The Gridley baseball nine had played fifty-four games with other high school teams in the same period, and had met defeat but three times in the four years.
Athletics, at this school, were not overdone, but were carried on with a fine insistence and a dogged determination.

Up to date, however, despite the fine work of their boys, the citizens of the town had been somewhat grudging about affording money for training athletic teams.

What the boys had won on the fields of sport they had accomplished more without public encouragement than with it.
It was now October.

Dick Prescott and his five closest friends were all freshmen.

They had been in the school only long enough to become accustomed to the routine of work and study.