The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-01

A FOOTBALL PLAYERS GROWING GLORY.
sible in these days than good football
player with Il closely cropped caput Gus
tom has decreed that this must be so, and
it is.
Custom has also decreed that, although
hair on the head is eminently proper, all
hair on the face must 90. Thus it is that
one Of the laws OF football, as interchangeable
as the laws OF the Modes and Persians. is to
the effect that mo whiskers need apply"
And they never do. If freshman who is
ambitious to get on his class eleven or the
varsity team has blocked out brace of
barely discernible burnsides, he gives them
last, fond, despairing look in the mirror,
herceiy strops his razor to subdue his pain,
and an instant later the block system is no
more. y struggling if unworthy mus.
tache meets no kinder fate. The young
football warrior may be full of strange
-oaths as he seeks the bubble reputation,
but he is never, no, never, bearded like q
pard.
There is method, however, in all this ap-
parent madness, but some phases of it will
persist in remaining inexplicable to the Law
mind. The II Sutherland brothers refuse
to grow whiskers for fear some member Of
the opposing Sutherland aggregation may
seize them, pull them out or otherwise NAL
treat them in scrimmage. The same fear
"ON'N SCcu " tTRue HHulIlSD long
hair, which would be more luXuriant than
budding whiskers and an easy prey for an
enemy's grip, but it does not. The foot
ball star is unmndful of little hair pull
ing during touchdown, but he draws the
line Mt whiskers.
Extended and presumably bitter expert
ence has proved to the sages who rule the
destinies of football, however that long
hair is IL decided protection in time of need
lit prevents Il player from taking cold dur
ing November games; it is as good as Il big
fur cap with old fashioned ear tabs, and
best of all it forms protective mat OH top
of the head that nothing less powerful than
piledrver will make Il dent in. A good
thick head of hair is consequently as effect
i've in keeping together n football player's
brains as the steel helmet of Richard the
Lion flearted's day. In this fact is to be
found the true secret of the long hair craze
in FOOTBALL and many young collegian
after the ball has escaped broken head,
owing to the protection afforded by his
hirsute covering.
The season is young yet, but Captain
Ilinkey of Yale already has head like o
budding brushheap and in envied by Cap
talns Trenchard of Princeton and Waters
OF Harvard, who are only looking trifle
shaggy about the ears and neck On the
Pacific coast, where the kickers have been
practicing on the gridiron for many weeks
and where the glorious climate is con-
ducivc to extravagant growth on the part
of nearly everything, the various football
teams are said to closely resemble punches
of chrysanthemums after gale
The most important football organiza-
ton on this side of the Atlantic ocean
is the Intercollegiate association, composed
of Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsyl-
vania and Wesleyan, but although it claims
to decide the college championship of Amer
lea it can hardly be said to do SO, for the
reason that Harvard, Cornell and other
strong colleges are not represented in the
annual games.
To remedy this incongruity there is talk
of the formation of six club intercollegiate
football league, including Yale, Harvard,
Princeton, University of Pennsylvania,