VERY VIOLENT FOOTBALL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16662, 16 February 1925, Page 10

VERY VIOLENT FOOTBALL.

THE AMERICAN AVERSION OF RUGBY. Football as it is played and staged in the United States offers an alluring theme to the social philosopher. Its popularity is phenomenal. From a sport it has developed in recent years into a cult in which Americans, lacking those occasions of pomp and ancient ceremonial which enrich the lives of Europeans, find a vigorous outlet for their emotionalism and their love of pageantry. The game is one of power, speed, and strategy. Only college youths of the strongest physique can hope to excel in it; for it is waged with a ferocity that would amaze the lovers of Rugby, from which it. is derived. Its basis is the man-to-man shock. But the fatalities which marred ils earlier phases have led to its being “opened up” by the forward pass. Thus occasional long runs and spectacular drop kicks over the goalposts from prodigious distances —sometimes from the 65-yards line — now form its most thrilling features. But lineplunging still monopolises most of the four periods of fifteen minutes; and even now many delays occur while the surgeons who are always in attendance superintend the removal of injured players from the field. The line-up is formed by seven men on each side —two guards, right and left, two tackles, a centre, and two ends. They confront, each other crouching over a yard-wide gap. Behind them are a quarter-back, two half-backs, and a full-back.

The players are trained like prizefighters. Like soldiers preparing for bayonet work in the trenches, they practise tackling on life-sized dummies rapidly moving on wires, at which they catapult their bodies. And in the. spirit of staff officers they attend lectures and blackboard demonstrations, in which coaches, who are paid fabulous salaries, deal with the strategic, possibilities of the game. Hosts of reserve players, of course, accompany the team; for substitutes may be introduced at any time, -even for a. few moments, in order that some highly specialised feat, may he executed. All of them are armoured—with nose guards, leather helmets, shoulder, chest, and thigh pads—as elaborately as knights in the days of chivalry. CRIMSON AND BLUE, Yet to the outside observer the contests and the contestants are less fascinating than the vast, throngs who watch them. Glance for a moment at the new amphitheatre at. Baltimore —one of a dozen or more of similar mammoth structures erected within the past year in different centres of the country. Its numbered seats are occupied by 60,000 men and women cheering madly as the Army and Navy teams take their places on the “ gridiron “ oi football field. Bands play. The cadets of West Point and those of Annapolis march in intricate formations, ceremoniously greeting their opponents, while the mascots of the rival teams —the Army mule and the Navy goat —arc paraded down the side lines.

Next take a bird’s : cye view of the grout bowl at Yale, where an equally classic contest is being waged between the Universities of Yale and Harvard. It is raining in torrents. The ground is covered with an inch or more of water. The ball almost floats. Yet, throughout the prolonged cloudburst 80,000 men and women sit on in ecstatic exposure to the drenching elements.

If the storm had not raged the scene would have been brilliant and colorful, but scarcely less amazing —the Harvard half of the amphitheatre aflame with crimson dresses, hats, ties, and banners, the Yale half an undulating sea of blue with all the women wearing violets. And, in tho middle seats, solid phalanxes of cheerers, perhaps each 10,000 strong, with cheer leaders (chosen by competition from the captains of athletics for their dexterity in directing mass applause bv dint of lightning dauce steps and vigorous and appropriate arm gestures, executed on tho side lines throughout the match). They call for long- cheers or short cheers as seems most fit at tho moment; and when their team is in desperate straits they mobilise their respective hands, which play tho university anthems. VAST REVENUE.

Men and women weep with dismay or shout in ecstasy. And ever and anon Yale thunders forth its staccato yell adapted from the Greek chorus in the Frogs of Aristophanes—“'Brek A., Kok, Kelt; Coax, Coax, Hiuh; Vale Yale Yale,” to which Har-

vard replies with an equally hairraising shout, singing:— Against the line of crimson They can't, prevail. Three cheers for Harvard, To Hell with Yale. Statistics tell us that, within the past ten weeks 12,000,000 people attended games similar to these in different parts of the country. They paid an average of 10s for their seats, though the sale of tickets is confined to the members and alumni of each university; and they thus contributed to the coffers of college football the incredible sum of £6,000,000. This vast revenue is expended in the equipment and maintenance of every other form of college sport, which is thus endowed on an unprecedented scale of magnificence.