Spirit of Percy Haughton to Help Crimson Forces Against Tiger Today

When the referee blows his whistle and the Crimson takes the field against the Orange and Black, there will be one unseen participant who will take part in the fight with Old 'Nassau. In the plays of the University team, in the "do or die" spirit that it displays, and in the coaching it has received, the hand of Percy Duncan Haughton will everywhere be evident. As originator of his famous system, of which the present University team is partly a product, Haughton has become an inseparable part of Harvard football.

Led Crimson to Eight Years of Glory

One of the greatest punters the game has ever known. Haughton played on the University football teams of the three years from 1896 to 1899. For several years after his graduation he was an assistant coach in charge of the kickers on the Crimson squad, and in 1907, after a particularly disastrous season, he assumed complete control of the University's gridiron destinies. During the next eight years the Crimson reached the pinnacle of its football glory under his skillful guidance. He produced teams which crushed the Blue five times and tamed the Tiger on four occasions. Under his regime, the University lost but once to Princeton and once to Yale.

Kind Nature Behind 'Cold Efficiency

But to the men who played under him, "P. D." was not merely a producer of winning football machines, but a close and well loved friend and counselor. Although he appeared cold blooded and even cruel upon the football field, the real kindliness in his nature was always apparent when he was not concentrating his faculties upon gridiron success.

The great number of tributes which his recent death evoked from the members of his teams and his fellow coaches is touching evidence of the deep, almost reverent regard, in which they held him. Seven of the coaches who trained the team which will meet the Orange and the Black this afternoon, played on Haughton's teams, and all were deeply moved by his death.

Harvard Men Join in Tributes

Head Coach R. T. Fisher '12, assistant coach J. L. Knox '98, Dean L. B. R. Briggs '75, for many years chairman of the University Athletic Committee, and F. W. Moore '93, graduate treasurer of the Athletic Association, all expressed the high regard in which they held "P. D."

But some of the most intimate glimpses into the causes of his success and the reasons for his immense popularity among coaches and players are afforded by the reminiscences of the men who played on his teams.

H. R. Hardwick '15, one of Haughton's star products, gives a glimpse into the real nature of the man a nature as thoughtful and kindly as it was active and forceful.

He said: "I recall one practice in midweek when we were preparing a series of new plays to be used on that following Saturday. Progress had been slow and 'P. D.' was hurrying things along in his 'race against time.' During the scrimmage a certain player was not giving his best efforts on every play. 'P. D.' noticed it and rushed onto the field, grabbed the offender by the neck and 'shook' him till his teeth rattled. 'Get onto the sidelines. The trouble with you is you perspire. We want men to sweat!'

"Later in the afternoon the same player was put into the scrimmage again. He played like mad. After a dozen plays or so, time out was called and the same player was seen lying injured on the field. The trainer commenced to work over him where he lay. Out rushed 'P. D.'

"'Take him over to the sidelines, this is no field hospital.' A substitute sprinted on the gridiron and immediately play was resumed.

"The race against time must not be lost. It sounds cold-blooded, almost brutal. But who was it that hurried into the locker building the moment practice was closed, ran upstairs to the doctor's room where the boy was lying down being bandaged, put one hand on his shoulder, gently ran his other hand across the boy's wet brow and remarked 'That's not perspiration, son, that's sweat'? Who was it that left a suffering boy with tears of happiness welling in his eyes because he had exonerated himself in the eyes of the man whose good opinion meant so much to him? That was the real 'P. D.'

Introduced the "Specialist"

Percy Haughton introduced countless innovations into the game which he loved, played and coached so well. One of the first of them was the "specialist". Hardly had he begun the career that was to lead him to fame when he startled the football world with a dramatic inspiration that gave the University a victory over Yale. To have a specialist ready for the crucial moment in a game when he would be most needed was an unheard of innovation. But when Kennard was rushed into the Yale game in 1908 to kick the winning points through a goal from the field the football world sat up and took notice of the new strategy. A little later in the same game, when the Crimson was hard pressed, another specialist was sent to the rescue, and Henry Sprague literally kicked his team out of the impending shadow of defeat.

Now specialists are so common in football games that the spectators are merely interested in them because of the tense situations which make their entrance into the game necessary.

Began Harvard Quarterback System

Haughton's ideas of the duties of a quarterback were also novel. To him the quarterback was the "brain" of the team, and he did not propose to risk the quick, clear thinking of that brain by forcing the quarterback to carry the ball and get roughed up so badly in the scrimmages that he would be unable to direct his team successfully. Haughton's strategy, therefore, always aimed at the preservation of the quarterback's mental clarity. He preferred a lightweight whose brain was functioning every second to a big powerful man who was a good ball carrier, and so more easily tempted to run the risk of being badly shaken up.

Brusque Manner Inspired Team

"Haughton's brusque manner on and off the field during the football season was frequently misconstrued by those who were not intimate with him and his methods", says Mr. Hardwick. He gives another instance of the coach's seemingly hard-hearted manner when he was all absorbed in some problem or enterprise.

"I remember once, in my senior year, before a Princeton game, he had just finished talking to the team before going to the field. He had created an atmosphere of determination among the team he had molded us into a set fighting frame of mind, at which art he was a supreme master. We started out of the locker building, P. D. at the head. On the steps a freshman candidate for manager stepped up to Haughton with a message sent him from the field P D swung his arm, grabbed the astounded manager by the shoulder, roughly shoved him out of the path into a clump of shrubs. With a sharp 'Get out of the way, damn you,' he stopped, pointed at the Stadium 'Own it," he said.

"Out we dashed, with the one idea that that field belonged to us and no one else was going to boss it but ourselves, and that the President of the United States, the president of Harvard College, the members of the Princeton team or any other unfortunate individual that chanced to be about had better get out of the way if he valued his health. The freshman picked himself up dumb-founded, tears of humiliation in his eyes and hating Haughton. P. D. had had no intention of being mean or unkind, but nothing was to break into the background he had set for us, nothing detract from our line of thought. Later he looked up the boy, explained the situation, told him he was doing, his manager-ship job all right, and the boy was lett happy and holding P. D. in the same respect and admiration that we all felt for him willing to carry out unquestioning his slightest wish."

Mr. Hardwick summed up his feeling toward his old teacher in a significant fashion. "I came to Harvard placing Mr. Haughton on a pedestal. He was the idol of a boy's intense hero worship, I worked three years under that idol, and I left college even a greater disciple of, not 'Mr. Haughton', but my close friend 'P. D.'