Later in the afternoon he again looked towards the lower end of the field and saw that the grass-cutters were lining up for a scrimmage among themselves, using that part of the field, which was behind the goal post, so he dismissed the squad with which he had been working and went down to see what the boy he had noticed early in the afternoon really looked like.  When he arrived he soon found the boy he was looking for.  He was playing left end and Mike immediately noticed that he had his right leg extended perfectly straight behind him.  Stopping the play, Mike went over to the fellow and slapping him on the back said: 

“Don’t keep that right leg stiff behind you like that.  Pull it up under you.  Bend it at the knee so you can get a good start.”

With a sad expression on his face, and tears almost in his eyes, the boy turned to Mike and said: 

“Coach, that damn thing won’t bend.  It’s wood.”

Vonalbalde Gammon, one of the few players who met his death in an intercollegiate game, lived at Rome, Georgia, and entered the University of Georgia in 1896.  He made the team his first year, playing quarterback on the eleven which was coached by Pop Warner and which won the Southern championship.  He received the injury which caused his death in the Georgia-Virginia game, played in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 30th, 1897.  He was a fine fellow personally and one of the most popular men at the University.  As a football player, he was an excellent punter, a good plunger, and a strong defensive man.  On account of his kicking and plunging ability he was moved to fullback in his second year.

In the Virginia game he backed up the line on the defense.  All that afternoon he worked like a Trojan to hold in check the powerful masses Virginia had been driving at the tackles.  Early in the second half Von dove in and stopped a mass aimed at Georgia’s right tackle, but when the mass was untangled, he was unable to get up.  An examination showed that he was badly hurt.  In a minute or two, however, he revived and was set on his feet and was being taken from the field by Coach McCarthy, when Captain Kent, thinking that he was not too badly hurt to continue in the game, said to him: 

“Von, you are not going to give up, are you?”

“No, Bill,” he replied, “I’ve got too much Georgia grit for that.”

These were his last words, for upon reaching the side lines he lapsed into unconsciousness and died at two o’clock the next morning.

Gammon’s death ended the football season that year at the University.  It also came very near ending football in the State of Georgia, as the Legislature was in session, and immediately passed a bill prohibiting the playing of the game in the State.

However, Mrs. Gammon—­Von’s mother—­made a strong, earnest and personal appeal to Governor Atkinson to veto the bill, which he did.

Had it not been for Mrs. Gammon, football would certainly have been abolished in the State of Georgia by an act of the Legislature of 1897.