Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-14
FOOT BALL IN SAFETY
Winter Schedule of the National
Association Completed.
PRINCETON HAS TAKEN UP THE GAME
Skill in Using the Feet the I'M
portant Factor.
GOOD SPORT FOR WINTER

Foot ball, as played under the associa-
ton rules, has gaiEed firm foothold in
America, and its supporters are constantly
increasing. In fact, 1t is not rare for warm
admirers of the game as played by the
colleges and athletic clubs to become even
more ardent supporters of the association
game after seeing it played once by two
skillful teams. The association game is
what the older generation is more familiar
with than the present generally adopted
game. 1t wasn't known as association foot
ball in those days. 1t was simply foot ball.
There was no tackling, no running with the
ball. no V-shaped nor flying wedges, 70
struggling, tangled heaps of players. The
ball was kicked, not carried and sur
prising degree of skill was developed In
directing the ball across the field. And the
SIDES were not restricted to eleven. Why,
fifty or Seventy-ffve or a hundred on side
was no uncommon occurrence. Yet few
players were injured. No long courses of
preparatory training were necessary. In
the old days boys turned naturally to foot
ball In the fall as soon as the weather be-
came too cold for base ball, and no special
course was considered necessary.
Wen. the association game embraces all
the good features of tie old American
game, although it Is designated by a name
given 1t in England. The game is really
the result of a protest made some twenty
CT thirty years ago in England against the
brutality and roughness then so prevalent
IN the Rugby game. A number of English
and Scotch clubs met and formed an asso-
citation for the purpose of promoting and
encouraging a sport free from such OBJ
oectionable features. Foot ball under asso-
citation rules was the offspring Of their de-
nberat1ons The evolution of the game has
oeen gradual, changes being made from
year to year until the association foot ball
or today is as safe as any manly sport can
be made.
1t will be remembered that an attempt
was made by several base ball magnates
to play Series of professional foot ball
games on the base ball fields in the eastern
cities last fall, but that the attempt was
given up. Baltimore's team was so far
superior to the others that interest was
killed in the other cities
The Baltimore Sun of a receat date saws
of this attempt:
That the managers abandoned this sport
pelore 1t had had fair trial is to be re-
GREETED, for it did not live long enough to
be copied by students and athletic clubs.
had 1t been taken up by the amateurs it
prepaoie that there would have been
fewer broken bones to grieve over"
The game is played with eleven men on a
side. Their positions and the manner in
which the field is laid out are shown in the
accompanying diagram There are five for
wards, two right and two left wings and a
center. three half-backs; two backs and a
goalkeeper.
The ball used is almost entirely round,
much like an orange in shape. In circum
ference it is about twenty-seven or TWENTY
eight inches, and it weighs fourteen or fif-
teen ounces. The length of the field cannot
be less than 100 or more than 200 yards, its
minimum breadth being so yards and its
maximum 100. The limits of length and
breadth are marked off with flags and
touch lines Six yards from the goal posts
and twelve yards from the goal lines are
indicated by marks to show where the ball
is to be kicked from, under certain condi-
tons In the center of the field is a circle
ten yards in radius. The goals are upright
posts eight yards apart, with a crossbar
eight feet from the ground
The game, which lasts an hour and a half
is started by the center of the side winning
the toss kicking off from the center of the
line. The other side has to keep outside
the ten-yard circle till the ball has been
kicked off.
The ball is always on the move, and only
when the referees whistle sounds is there
any let up in the play. The game, when
played by experts, is the perfection of sci
enttfc passing. Each man should dribble
only long enough to enable him to pass the
ball with the more advantage to his COM
rade, and the opposing sides move I'D and
down the field with as much rapidly, as
much apparent disunion and as much real
harmony as kaleidoscope. They are two
machinery works the smoother barring
accident, wins the game
So perfect has the game become from a
scientific standpoint that it would seem as
II there were but little room left for further
development
In all this brilliant passing the foot is
the chief factor: but, especially with the
experts, the head plays an important part
in the game. A writer in the New York
World remembers seeing a great game at
Remington Oval London, between two
professional teams the Preston North Ends
and the Northampton Wanderers, in
Preston rdS ho1l
the whole length of the field, passing it
from one to another with their heads as
jugsler keeps ball bouncing up and down
on his forehead
The defense work is capable of producing
brilliant play. All who saw the sandy
haired little Wallace on Mr.. Hanlon's team
"dribbing" the ball around a space of five
or six feet square and successfully keeping
1t in his control while four or five opponents
tried to kick it beyond his reach were loud
in their praises of the scientific abilities
shown.
Rule X of the association game shows
how widely it differs from Rugby and
American football. The rule reads as fol-
lows:
Neither tripping, hacking nor jumping at
a player shall be allowed, and no player
shall use his hands to hold or push his ad-
versary or play in any manner likely to
cause injury. No player may charge an
opponent from behind. unless such opponent
be not only facing his own goA. but is, in
the opinion of the referee, willfully imped-
ing his adversary while in that position.
The goalkeeper shall not be charged, ex-
cept he be in the act Of playing the ball or
is obstructing an opponent.
The penalty for the infraction of the
| rule is a free kick for the opposing sde
to be taken from any point twelve yards
from the goal line.
Should the ball strike one of the players
even by accident, on any part of his arms
below the shoulder the other side Is en-
titled to claim foul and the conse-
Quent free kick. When, however. a ball
is sent beyond the boundary line a player
on the opposite side to the one which play
ed it out takes the ball in both his hands
and thows it over his head into play again
in any direction that suits him.
The goalkeeper, too is allowed the use
of his hands in defending his goal
A goal is only won when the ball passes
between the goal posts, under the bar
To prevent this happening the goalkeeper
| is permitted either to fist the bali out
method in which the professionals dis
play much quickness and brilliancy-or to
take the ball in his hands and while he
may not carry it, to throw it where it
seems safest.
But outside of the goalkeeper and the
man who throws in from the touch down
there is no handling of the ball in the
association game.
Ends are not changed until half time.