FOOTBALL IN AMERICA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18283, 29 December 1933, Page 2

FOOTBALL IN AMERICA

TOLL OF PLAYERS 32 KILLED IN 10 WEEKS NEW YORK, Nov. 14. So rough has been the present American football season that in the first 10 weeks 32 players have been killed. Now, however, the death-roll has been extended to the ranks of spectators. Jay Towner, 23, who had attended an important game at Princeton University on Saturday, was found dead during the week-end in a secluded part of the college grounds. He had sustained internal haemorrhage, bruises on the face, two broken wrists, and a severe rupture.

The police believe that in the pandemonium after the game Towner was knocked down in the crowd, trampled on and crushed against an exit gate.

Spectators probably began to carry him to hospital, but became afraid lest they should bo involved when they found he was dead, and abandoned the body. THE CALLOUS COACH The 1933 season will very likely he one of the worst, ever recorded. Last year 38 players and the year before 50 were killed. No record is kept of the many serious injuries received. A campaign has already been started to “clean up” American football, arid more tightening up will probably follow this s<.tison’s fatalities. But. the outlook is not; very hopeful when a college coach can make the reply given to me to-dnv. When I consulted him about tillis season’s 52 deaths, he said: “That’s always the way before the boys toughen up.”