Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-16
GOSSIP FROM THE CRIDIRON
Interes. in Foot Boll Crystallising Around
Saturdays Great Games.
LEADERS OF THE SPORT LINE UP THEN
IDic and Princeton Lool> Forward tu
Mighty Battle nud PcnnsSI-
Nnnin Hnd Harvard Pre-
pare fur Il struggle.

pAFe iuf u NliA-Si's
The past week has seen little save hard
practice and the best Of training ON the
part Of nearly all the foot bali teams that
are now being worked into the best pos
siblc form for the big games scheduled for
saturday next and for Thanksgiving Day.
on the former date Princeton and Yale and
Harvard and Pennsylvania will battle for
honor8 aud upon the results of these games
viii depend the ranking of the various
ccycns at the end OF the season. No one
will question the wisdom OF granting the
first four places in the mythical champion
ship of the foot ball world to these four
teams. the only doubt being as to the proper
order in which they should be arranged.
TO be sure Lafayette tied Princeton and
defeated Pennsylvan by small margin.
but the seasons work OF the Easton
players will hardly compare with that
of the Jcrscyman or of the QuakcrS AZ
will come the Carlisle Indians, Cornell and
Williams The place that should be Hc-
corded the western teams IS a much mooted
question There can be no doubt but that
the present season has seen a great ad-
vance in scientific playing of the western
college teams, nearly all of which are
have been no opportunities of comparing
the work Of eastern and western teams
this year, and all statements of what
might happen should certain teams from
the two sections OF the country come to-
gether must be put down as hazardous
guesscs.
The question of properly distributing first
honors will soon be solved. Princeton did
not play on saturday, but is quietly at
work just as it was in 1895 when it threw
Yale down so hard. To be sure, the old
Princeton COaChors say that there Is Il
terrible lot OF fumbling and the team work
is altogether rotten, but the undergradu-
atcs are already beginning to figure how
they will cNpend the shclcls they Will win
from the New Haven lads on Saturday.
Yale scored sixteen points against the
New Jersey Athletic ClUD in thirty min
utos of play on Saturday, and gave
better exhibition of foot bail than for some
time. The work of Hinc, the new hnd who
Is at left halibaCk, was particularly bril-
liant There can be no doubt but what
Yale is rounding TO in great shape toward
the end of the season, The fact that
nearly every team that has played against
the blue has scored at least once seems
to have had u beneficial effect. If AS much
four days as in the last, New York critics
say, the blue will stand AN even chance
against the orange ana black Reports OF
injuries and forced substitutions of new
and Inexperienced players may be relied
upon to be furnished by both teams
throughout the week, but it's a safe bet
that both Princeton and Yale viii meet
each other ON Saturday with the strongest
teams they have had out this season.
Harvard ana Pennsylvania are lctting
ready for their little argument that Is to be
settled on saturday. The Quakers are in
far better condition. indeed, the best form
they have shown this year was in the first
half OF Saturdays game With Pcnnsy.va-
mia State college. The fun team was play ed
in the first half and rolled 10 twcnty-thIee
points in a hurry, but as three pairs of
Harvard eyes were watching every move
NaHr FHHE asE4Fl -
game at the beginning OF the second half.
Up at Cambridge, Harvard was turned down
by the Boston Athletic club. to 6. But
II was not the Harvard eleven by long
shot. The lire was substantially the same,
but the back field was al changed Har-
bc relied upon to give the Sons of Penn a
good, hard fight On Saturday
Cornell and Williams met Mt Buffalo before
1O,OUO spectators. and repeated their trick of
1885, when neither side could score. The
a tie. 10 TO 10. Last year the two teams
dial not meet. In Saturdays contest Cap.
borne the brunt of the battle for his side,
and made frequent dashes through Will
yards of the goal at the cni OF the FIRST half.
In the second half Cornell again came near
scoring. but only to fail The Williams
line held better than before, and the work
of their backs as q whole was better than
that of the Cornell backs. Drapcrs long
runs and Templcton's longer punts helped
to keep the bail away from the Williams
goal Cornell meets Pennsylvania at Phil
adelphia on Than ssiving day. and will have
to hustle if II wants to be in shape to keep
| the score down in the teens.
Michigan could do no better than run up
| 10 points against oberin. a team that has
not done any particularly brilliant work
this year. Chicago, ailer hayinE been been
cCnsin, turned the tables on the former
team on Saturday. and won out by a score
Of IS to 6. The ChiCaSoans showed a Won
a. arrt in aud
their backs had an opportunity to get in
some work. Both the Omaha lads Gordon
Clarke. at quarterback ana Billy Gardner
at fulib ck did brilliant work. Captain
Rohy, right tackle. ana lamil right end.
gained much Eround by PUSHES through the
from Carlisle had a snap with Cincinnati,
and Dartmouth ran away with Amherst.
In the Kansas ana Doane game which the
former won, 16 10 T. a most unfortunate acct
dent occurred that will give the crusaders
the next year Serr. the quarterback Of the
Doane team, I'm making a hard tackle came
down on ms head and injured himself SO
cussIon of the brain II is known that he
had been hurt on the head before, and the
most lamentab,c fact seems to bc that the
men In charge of the pouuc team allowed
him to play He was told to get out of the
| game but was not prevented, rs he Ger
| the game. There are times when II is
| advisable for COLLEGE professor an
/
| lutcly insist that an injured man leave the
| game no matter whether he wants to keep
| on playing or not and II may have been
| that Quarterback Serf would not have died
! from foot ball injury had such authority
| been eNcrtel when he first complained that
! his head hurt him.
Though this distressing accident cannot
be traced to any unnecessarily rough play
ing, it is "A fact that the past week has
seen the record of a number of western
teams marred by acts that would not be
tolerated a single instant by officials who
knew their duty and had the courage TO
penalize those who offend against the
proper rules of the games. As dsgraceful
as their conduct was the students of Mis-
souri, State university are no more to
| blame for the row that broke up the Mis-
| souIi-Iowa game last week than the Of
ncals who permitted the players to slug
each other and the crowd to trespass on
the field. There was pretty free use of
dukes" too, in the NcbraslSa-l}u game
at Lincoln the other day, and the game
between the University of Tennessee and
Vanderbilt university au Nashville on
Saturday broke up in row.
Western foot bah players are fond Of
boasting what they would do If they had
a chance at some of the crack eastern
teams There can be no doubt whatever
of the rapid spread of the game within