The morning call., 1894-04-01
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
- CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY.


STOCKTON STREET, SAN FRANCISCO
To the Editor Of the Morning CoLI-DEAR
SIR: / iu last Sundays CALL an article
on football purporIng to b. written by a
prominent assnciatfon player. l trust you
will allow me TO correct one or two misstate-
ments that were maze by him about Rugby
football: In the first place, he compares the
various forms of football with the association
game ana attempts To iDlure the other games
q: by-aDusing them.
:. Comparisons are odious at any time. aud this
comparison is rank-smelling torhe nostrs OF
many football men, especially those who. like
myself, have played both games
!. ''Association" football Is the easest-earned
game thai Know. Its history shows it was es-
Sentially the game OF The village green, whence
il sprang INTO an organized game, with rules.
Ii is an excellent game. we all KNOW. for prov
ing bob speed and endurance. Willie its fast
and open. play makes IL very interesting aud
exciting for spectators.
Unfortunately, however. professionalism ha.
taken a strong hold upon association
football, and Rugby football is STILL
: thank goodness; strictly amateur sport. With
professionalism comes abundant rough play
and the true ZeSt. that anna eurism infuses into
every sport is lost directly that sport comes In
contact with the sordid element,
Every true sportsman deplores this debasng
of sport more or less. and recognizes how dan
gerous the entertainments of professionalism
are and endeaVOrs to prevent them.
Rugby football is fOstered IN Great Britain al
most entirely by The public schools. AssOciai ion
largely by The public schools, and as | have
latter source comes The professionalism.
With regard to the relative danger of assoc
citation and Rugby games Rugby game on a
hard ground may be liable 10 produce acct
denfs but there Is no need 10 turn ones eyes I'D
affectedly and compare IL with association foot
ball. winch produces the most severe form of
injury viz. kicks in the stomach. which are OF
freGIIelt occurrence In association games and
seldom known in Rugby football, but what OF
that?
When sport becomes entirely free from dan
ger of personal injury spOTtsmen will have to
return to that fri nd of their early youth the
miikman, for their succoT aud refIeshment of
their faced persons.
All true sportsmen will agree when saw that
this would indeed be serious. The writer
sneaks of the pushing that is allowed in The
Rugby game; he forgets the effect OF the
charge a heavy man of say some 160 or 40
pounds is allowed 10 make under association
rules. d.
Other evils that he speaks OF as allowed by
Rugby rules, hacking, pounding whatever that
may be- and fighting are not allowed by the
Rugby rules with which he should be better
acquainted before he rushes into print.
have taken on myself o answer this attack
not on behaf Of Rugby football, which needs
as little defense as the association, but on be-
half of tue sportsmansblp, 10 the spirit of
which this genIleman'S letter was not written.
j trust IL was in haste and that lie will from
now amend his ways and learn TO love sport for
sports sake and let well alone. Yours very
truly, E. ID. CARPMALL, q
Late Hon. Sec. California Rugby Union.