to become the Headmaster of Phillips Academy, but then a stripling in what we would now call the lower middle class. His steady and effective pitching against Exeter, despite the attempts of the rival contingent to rattle him, gained him a 6 to 4 win while he struck out seventeen in the process. The Phillipian, never charitable to the opponents from New Hampshire, took proper pride in the victory. "Stearns, under pressure of the most continued yelling, hooting, rattle-shaking, and every conceivable annoyance of Exeter's representatives, pitched a wonderful game."

Unfortunately, the hyperemotionalism which had been building up a head of steam in both schools exploded in the spring of 1889. The incident occurred after the Andover-Exeter baseball game in Stearns' first year as captain of the team. Dr. Fuess, later to succeed Stearns as Headmaster of Phillips Academy, described the game and the sorry fracas which followed:

There were times, as we have seen, when the sting of defeat made some overexcited boys forget the courtesies due to friendly rivals. The tension after close contests was often so great that trivial incidents took on an exaggerated importance, and baseless accusations were scattered promiscuously abroad. The "townies" or "muckers," as the students called them, did their best to increase the friction by posing as Academy boys, and casting stones or shouting opprobrious epithets in the wake of the visiting team. Before 1889 there had been minor difficulties which showed that the two schools had not learned as yet "to love the game beyond the prize." Now and than a team had been followed to the station with jeers but no one had been injured, and the disagreements had been smoothed over by compromise. Certainly there was no reason in the spring of 1889 to anticipate trouble.

In connection with the baseball game of that year an unusual situation had arisen. A student named White, who, in 1888, had played second base for Andover, had resigned and had transferred to Exeter, chiefly because the Andover management refused to make him concessions. At Exeter he had soon displayed ability as a pitcher, and he was to be in the box in the Andover game against his former teammates. In this contest, which was held on June 14 at Exeter, "Al" Stearns pitched for Andover, but his arm had been in poor condition for weeks and caused him intense pain after the third inning. At the end of the seventh inning, with the score 3 to 2 in favor of Exeter, the game was called on account of rain. An hour later, when the Andover men were waiting quietly at the station with many "muckers" taunting them, a number of Exeter students, carrying White and other players on their shoulders, marched by. There was a collision over the right of way; a free fight started, in the course of which Professor Coy, then Andover's Acting Principal, was hit on the head, and one youngster knocked unconscious. The responsibility for this unfortunate fracas cannot be definitely placed; but had it not been for the timely intervention of some muscular members of the Andover teaching staff, the affair might have spread into something very serious. Immediately after their return the Andover Faculty notified Exeter that the series of athletic contests between the schools was at an end.(13)

As a result no football game was held in the autumn of 1889. Dr. Bancroft, on his arrival from abroad, made a statement to explain Andover's action: "We have received no proposals looking to a new series of games, under terms and conditions mutually satisfactory to both schools, and guarding effectually against the difficulties specified."(14)

It is well nigh impossible for the Andover student of today to measure the perfervid preoccupation of the school community with its athletic program in those early days. In ten years' time the football schedule had increased from three games with outside opponents to fourteen, and the number of baseball contests had jumped from four to an average of twenty. The real nature of the competition is better understood, however, by looking at the caliber of the opposition. Aside from a variety of professional or semi-professional teams from the local environs, the schedule in both sports included such pigmies as the Bowdoin, Tufts, Boston College, M.I.T., Dartmouth, and Harvard varsities; "Prep School" opponents like Adams Academy, Boston Latin School, and Exeter, while some neighboring high schools and a few freshmen teams rounded out the slate. It is fact and not fiction that in the decade between the mid-eighties and the mid-nineties, the Phillips Academy football team played the Harvard varsity six times. In that span Andover managed to score five points in one game, was shut out five times and gave up a mere 377 points to the gentlemen from Cambridge. Yet the Phillipian had the following to say about that glorious occasion on 31 October 1893, when Letton's field goal gave Andover those memorable five points:

Harvard 60; Andover 5

On Wednesday we played a game of foot-ball which, although resulting in a defeat for us, will go down in the history of the school as the first foot-ball game in which Andover has scored against one of the three large colleges. Before Wednesday's game this distinction has only been held by two preparatory schools, Exeter having scored against Harvard in '89, and Lawrenceville against Princeton this fall. Harvard had played until Wednesday with a clean record, and Andover has the added honor of being the first team to break the charm. Few had expected that we would hold Harvard down to sixty points let alone score on her, and the result was more than gratifying.

Insane, to be sure, but measured in terms of pride and school spirit "what price glory?"

Perhaps the flavor of the times can be better sensed by scrutinizing the remarkable schoolboy career of Alfred E. Stearns, certainly one of the most talented scholar-athletes of his era. In his four years at Andover he compiled a distinguished record: twice captain of the baseball team, he was also the school tennis champion, winning the singles match against Exeter in the fall of his senior year; an excellent kicker in football, he never played the game at school, largely in deference to his mother's concern for his health. A good scholar, he was liked and admired by students and faculty alike, and became the editor of the newspaper and president of the Philomathean Society as a senior. Al's real love, however, was baseball, in which he had developed considerable skill in the sandlots around Amherst before he entered Phillips Academy in the fall of 1886. He made the varsity team as a junior "prep" and played center field against Exeter in the fiasco which Andover won 22 to 6 and in which Exeter committed forty errors. The following year he pitched against the arch-rivals, struck out seventeen of them and won 6 to 4, despite every attempt on the part of the New Hampshire contingent to rattle and unnerve him. In Al's first year as captain the team had a sorry record, losing seventeen of the twenty-two games played, including the famous 3 to 2 loss to Exeter, which precipitated the riot at the railroad station. The problem with that team was that somewhere along the line, Al had hurt his arm, and there was no effective pitching all year. Having alternated between third base and first base that season, he pitched the last game only because there was no one else available. Unfortunately, that was his last Exeter game, for there was no contest the following spring, when he captained a very strong team which won thirteen games and defeated the Boston "Beacons" 11 to 4, a team which had previously beaten Exeter 4 to 2, thereby suggesting supremacy. On that Andover team were five future college captains: Stearns at Amherst, Case, Rustin, L. Bliss, and McCormick at Yale. It is significant that Captain Stearns played center field all year and that Dalzell was the star pitcher of record. Al was to go on to Amherst to become one of the great second basemen in intercollegiate ranks, but he never pitched again. The synopsis of his career at Andover shows that he played in sixty-nine official baseball contests over those four years, most certainly an impressive endurance record. He had only one complaint about baseball: practicing or playing it every day gave him too few opportunities to indulge in another of his favorite pastimes---visiting the dear Fem Sems down the street at Abbot Academy.(15)

Abbot girls watching an Andover tennis match in the late 1880's.

There were other cogent reasons why athletics occupied the center stage in the school community. Like it or not, college and schoolboy sports provided cheap but exciting entertainment in an age when tastes in amusements were far less sophisticated and variegated than they are today. The tradition of allowing the Fem Sems to attend the Phillips games had started with the Exeter football game of 1880. When did not the beautiful inspire the brave? The girls in attendance obviously brought out more student spectators, even if they were not particularly keen about the sport. The victory parade through the Abbot campus now provided a particularly piquant incentive to the Andover warriors. For Andover-Exeter contests, however, the student population represented only a relatively small percentage of those in attendance. The local newspapers in Lawrence and Andover followed the fortunes of the Academy teams very closely, and the Boston and New York sports writers gave extensive coverage to both schools and the contests between them. The rivalry increasingly took on the flavor of the Harvard-Yale contests, thereby attracting many more onlookers from the cities and towns around Boston. The average attendance at the annual baseball game was two thousand, and at the football game between five and six thousand. The policy of charging admission, earlier established, began to pay big dividends, which, in turn, were used to enhance the program.

The first track "tournament" with Exeter had taken place on the New Hampshire campus in the spring of 1889. There had been talk of arranging such a meet a year earlier, but Andover did not have a facility to handle such an event. If the contests were to continue on a "home-and-home" basis, Phillips Academy would be the host school for the next engagement. Once again the athletic reputation of the school was on the line, and true to form, the student body deplored the state of affairs: "Track and Gymnastics are restricted for lack of a running track and an adequate gymnasium." In the fall of 1889, even though there had been no Exeter game, the Football Committee, headed by Jim Sawyer, the Manager, reported a surplus of $454.57. On 4 December, two weeks later, a school meeting was held; it was there voted that the football surplus be used to build a track, which would cost approximately $700.00. The rest of the money would be raised by student subscription; the Faculty would supply work teams for the necessary grading of the campus. The supervision of the project was to be the responsibility of George D. Pettee, a young instructor greatly interested in track and cross-country. The new cinder track, which ultimately cost $1134.88, was not finished until May 1891. At the formal opening Mr. Pettee and Captain C. H. Woodruff, at the head of the track squad, jogged one lap around it. The second Andover-Exeter meet in 1891 was held there, Andover winning by a score of 46 to 44 under a revised system of scoring which awarded points to second and third places.

Further evidence of the students' enthusiasm for athletics and generosity to improve their quality can be gathered from a variety of sources. In 1887 the Old Campus was graded and levelled so that two more diamonds could be provided for the two club baseball teams which were active in both the fall and the spring. In 1888 the students built several more dirt tennis courts to accommodate the increasing interest and participation in the sport. On 20 May 1891, just sixteen days after the formal dedication of the new track, the Athletic Association once again mustered student support for a gymnasium fund, the next major project; at the school meeting held in the chapel their fervent pleadings yielded pledges of $1500 in twenty-five minutes. In 1892 the agitation over a new gymnasium took a more immediate turn. The location of the new track was a considerable distance from the school buildings in an area we now know as the West Quadrangle; consequently, the track team had no place to dress or bathe. The Athletic Association, on 27 April, proposed to the school a plan whereby a fieldhouse could be built immediately: it would spend $1500 collected the previous year with the understanding that the students repay the money to the Association at the rate of $500 per year for the next three years. This plan would make the facility available within one year. The scheme was adopted, ground was broken immediately, and the two-story Field House opened for business on 18 February 1893. Regulations for its use were published in the Phillipian:

Regulations for the use of the
Phillips Field House

1. The use of the baths are free to all members of the school.

2. The rental of the lockers is at the rate of $4.00 per year, payable in advance, and are designed for two students. For the balance of the preschool year $3.00 will be charged. A fee of 50 cents for each key will be charged and refunded when the key is returned.

3. Towels (2) will be rented at a rate of 10 cents per bath, or students may provide and care for their own towels.

4. The janitor of the building will be responsible for the care of the building, and the rental of lockers, keys and towels.

5. The building will be open daily from 4:30 to 6, Wednesdays to 6, and Saturdays 3 to 8 o'clock.

Andover, Feb. 18, 1893.

The new facility actually cost $1700, $200 over the budget. The deficit was taken care of by additional student contributions and a check in the amount of $52.53 from Ida M. McCurdy, wife of mathematics instructor Matthew McCurdy, to the Athletic House Committee. The money represented the profits from a concert put on by wives of the Faculty. For the first time in the history of the school, its student athletes could enjoy the luxury of hot-water showers.

Yet the problems facing those in charge of the academy's athletic program involved much more than the acquisition of new physical facilities. "Spectator-itis" is not new to the 1970's and 1980's, nor was it to the nineteenth century. Rabid, partisan crowds, competing vicariously in one way or another and overstimulated by the sight of fierce competition, add nothing to the conditions under which games should be played; rather, their irresponsible behavior in the form of catcalling and the raucous shouting of epithets and vilifying remarks tend to exaggerate the importance of every minor incident and bring the pitch of excitement to the breaking point. The irrational spectator is no friend to the performing athlete, rival or favorite. In the early years, the presence in the crowd of townies or "muckers," as the Andover students called them, increased the friction when the locals resorted to such antics as stoning the opposition, and tripping them up if the opportunity presented itself close to the sideline, to the constant accompaniment of loud obscenities. Playing conditions were further worsened by the absence of seating facilities, a condition which the school paper had been loudly lamenting for a dozen years. Consequently, the spectators swarmed around the baselines and sidelines, which were not even roped off to mark the playing boundaries and to protect the players from personal contact with the onlookers. By 1888, the problem of handling the enormous crowds at the games had become intolerable. That year the one small section of seats which served as a grandstand burned down in the celebration of the football victory over Exeter. The following spring once again student initiative manifested itself with a plan to erect a new grandstand capable of seating four hundred people. Al Stearns, Bert Addis, and Jim Sawyer formed a stock company, issued 174 shares which sold for $2. each, and then charged admission to the stand. When this structure reverted to the school in 1890, as per previous agreement, the stockholders received their money with a dividend of fifty-four cents per share.

One final element which contributed to the intensification of interest in athletics during this growth period was the active interest shown by the Faculty in the program. The school under Samuel Harvey Taylor had been a one-man show, and faculty responsibility certainly did not include athletics. Under Principal Bancroft, who firmly believed that the strength of the school depended largely on an able faculty willing to devote their lives to Phillips Academy, authority was delegated to his colleagues in many areas including, eventually, athletics.(16) Aside from the aforementioned Mr. Pettee, who had assumed the responsibility for all matters connected with track and cross-country, there was Edward Gastin Coy, professor of Greek, but an able athlete and boxer of some reputation. Matthew McCurdy, who had come to Andover one year after Messrs. Bancroft and Coy, had an avid interest in athletics as well as mathematics. Also a good boxer, he and Coy put on many exhibitions of the manly art for the student body. He followed the fortunes of all Academy teams and became an active official in track, football, and gymnastic contests throughout his active career on the hill. Charlie Forbes in Latin and Archie Freeman in history, coming to Andover within a year of each other, were destined to play significant roles in the athletics of the ensuing years.

A coach full of students taking off for an Andover-Exeter game.

The dispute at the Exeter railroad station, which had brought an abrupt cessation of all athletic relations between the two institutions, continued into the following year, each side protesting its own innocence and accusing the other of ungentlemanly conduct and worse. Early in the winter term there appeared to be a break in the deadlock. At a school meeting on 16 January 1890, called for the specific purpose of attempting to resolve the differences between Andover and Exeter, Addis, the manager of the baseball team, pointed out the vital importance of the Exeter contest to the baseball exchequer. Al Stearns, the captain of the team, reported that at his instigation a meeting had been held at Exeter the previous Wednesday between Stearns, Addis, and Laurie Bliss, the Andover football captain, and their Exeter counterparts---Captain White, Baseball Manager Farquhar, and Football Captain Gilliam. A mutual agreement between the two schools, serving as a guarantee that no disturbances of any kind should take place on the occasion of any future athletic contest, was drawn up and signed by the three representatives of each academy for the school. The document was then to be submitted to each school and voted upon:

We, the students of Phillips Andover and Phillips Exeter Academies, do hereby agree that on any athletic contests between the two academies the students of the home academy, except the members and managers of the athletic team will not under any circumstances go to the station or follow, or in any way whatsoever molest any of the members of the visiting academy.

And we do hereby accept the same rules as the contests were heretofore governed by. These rules shall be brought before the members of each academy, and, if accepted, shall be framed and hung with the old agreement that every member may see and read them.

(Signed)

For Andover.

For Exeter.
A. E. Stearns, J. H. White,
L. T. Bliss, M. H. Gilliam,
A. E. Addis. F. C. Farquhar.

The Phillipian recorded the actions of the Andover contingent as "commendable," but expressed some anxiety about obtaining the immediate consent of the Faculties to the agreement. Failure to act promptly might impair the capability of the Baseball Associations to arrange a game for the upcoming June. The answer from the Faculty on the Andover-Exeter affair was promptly forthcoming:

Andover-Exeter.

The following communication from the Faculty to Messrs. Stearns, Bliss, and Addis explains itself.

ANDOVER, MASS. ,Jan. 18, 1890.

The Faculty of the Phillips Academy at Andover desire to say in reply to the petition of Messrs. Stearns, Bliss, and Addis;

That they appreciate the desire of the petitioners, and those whom they represent, for the installation of a new series of athletics between the Phillips Academy at Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy, and are willing, as they have been from the beginning, to co-operate with the Exeter Faculty, when advised by them of similar willingness on their part, in the joint establishment and maintenance of such rules and regulations as will protect the games from incidents and occurrences like those which led to the summary close of the former series.

The Faculty desire, as an advisory committee, to call attention, in case a new series is begun, to the importance of providing in the new regulations for the seasonable appointment of judges, umpires, etc.; a point which seemed not sufficiently guarded heretofore. Also, to the importance of a decision doubtless taken on the matter by this time, since the regular meeting of the Exeter Faculty occurs on Tuesday evening. However there is no apparent cause for either school to feel doubtful as to the outcome of the matter, as the spirit and essential points of the above document are not such as would seem to give the slightest cause for hesitating on the part of the Exeter Faculty. It will doubtless be generally known very soon---and perhaps is already known at the time the Phillipian goes to print---whether by the action of the Faculty at Exeter the three contests which occurred in the spring last year are assured to the schools this year or not, and by Saturday at the latest it is probable that all hindrances will be settled and done away with.

Unfortunately for the high hopes of both student groups to resume the Andover-Exeter contests that spring, the issue was further complicated by an editorial in The Week's Sport to the effect that France, a catcher of some renown and a former professional, had recently enrolled at Exeter and was a candidate for the baseball team. "If Capt. White is thoroughly interested in the welfare of athletics he will not rely on men with fictitious names to bring him victory; as the twig is bent so the tree grows." The lightning had been loosed again, and for the next two months the Exonian and the Phillipian exchanged the usual insults based on mutual distrust. The upshot was that both schools developed a much more comprehensive set of rules aimed at all the visible abuses which had crept into the relationship over a period often years. They were approved by both Faculties in May, but Exeter insisted that they were not ready to enforce them until the following September, thereby eliminating the second track meet as well as the baseball game:

Rules for the Government
of Athletic Contests

Adopted by the Andover and Exeter Faculties, May 1890.

I. The annual contests between the two schools shall be limited to one base-ball game, one football game, one contest in general athletics, and one lawn-tennis match, to be held alternately in Andover and Exeter.

No one of these contests shall occupy more than a half-day.

II. The two faculties shall be represented in a standing committee, each by three of its own number, and the action of this committee shall be binding when ratified by the two faculties.

III. No one shall be allowed to take part in the contests between the schools.

(a) Who is not a bona fide member of the school he represents.

(b) Who has ever received money for playing or teaching any sport or game or who has ever engaged in any sport as a means of livelihood.

(c) Who receives compensation for his services in athletic games in addition to the expenses necessarily incurred by him in representing his organization in any athletic contest, except that he may have his board paid at a special training table.

(d) Who has left the school and become a member of any university, college, scientific school or professional school.

IV. No one shall be allowed to play in the annual base-ball game who enters either school after the first week of the winter term.

V. The direction of these contests and the responsibility for their character shall lie with the two faculties, and all games shall be played under rules approved by the standing committee of the two faculties.

All referees, umpires, and other judges, unless selected by the students two weeks before the game in which they are to act, shall be appointed by the committee of the two faculties.

VI. The captain of each base-ball team, and the captain of each football team, not later than three weeks before the annual game occurs, shall present to the faculty of his own school a list of students from which the team will be made up, and the faculty shall transmit this list to the faculty of the other school not less than two weeks before the game is to occur, with a guarantee that all the students named are, to the best of the knowledge of the faculty, qualified under the preceding rules to compete, and no student not thus guaranteed shall be allowed to compete.

VII. All protests and challenges shall be referred to the standing committee of the faculties of the two schools.

VIII. No students shall be allowed to go out of town to attend the general athletic contests or the lawn-tennis matches except those who are to take part, substitutes, general officers not more than four in number, and two reporters; but each competitor may take one guest.

The members of both schools shall be allowed to attend the base-ball and foot-ball games.

IX. No members of the school on whose grounds the game is played, shall be at or near the railroad station from the time that the visiting school arrives until after its departure, except the manager and the captain of the team which takes part in the game of the day.

X. There shall be no celebration of victory by either school, until after the departure of the visiting school.

XI. These rules may be revised at the close of any season, i.e., in June or December.

As an interesting sideline to the episode, Al Stearns, the leading luminary of the Andover trio, in his lighter moments as the Headmaster of Phillips Academy years later, enjoyed telling the story of his secret correspondence with White, a former teammate at Andover, and then Captain at Exeter. The notes led to a meeting in Al's room at Andover where it was almost decided to have a baseball contest without the prior knowledge of the Faculty, to be held on a neutral field at Haverhill. However, Vance McCormick, a member of the Andover team, persuaded the other players on both sides that deliberate defiance of a Faculty ruling could lead to expulsion, and the game was never played. The era of the exclusive control and management of athletics by the students had ended. The next two decades would see the assumption by the Faculty of almost complete responsibility for the administration of physical education and athletics at Phillips Academy, but not before several other unpleasant incidents threatened to destroy all vestiges of cordiality between the two rival schools.

The Phillipian celebrated the resumption of the competition under the new rules and applauded "the good relations which now exist between the two schools after the June meeting. The Tennis Tourney marks a new era." Measured in terms of victory, in 1890-91 Andover swept all four engagements---football, baseball, track, and tennis. The football game, which was the most heavily attended to date, saw an Andover team captained by F. Townshend and coached by Billy Odlin, ex-captain of both Andover and Dartmouth, shut out the Exonians 16 to 0. The occasion was celebrated by a parade, fireworks, the usual speeches, a bonfire, and free coffee. In the next year 1891-92 the Andover teams repeated the whitewash, winning all the contests against their New Hampshire adversaries. All was serene on Andover hill: "Although our thoughts are largely directed toward athletic matters, and we are measuring the ability of our men with that of our opponents, still there are a few things in school which should have our attention. Almost every school organization is offering some opportunity for self-improvement; especially is this true in literary lines." With the supremacy of Andover's teams permanently assured, the students could now return to the "great end and real business of living." The euphoric atmosphere on the campus was rudely dispelled the following fall.

Although Captain Hopkins' team of 1892 had compiled a miserable record of nine losses, three wins and one tie going into the Exeter game, the Andoverians, including the townspeople, exuded confidence that the victory skein of the Blue would be extended: "The Townsman extends its best wishes to Phillips Andover and hopes she may again be victorious."(17) Unfortunately for the local well-wishers, Captain Thomas and a 220-pound center, Smith of Exeter, used a new "revolving wedge," made huge gains through the center of the Andover line, and piled up 28 points to Andover's 18. The game had been clean and hard fought on both sides; Exeter had been bigger and better, and the Phillipian congratulated the Red team, but not without pangs of remorse: "The goddess of victory has at last proved inconstant and sought other abodes." The game was history, but the matter was not to end there. On 24 November, the Andover Townsman printed an article which questioned the eligibility of four Exeter players, including her captain. The following day the Phillipian editors, adopting a mildly accusatory tone, reprinted the article under the following caption:

Is it True?

We print the following extract from one of our local exchanges. It is needless to say that we agree with it in full, if the charge therein contained is true. If not true, we hope the parties in question will make no delay in removing from themselves a charge of no little import:

At last the red floats over the blue, and Exeter is triumphant. It is useless to discuss the whys and wherefores attending the result; Exeter outplayed Andover and won. But there is a feature connected with the game that deserves more than a passing notice; it is that Exeter had on her team four men who were in school for no other purpose than to play foot-ball, and to substantiate this, the statement is made that already three of the four have left school and the other is to go at Christmas. If this is so, the condition of affairs demands some careful attention on the part of the authorities. People who love sport for sport's sake have looked to school and college games for pure sport and freedom from professionalism, but such rumors make friends of true sport feel uneasy to say the least. We much prefer to see poorer sport if it is only the best endeavor of each player, rather than sport measured by the pocketbook of the managers---Andover Townsman.

Although no names were mentioned, apparently the four referred to were Captain Thomas, taking a post-graduate term at the Academy; Smith, the enormous center; Seymour and Pillsbury. All had played stellar roles, both offensively and defensively, in the Exeter victory.

The Exonian, stung by the imputation of professionalism, was quick to repudiate the charges a week later:

"A Statement of Facts."

The following reply with the above heading was made by our worthy contemporary, the Exonian, to the charges we recently preferred against our rival school. The article is an extract from the Exeter News Letter:

The Andover, Mass., Townsman declares that Phillips Exeter had on her victorious eleven four men who were simply in school to play foot-ball, of whom three have already left school and the fourth will take his departure at Christmas. Professionalism is imputed to Exeter and her authorities were asked to give attention to the evil. The Townsman is sadly in error. With one exception every member of Exeter's eleven was a student of regular and complete standing, and three of the four against whom the Townsman's charges are probably made, rank with the first third of their classes in scholarship. All students are privileged to leave school at their own pleasure and with their parents' consent, but there is not the slightest indication that such is the intention of these three. Captain Thomas, a graduate last June, was permitted to take postgraduate courses only on condition that he should do faithful and regular work in his selected courses. His standing as a student has been of the best, and in playing upon the eleven he simply exercised a right. He is of age, and has exercised another in withdrawing from the school, though it was understood that he was to remain throughout the year. The return of graduates for advanced work is by no means exceptional. Thomas' case differs from many others simply in the fact that he was an excellent athlete.

The immediate result of the controversy was a change in the rules governing Andover-Exeter contests, which had been in existence since 1890. For the first time in the history of the relationship, the revisions were made by representatives of both Faculties. They were aimed at specific abuses and attempted to control new developments as they had emerged in the areas of officials, athletic tournaments, attendance by the student bodies at all major events between the two schools, and eligibility requirements. Announced to the school by Dr. Bancroft in early February, they were published in full by the Phillipian in March. The list was comprehensive and was signed by George D. Pettee, Secretary of the Standing Committee of the two Faculties.

The winter of 1893 passed uneventfully with three exceptions: some students were arguing for an entire reorganization of the athletic management of the school, maintaining that the football budget was growing too fast and that money should be set aside for general improvements rather than going mainly to one sport. Others were complaining about the arrangements in the new Field House and clamoring for a totally new gymnasium which would accommodate all of the students. The bright spot of the winter was the Gymnastic Tournament, which had added the flying rings and tumbling to its offerings and was attended by six hundred people. Everybody looked forward to the spring term and continued success against Exeter, particularly in baseball, since the Andover nine, captained by F. T. Murphy for the second time, was far stronger than the team which had won the year before. The hopes for baseball were realized. By early June, the team had won fourteen of sixteen games, losing only to the Harvard and Dartmouth varsities. Furthermore the amazing pitching staff of G. C. Greenway, M. L. Paige, and O. N. Sedgewick had thrown three no-hit games in succession against M.I.T., Boston College, and Thomson-Houston. Unfortunately, this great team, like another one captained by Al Stearns earlier, never faced their Exeter counterparts.

In late May the Boston Globe carried two items of interest to the Andover community. The first paid tribute to L. P. Sheldon's track performances as a freshman at Yale. As a senior at Andover the previous spring he had broken both the pole vault and broad jump records against Exeter. The second item was of more immediate concern to the new faculty athletic committee. According to reliable sources a Mr. Powers of the Exeter team had been a paid player on the roster of the "Northampton Pros" and was, therefore, ineligible to play in the Andover game. Further investigation by the committee, including a verification of the facts by Al Stearns, now captain of Amherst but thoroughly familiar with most of the "semi-pro" leagues in New England, having played summer ball all his adult life, led to a unanimous recommendation that Andover refuse to play the game if Powers were in the Exeter lineup. The Exeter Faculty maintained that Powers was not guilty, but the Andoverians refused to reverse their decision, and the game was cancelled. The tournament was also cancelled by the Exeter authorities as the result of Andover's refusal to play the baseball game. As partial compensation for the loss of the big game, the faculty allowed Fred Murphy's nine to play the Yale varsity twice late that spring---a first in Andover's baseball history. It is noteworthy that they lost, but by the highly respectable scores of 6 to 2 and 2 to 0.

The Exeter student body and some townspeople expressed their disappointment at having to give up the Andover game by holding a parade and demonstration wherein the baseball which should have been used in the Andover game was buried in a mock-funeral ceremony. Johnson, Exeter's pitcher, and Powers, the catcher whose eligibility Andover had protested, were appointed pallbearers. This charade marked the second time in the history of Phillips Exeter that the students had gone through with the burial of the bat and ball. The first occurred as early as 1865, when the students asked Principal Soule for permission to play Andover and were refused. Accordingly, with dirges the students carried their bats and balls in a rude coffin to a vacant lot on Grove Street and buried them. Then to muffled music they marched to the home of their firm friend, Commodore Long, on Court Street, for sympathy and refreshments.(18) The Andover students, however, were entertained by a Faculty baseball game between the singles and the marrieds, played in lieu of the Exeter game. The marrieds won 24 to 18, and the Phillipian expressed its gratitude for the game as evidence of Faculty interest in school athletics. The incident was closed, but the rancor lingered on.


Chapter Seven

Table of Contents