All coaches demand obedience from their players. All orders are to be followed. Coach Earl “Red” Blaik of Army always maintained strict discipline.
In one game Army was running up the score against an inexperienced opponent. Blaik did not believe in humiliating a team. So he sent in his third squad with orders to take it easy.
But the opposition could do nothing right that day. Soon one of its players fumbled. A West Point guard scooped up the loose ball and ran toward the goal unopposed. Suddenly he remembered coach Blaik’s orders. He stopped in his tracks, looked fearfully at Blaik standing near the bench, and set the ball on the 1-yard line.
From Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
Red Blaik mentored a ton of legendary coaches:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Blaik
That reminds me of the time Jim Marshall recovered a fumble and ran it all the way into the end zone — but didn’t score a TD, even though there wasn’t a flag in the play.
He ran it into his own end zone, and gave up a safety.
You can see it on Strange But True Football Stories (hosted by Vincent Price):
The legendary “Purple People Eater” era–that safety happened a dozen years before I was even born, but as soon as I read “Jim Marshall” and “safety” I knew which play you meant…
Just like Anderson’s “The Kick,” it’s a moment every Vikes fan knows & aches a bit over😉🙃🥴
https://www.google.com/search?q=gary+anderson+%22the+kick%22&oq=gary+anderson+%22the+kick%22&aqs=chrome..69i57.11025j0j7&client=ms-android-verizon&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8