I made my way directly to the Y. M. C. A. gymnasium, then at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third Street.  Athletics had for me a greater attraction than ever before, and from that day I applied myself with increased enthusiasm to the work of the gymnasium.

The following autumn I entered St. John’s Military Academy at Manlius, N. Y., a short distance from my old home.  I was only seventeen years of age and weighed 217 pounds.

Former Adjutant General William Verbeck—­then Colonel Verbeck—­was Head Master.  Before I was fairly settled in my room, the Colonel had drafted me as a candidate for the football team.  I wanted to try for the team, and was as eager to make it as he evidently was to have me make it.  But I did not have any football togs, and the supply at the school did not contain any large enough.

So I had to have some built for me.  The day they arrived, much to my disappointment, I found the trousers were made of white canvas.  Their newness was appalling and I pictured myself in them with feelings of dismay.  I robbed them of their whiteness that night by mopping up a lot of mud with them behind the gymnasium.  When they had dried—­by morning—­they looked like a pair of real football trousers.

George Redington of Yale was our football coach.  He was full of contagious fire.  Redington seemed interested in me and gave me much individual coaching.  Colonel Verbeck matched him in love of the game.  He not only believed in athletics, but he played at end on the second team, and it was pretty difficult for the boys to get the best of him.  They made an unusual effort to put the Colonel out of the plays, but, try as hard as they might, he generally came out on top.  The result was a decided increase in the spirit of the game.

We had one of the best preparatory school teams in that locality, but owing to our distance from the larger preparatory schools, we were forced to play Syracuse, Hobart, Hamilton, Rochester, Colgate, and Cazenovia Seminary—­all of whom we defeated.  We also played against the Syracuse Athletic Association, whose team was composed of professional athletes as well as former college players.  Bert Hanson, who had been a great center at Yale, was one of this team.

[Illustration: 

H. Wallis Coxe Cochran Nessler Heffelfinger W. Winter Mills
Sanford Hartwell Morrison Graves Stillman
McCormick McClung L. T. Bliss
C. Bliss Hinkey Barbour T. Dyer

Old Yale heroes—­Lee McCLUNG’S team]

Recalling the men who played on our St. John’s team, I am confident that if all of them had gone to college, most of them would have made the Varsity.  In fact, some did.

It was decided that I should go to Lawrenceville School, en route to Princeton.  It was on the trip from Trenton to Lawrenceville, in the big stage coach loaded with boys, I got my first dose of homesickness.  The prospect of new surroundings made me yearn for St. John’s.