Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1893-11-09

Waters, Harvard. King, Princeton.
THE PADDED PANTS OF FOOTBALL PLAYERS.
able enough, but AS the game became
rougher and rougher the players began to
devise costumes that would protect their
bodies. The result is that the PLAYER Of to-
day is a very well padded young man, and
this fact explains why comparatively so
few men are hurt when "A dozen burly
young colleGians form pyramid of legs,
arms and writhing bodies on top of them
and the oblOng ball
Some critic has shown his contempt for
two words often abbreviated by clothiers
and restaurant keepers by framing the SEN
tence, Gents wears pants" He might
have applied the same statement to foot
ball players. They do not wear trou-
sers, but pants, fearfully and wonderfully
made and padded like "a parlor car seat.
They are of heavy white canvas and so
thickly quilted Mt the knees and hips that
those portions of the players anatomy are
practically armOr clad. As will be seen by
glance at the accompanying illustrations
showing the bifurcated garments worn by
Captain Waters of Harvard and ext Captain
King, PrincetOn's star player, the pants are
not remarkable for their beauty. Kings
bag as though the young Tiger were at
tliCtCd with enormous corns on his knees,
and those worn by Waters suggest eXtraor-
binary deformities.
Another valuable leg protector is the
shin guard borrowed from cricketers and
used by players on the rush line. 1t is
made of canvas or leather, buckles around
the leg between the knee and ankle and
saves the sensitive shins of the players from
the painful effect of many vicious or I'M
intentional kick.
The bane OF many an ambitious football
player existence is his nose, and as he de
sires to Use ii years after his football days,
he naturally desires to keep it in "A fair
state of preservation. He is very careful
of it, but despite this fact it persists in oc-
casionally getting bruised. sprained or
broken. The result is that many II player
whose nose is either weak constitutionally
or by reason of past adventures wears n
nose mask of rubber, which while it can
not be truthfully said TO add materially to
his beauty, effectively protects his nasal
appendage and teeth.
Another organ that causes football play
ers great deal of trouble is the ear 1t
cannot be padded like leg or masked like
a nose, because such procedure would in
terfere with hearing the captain orders.
The consequence is that, while few players
lose their heads during the crash of col
liding rush lines, they now and then come
perilously near to losing their ears Some
of them who have unusually generous and
ambitious looking ears that persist in lOp-
ping outward at the top like the sides of a
letter tie them down with bandages so
that, while the ear is lassoed, corralled and
removed from the Vaccinations of the
madding crowd, the players hearing is not
obstructed. This arrangement is not par
ticularly satisfactory, and in fact no device
has yet been invented that will fill this long
felt want.
There are many other noticeable differ
ences in personal appearance between the
elevens of today and those of dozen years
ago. The player of 1880 had reached the
canvas jacket stage, but his legs were COW