How 11 Men Of Iron Flattened Harvard, Yale And Dartmouth

Brown University's Coach De Ormond (Tuss) McLaughry was a fairly unpredictable fellow. As football coach at Amherst, before he came to Brown, he had effectively thumbed his nose at Princeton's famed Coach Bill Roper when the arrogant Roper decided to play his second team against Tuss's boys, since they were so obviously minor league. McLaughry countered the gesture by fielding his second team.

But not even unpredictable Tuss McLaughry could have planned the endurance contest that marked the Brown University season of 1926 (Tuss's first) when 11, count 'em, 11 Bruins defeated Yale and Dartmouth on successive Saturdays and played all but the last two minutes in a victory against Harvard two Saturdays later without a single substitution.

These were the "Iron Men," as they soon came to be known:

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

Even for its time, the accomplishment of these 11 men was considered heroic; taken in light of present-day platooning, it has to be evidence that they don't make football players like they used to.

Brown's men, as their playing weights indicate, were not particularly big, nor had their season up to the Yale game been more than a moderate success. McLaughry had started it with a squad of about 35, and the start was rather flat. Tuss used a mixed lineup and substituted at all positions as the season got under way against four minor opponents, but the performances were spotty and not such as to impress Brown backers.

"Except for a few positions," Tuss said, "no one was a sure regular and we were still in the experimental stage."

In the week before the Yale game McLaughry considered several positions "still wide open" and, additionally, there were problems concerning some of his Iron Men-to-be. Randall, the quarterback, had been bruised in the previous week's game, and Farber, the sophomore guard, was in uniform but had missed two weeks' practice because of injuries. Each might be unavailable at game time.

On Thursday, Paul Hodge, the right tackle, was called to the bedside of his ailing mother in Baltimore. And Orland Smith, the biggest and best lineman, was always a worry. Smith earned his way by spending seven nights a week on call as an ambulance driver at City Hospital, and a couple of busy nights in a row could leave him weak. To offset such dangers, McLaughry fed his players a pint of milk after each practice.

In his stated pregame plan McLaughry intended to start Randall, if ready, at quarterback, then replace him with Frank Eisenberg. Eisenberg would watch from the bench during the first period, then put his observations to work in the second quarter. At a pregame rally Tuss told the throng: "A team is no stronger than its reserve material."