AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1600, 6 February 1906, Page 6

AMERICAN FOOTBALL.

| AS PLAYED liV THE COLLEGES.

Master Uoosrwlt, having bud bi« no*'* broken, Mi' Koosevelt has with presidential ami parental eloquence denounced American football as brutal, and C olumbia luiversity hus decid«-d to slop such a cripple making curticu--111 lil.

l ; roni such portentous signs a very pretty agitation against football seem* 1 to bo shaping ill tin- .States, but it is doubtful if the movement will go far. ' Kven the thunder from White House did not prevent 10,(MX) of America's elite, which included judges. Senators, millionaires, and society damsels. from shouting themselves hoarse at the Vale-Harvard, which for stivnuousn.-s is the apotheosis of the American game. And even with the casuality list be fore one's startled eyes it would in reality be unfair to judge American football from the English standard. To begin with, not even an Irish international could survive ten minutes at the American yunie. -At this the British player may turn up a scornful ! lip, but brief experience of the Auicii | can scrum would convince one of the ' tact. The whole system of American \ sport is utterly different to a Urit.sh | idea. The American loves a name t characteristic of his nation's hurricniiei I like and pitiless energy. In Knglund, | the football season amble* along for I live months. In the States it is but •of six weeks' duration. Anil that is the very limit of human endurance. It is the college teams, of course, ] which count, and the training of them j is a vast financial undertaking, coup , i led with the severest physical conditions that man lias yet devised for sport. Yale; for instance, spend-Cl*-MH;{> on the training of its football team, of which Ij i sum goes l<» the head coach alone. lie is an athlete of world-wide renown. His collosHill salary, of course, makes him a professional, but he lose* no social caste from this. Things are different in* America. *l?ndcr tlie head coach are second I coaches. Kacli man in the team, in deed, has his own coach and his own trainer, who never leave him. On the first day of the season a hundred picked men are trotted round the field in squads. They are trotted round the Ji.-ld five or six times, and then have (o hurl themselves on to the grass ami roll over. Afterward* they are taken to the "trainin • house" aiid massaged ; but in spite of this they can hardly move ihe follow in*: day. All the same, they have to face il< "dummv." Thi< is a *nnd bne tli • size and weight of a hca\ \ man. which is suspended from what loo! very much like the bar of a yo;-l First the men have to run, and. mrnpiii" from a set taki-oIT. hurt! through the air. and "\neM." tlie "dummy." A pleasant arraneeincn' * >f iron on tin* top of the "dummy," which is hare! w}n-n one conies' in contact with it, effectively inculcates the icold n i rinciple of ''tackling low." Hruised and battered, the nieii ar«(rotted back to the field, where i "code numbers or arrangements of h-t ( ters to ex.-rcise," and this. \< uhej-e ' (juiekness <,f brain come- in. Tie game is controlled b\ one of (h<- l»ac). players, who. in«lea<! of shouting a plain-spoken order which ihe o'l> side could understand, yells what rounds like a teleohoni- call. All o\<*r the field the coaches are yelling little stjuads of men. And woe unto the man wlio is not up in his "book." At the table the trainers watch th. im-tt as cats watch mice. They alter the diet of the nun with scientific

eaiv, even iuirLllinLT with ounees. Tin' strain is awful- all the mole awl'ul It, eaii.-ie plavini; for (lie team is no n ruse fur fullinir 1 >.-hin<l with hool: work. At Harvard there is an evami nation .-wry si\ werks, and the man who fails to yet I;iI per eent. of mnrk> tfoes Imrk to what is railed the "pro hatioiiatv stai.*". 1 , and so aulomuti rally is knocknl out of tlir ti'am. \Mn-ii tin' trial iiaims are over. uii'i tin' team lims up for tin' nmteli, tin' Ml.'ll arc |ir"tiy hard to kill. Otherwise till' (lentil rate would In- higher. Tie men are as liaril as pri/e-liehters. Their iiiiiseli's are so trained that i. blow which would slay an average man simply bounces u(T them. N,,i tlmf hittiliL' is officially nllownl. I lioiiirh til,, tennis number onh

eleven men, I lie theory uiid.'rlviiitr the American muiie is tl„. l{„ l; l,v I l»at is ai! «»m« ca'i sn>* of it. According Itlii< season's rules* thiir «iv six ta»*n in i)u> <4 )iin'." ami fonr ulnyciN nt th.- l m ok of tlhin. Uhcii tln-v line up, lln> mni all iToiM-h liKc sprinters about h> run. And tii'-y crom-li Hose as thev rai> ir« (, to the trnmin! all ihrouuli \\ u . LTMne. It is a Mfe sa\ in-r p,-,,_,,j; oti I he *V. ntre" who lias won the toeholds (lie Uall Ih-lwecn Ilis let*>. Tliei* he throws it ihronoh then, to the nwiii I)'him! hint. I'he nuiti ; •\a\, in tl in r. inimiti- an avalanHie of lieir.. huinatiily 4 !»j draLl r e<l lithi down, H.il'e iil'e f-'\\ 'litis and little Mi- taekiintr is ton nueirino. to.» de nlly. I in- !}«•!«I i< diviil. il ini.. dieip. e;irh h\e Ml'einhN ;» team ('an push and *dru</ s.de uuli the ] m il jive forward. thev ai'e Well. !; a man n.ii.is you, you e U n 1.1 liim run his fare against your onm palm al the end of a stilily ouSlret •'lied arm. Only the a>-toiindiiiL' mils eles Oil the lir.clv of |,is n.-rk run iiitn ii'oni a broken spine. Sometimes when the tare arrive* it Und-* the h;ind el«-nehed and some driving p<j\s,-r |>ehind it. Of if a man i< known i,, huv«» a hurt ' shoulder, it (he et>rree| tliilej to de \'ole every elTort to niakitii; tlial shoidfler v\ors.-. -\L r ain, if a man hus had his head battered, it N a jjood tlnnu id batter it more. This is ji inirly ea<y tliiny for a ki.ee to <lo in a "serum." On the lines wait the sirelrhrr par ti«s. the doetors. and the -ulislitutes. A team <an pla\ a ]>unfh*e<l s. but it is reckoned not to pnj. A | suiiMitute is nearly always u lonj; Wity ! Mutid a man in the team, and it i- ! '■ommoidv h'li! thai n tenm man ''an play better when half dfnd than it | s t' ull• wholly ulive, Meanwhile the Senators, the <-oii-'rres-n'ra, tlm indires, the millionairos. and the yirls with Hiiche<l faces, di l ord- red hair, and in Ih< ir veh.' nient haudv ( have \riled 1 !\oniPel\. l»rettv Well into u Btalft of C(»lla| >e. In. the American breast (he spirit is sirontr. An<l the "Hieerine Se<-li«,ns" keep thai soiiit at f,. V( . r heat. These sertioris," hundreds strung, are |m| b\ ni'-n with megaphones.