MORRIS COMPLETES 13 YEARS AS WIG-WAGGER IN STADIUM

When the referee blows the final whistle of the contest in the Stadium this afternoon the little red-sweatered automaton whose frantic motions and resounding voice have became familiar to a generation of football followers will have completed his thirteenth successive season as score-keeper. "Eddie" Morris is his name, and in his time he has signalled to the score-board the story of every University game played in the Stadium. In the course of the last two decades he has communicated to the spectators, the telegraphers, and the press reporters on the roof of the Stadium the details of some of the greatest plays in gridiron history. "Jim" Thorpe, Brickley, "Ted" Coy, "Vick" Kennard, Shevlin and Sprackley are only a few of the historic players whose feats he has recorded.

For the energetic little wig-wagger is the eyes of the score-board, and the spectator who can interpret his contortions can follow the game as readily as if he were on the sidelines.

Morris is, in ordinary life, a hustling and successful broker on the Boston Curb Exchange, and in addition has been a member of the State Legislature, representing old Ward 15 in 1915 and 1916, and in 1917-1918 serving in the Massachusetts Senate representing new Wards 9, 10, 11. Upon being asked by a CRIMSON reporter the origin of his scoring system and how he had become interested in the work, he replied:

The Origin of the Irwin Score-Board.

"The score-board dates back to 1900, when Arthur Irwin, former scout of the New York American Baseball Club, and now with Rochester, wishing to lessen the difficulty which the spectators had in following the play with a fair idea of who was making the plays, conceived the plan. At that time forward passes were unheard of and mass plays with flying wedges were relied on for results. This form of play made the game a confused one to follow. And it was almost impossible for the stands to tell who was doing the work. Furthermore, regular linesmen were not then in vogue, and the spectators were left to guess as to whether the team with the ball had one, two or ten yards to go, or whether it was first, second or third down. In a word, to the spectator in the distant stand the game was a jumbled mass of men, and only the closest student of football knew what was going on. Hence the idea conceived by Mr. Irwin.

"In 1905 I became interested in the work. At the suggestion of Mr. Irwin I devised a set of signals, made up from a combination of Army wig-wag and Stock Exchange signals, by which I can signal in an instant to the score-board the "downs," "yard line," "yards to go," "who's ball," "play by," "man hurt," "goal," "touchdown"--in short everything that is necessary to the complete understanding of the game. Since then I have constantly improved the system so that today it is accepted as a standard all over the country.

Everything Down to a Science.

"Of course the receiver of these signals has an equally important, though less spectacular part to play. At the Stadium Mr. Frank E. Belliveau takes my signals. Mr. Belliveau interprets them and directs the half-dozen men who are stationed behind the score-board; they, in turn, set the various signs. Here everything is worked down to a science; if you wish to see hustling but efficient activity, spend a few minutes during a game behind the score-board. Each man has a certain thing to do, a certain part of the board to adjust. If he does the work of anyone else he has committed an unpardonable blunder. And, above all, no deviation from the orders given by Mr. Belliveau is tolerated, no matter how obviously wrong they may be. It is only by strict observance of these rules, experience has shown, that the progress and accuracy of the game can be shown on the board. The moves which I make are reduced to the utmost clearness and rapidity."