Throwback Thursday: Quotes From Pro Football: It's Ups and Downs

When Dr. Harry March published Pro Football: It's Ups and Downs in 1934 it was the history of professional football. The book established Dr. March as the authority on professional history for decades. He was born in New Franklin, Ohio in 1875 and grew up in Canton. He watched from the front row as pro football grew from the sandlots to the NFL. He was the Canton Bulldogs team doctor in 1906. He was part of the formation and running of the New York Giants in 1925. Not only was he a spectator of the early football days he was a part of it. Despite the first hand accounts Pro Football: It's Ups and Downs has some critics. More recent football analysis and research has found some inaccuracies in his recollections. Dr. March tapped John Brallier as the first professional football player. We now accept William "Pudge" Heffelfinger as the first. There's also questions concerning Dr. March's version of the Canton Bulldogs-Massilon Tigers betting scandal of 1906. Pro Football: It's Ups and Downs is a first hand account of the early days of professional football. It isn't researched so much as it's the observations of a man that saw the real thing. 10 people might see the same football game  and come away with 10 different versions of it. No greater authority than the author himself states in "The Last Play" of of his book:

"In later years may keener minds, younger hands and better and more observing eyes go over what is here written, to clarify, amend and add to it, that the next history may be more searching, more accurate and more entertaining!" -Dr, Harry March

Dr. March's book is a fantastic resource. It's also very entertaining. His humorous writing draws comparisons to the whimsical prose of Pro Football Researchers Association legend Bob Carroll. Pro Football: It's Ups and Downs is a fun read. There are quotes within and at the end of most chapters. Here are some of those quotes.

"A winner never quits. A quitter never wins."

"Losers count the first downs: winners point to the score."

"You learn to do by doing, and do best that which you do most often."

"A player is as good as his legs. Of course some brains are essential."

"A strong offense is the best defence-with reservations."

"It's a short trip home after victory-aches, pains, and bruises forgotten."

"The team which won't be beaten can't be beaten."

"When in doubt, kick."-Hagerty (Georgetown)

"College football is emotion largely; a pro game is motion."-Zuppke (Illinois)

"No game is better than the officiating."

"You can't carry the mail if you dally too much with the female."

"The smart team gets the breaks-the losing team counts first downs."

"Your merit is determined by your proximity to the ball; you can't recover fumbles ten yards away."-DeGrosso

"Some afternoon it will be wet and the field soggy. Practice sometimes with a wet and soggy ball."

"You can't make touchdowns across the side lines."

"Sports writers may make you a hero today and a goat tomorrow; don't care what they say so long as they spell your name right-they are generally just."

"Tis better to have passed and lost, than never to have passed at all."

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That last one seems more appropriate in today's game than the one played in Dr. March's day. Although his Giants did have Benny Friedman flinging the pea on some of those days.