Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-17

IaIb b4NchAfsLA4+ "N''+' ~ A'RsA@-~s
,og player when the referee was not sup
posed to be looking, was against the rules,
but the referee was nearly always blind.
and players were rarely disciplined.
Football is too good game TO be thus
ruined, and the representative men who
govern the destines Of tie sport have not
only been wise enough to declare for re-
form, but they have already entered upon
the work of eliminating unnecessary bru-
tally from the great college pastime. Pu-
gilists are all right in their place, but that
place is not in baseball, as the Corbett Incl
dent proved. and the same ideaapplies with
even more emphasis to football. There is
reason to believe, however, that the solons
who have beer chosen to change the rules
of the game will do their work so well that
ruffianism will be conspicuous by its absence
from the games of 1894.
The men designated by the University
Athletic club of New York to revise the
rules governing football are all ex-players
of national reputation. Foremost among
them is Walter Camp of Yale, the greatest
authority on the game in America. The
other members of the committee are DR.. w.
A. Brooks of Harvard, the famous coach of
the crimson elevens; Alexander Moffatt, the
noted punter and drop kickerof Princeton;
Paul j. Dashiell, the well known referee OF
Lehigh, and John c. Bell, the great Uni
versity of Pennsylvania half back. The
game will probably be made more open.
such dangerous mass plays as the flying
wedge will be dropped, there will be more
kicking, and it seems certain that the rules
will be so strict against smuggling that the
pugilistic football player will find his occu-
patton gone.
The recent death of Alfred II. Under, a
Harvard student who was killed while en-
gaging in friendly sparring bout with an
other student, has revived interest in the
discussion of the question whether more
men are killed playing football than in the
ring. Statistics show that last year the
ring had far the better of the argument. In
America there were eight men killed play
ing football and at least 100 more received
severe injuries. In the same time six men
were killed in prize fights, and few more
were severely injured, but in most battles
both victor and vanquished were practical
ly as good as new the following day
In England there was not single death
that resulted from prizefighting so far as
have been able to learn--and A. Conan
Doyle, the famous novelist, declares that he
never heard of but one fatal English fight
but during the eight months beginning in
September, 1892. and ending in April, 1898,
rs men died from injuries received in foot
ball games, and scores of others were very
badly hurt. During the season of 1891 and
1892 there were % fatal football accidents
ia England, and there were % names on the
Heath roll of the preceding season.
One thing must be borne in mind, how
over, and that is the fact that while many
thousands of men played football during
these years not more than 200 pugilists
met in the ring annually. From this point
of view it may be claimed with justice per-
haps that in proportion to the number of
men engaged football is no mere deadly
than the manly art.
In spite of these rather appalling statis-
tics football and boxing are not particular
ly dangerous when healthy, properly trained
men are pitted one against another. The
men who are killed are usually men who
possess some organic disease or who are
wholly unprepared by systematic training
for the work they are called upon to do.
OF the six pugilists killed in the United
States last year not tpne was even third
rate man. Emmett Burke, who was killed
in fight at Gloucester, n j., in October.
was laHely colored stable boy at the
Gloucester track. lie haH hardly recovered
from an attack of pneumonia, was wholly
unframed and was as amateurish pugil-