The record-union., 1892-11-21
FOOTBALL TRAINING.
More Popular Than Dissipation at
College.
The First Two Months a Critical
Period With the Young Man
just Entering.

just EnIefluss
On entering college young man finds
that the football practice Of the first two
months is considered more popular than
dissipation. That period between Octo-
ber and Christmas is a critical one for
him, and if he joins the training squad he
receives an impetus in the right direction
that is enough to keep him temperate in
his habits through his entire course.
Probably he has not the benefit or
pleasure of anyOne's acquaintance, but
he knows that he is wanted, with all
others, on the football team, and q notice
to that effect posted on the college trees,
possibly seconded by his longing to be
one of the team itself, induces him to go
out and try"
On the field the men are beginning at
the beginning. -Four or five hundred
students are watching hundred Of their
classmates taking their first lessons, and
the new candidate is at once set TO work
"talling on the ball' with the rest. 1t is
nothing more difficult than to drop on a
rolling ball OF leather: but to the neo-
phyte, and an awkward one at that, the
jumping into the air and landing on
ones head in the grass before several
hundred young men IS anything but
easy. 1t is an even chance that he will
miss the play and sprawl ungracefully ON
the turf, much to the amusement of the
spectators, while the ball rolls calmly on
its way.
Some men give it up at this stage of the
game. They don't propose to come to
college to amuse a pack OF idiots" but
our friend scrambles after the ball,
throws off other men trying for 1t and
eventually secures possession Of it, and
probably within a minute or two the cap
tain Of the team asks him his name, and
having pointed out where the mistake
was made, tells him that-his is the right
spirit and that he must try it again.
From that time on until the end of No
vember il is a series of hard-fought bat
ties with HIM. Never quite sure whether
he is on the team, he is always striving
to do better. lie practices necessarily,
and when he is not on the field it is no
uncommon thing to find him in his room
rushing at the wall with ball under one
arm and the other arm stretched out be-
fore him, for if he can hit the wall with
his outstretched palm and bound away
without bending the arm he can, 50 he
wisely argues, maintain the straight
ARM against an adversary on the field.
Many time has the carewOrn face of the
Iandlady appeared in the doorway to
know ''what on earth was the matter,'
and OH being told that il was only football
practice, has gone away muttering that
that game would be the death OF her if it
wasn't of her house"
At the end of the week the daily games
begin, and ii the poor fellow was green at
the first principles, he finds much more
to learn now. An old hand inStinctively
knows how to fall when lie is tackled,
but the beginner is sure to scrape OFF part
of his cheek, or bend all the fingers Of his
hand the wrong way in trying TO stop his
fall, and though his appearance from a
sporting point of view IS no doubt much
enhanced thereby, his own mother would
scarcely know him afterward. From such
beginnings as these it is that the epithet
Of brutal has grown around the fair name
Of Rugby football. This is largely due
to the stirring reports in the newspapers
OF pugillSClc games, but even at its black
est the game is not so hard to fight as
many another that the boy will have to
encounter. How many wise parents
there are in this world who believe that
they are able to bring up their children
to be worthy men by defending them
from all kinds Of scratches and danger of
scatches.
With these first bruises, and the stiff
ness that always comes at the beginning
of the season, the new boy gets his bap-
tism of fire, which teaches him manly
self-respect for his own good qualities,
and appreciation Of similar traits in the
character of others. He learns to watch
for himself, to be mis- own guard, to use
his head quickly in suddenly presented
situations. To be sure, he has a hard
time each afternoon with his stiffness and
his aches; it is disagreeable to put on a
heavy suit wet with yesterdays mud; it
is uncomfortable to go out in the rain and
dive into a puddle OF water 10 secure the
hall tfFofr 1rgtaf I,rrfi fS,vrr
minutes his blood is racing through his
veins, and with the stirring play, that he
learns to love 50 well, all thought OF stiff
ness, all tastidiousness, is soon gone, and
the determination not to mutf this ball,
not to let that man by, brings out as fine
a spirit as you can find in mankind, and
bruises and wet clothes and mud are
nothing compared with this.
But the crowning joy of our young
friends career up to this time is when the
Captain comes to him some fine day and
bids him make arrangements to leave his
clearinghouse and join himself and the
older men at the training table. This
means a place on the team. if all goes
we'll, or at the very least a place among
the substitutes, and it means all the work
and all the honor and all the 10y that at
taches to membership of the varsity
eleven.
This training table" arrangement is a
very serious matter. 1t means, in the
first place, that each night, after the davis
practice, and the bath that follows, he is
to be examined by the doctor Of the team
to see if he is hurt in any way, or if he
has drawn too heavily on his strength
and needs certain kinds of food and
drink. 1t means also that he becomes a
machine, as far rs his daily habits are
concerned, which. by the way, is prob
ably rather a shock, il he is made Of the
same stuff as the average college man.
The twenty or more candidates, of whom
he has now become one, are required to
rise at a certain hour, and meet at s in the
morning. They take a short walk in the
bracing air before breakfast, and end up
at the training table, where the cloth is
spread with simple food, cooked as well
as the authorities that be can have it
cooked. Anything that stimulates falsely
is omitted. Anything that is likely to in
jure the digestion is, Tor a similar reason.
omitted; and, therefore, there is no fried