Same Sweater Worn By Morris at Football Contests Since First Game as Announcer--Former Member of State Senate

"Football is the only major sport that does not have the ominous cloud of suspicion hanging over it when played by college teams," declared Eddie Morris(formally installed as a member of the Class of 1901 by the Associated Harvard Clubs of the World), former member of the Massachusetts Senate and "The Eye" at all football games in the Stadium.

"I have just completed my 28th year as announcer at Soldiers Field. That means that I started my announcing in 1904, the year following the baptism of the Stadium, when Dartmouth came down and gave us a damn good licking. Having never missed a game in the Stadium in that period, I have seen more close-up Harvard football than any other living individual. The Crimson sweater that I wear at each game is the same one that I put on for my first game in 1904.

"In the early 1900's the game was played in a much different manner than now. During that period it was a contest of Bone-crushing, flying wedge and revolving plays. A redeeming feature of the sport is that the man of ordinary build has become an active participant in the game along with the men of might who played the game when it was very new.

"Up to the advent of the forward pass, the success of a team depended entirely upon brute force. The elimination of the very dangerous plays has made the game safer for the participant and more exciting and spectacular for the onlookers. This new are of the sport has resulted in its gaining the greatest popularity to come to any one sporting event.

"To consider the causes for its popularity it seems to me that the season of the year is largely instrumental. What is more refreshing than to spend a part of a day in the most glorious season of the year, indulging in the activities of an enthusiastic spectator at a college football classic? I have seen people in the audience at the Stadium aroused almost to a point of participation in the slashing plays that they see executed before them.

"The game is a dose of tonic for the people that have spent their week within the four walls of office or study. Even playful old ladies are susceptible to this dose of medicine that is football. Many a good derby has been crushed under their antics of new spirit. There is nothing more interesting than the milling mob on the gridiron at the close of a game. This whole process is one of mob spirit being ventilated.

"A second salient factory in the spirited enthusiasm in football is the fact that it has never come under the finger of suspicion. Never have we heard of a college football game being "in the bag." The sport will ever remain popular just so long as the rules committee forces the employment of officials that are interested enough in the game and will do nothing to detract from its popularity by a questionable decision.

"The final point is, that these young men are giving everything they have in effort and energy; taking severe physical punishment, which comes of necessity in any game of physical contact. They have no thought of any honor of glory for themselves but for whatever prestige or honor that may come to the instituput forth in winning a football game."