The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-17

read a notice like this in your favorite
newspaper any day soon for there mas
recently been a great stride forward in
the womans athletic world, and one
that offers untold possibilities.
Hitherto the co-educational colleges
and there are $50 of them in this coun-
try-have barred the girl students from
the college campus. The Columbia col
=; lege students do not allow the Barnard
| college annex to play on the Columbia
campus. Harvard does not invite its
! girl students to romp on the boys foot
I ball practice grounds. Yale would
scorn a woman on it's big kicking acres.
and even the least conservative of the
broad minded western colleges draw
the line at boomers on the college
grounds. The bloomer girls have a Sc
Guided spot for kicking and running
and jumping, but even its location is
as carefully guarded as the mine of
Golgotha. In most mixed universities
! the girls practice in a gymnasium.
Things were going on this way when
basketball struck the University Of
Utah. In six months this game has
revolutioniZed athletics.
Basketball is unfortunate only in
name. If it were called by more Wig
orous title it would win its way quicker
to general approval in athletic circles.
1t requires all the skill and muscle
needed in football. and in many re-
spects a greater athletic prowess. The
jumps are higher, the running faster
and the body movements quicker There
is less wrestling, as the players are
not allowed to touch one another, but
where the wrestling is debarred the
generalship comes in.
The boys colleges have discovered
this and are taking up the game Wig
orously; and the girls come in with
them.
Football is a fine game and an old
one In 1877 collegiate football assoc
citation was formed, and for 100 years
previous to that, football was played.
But it is not suitable for women. The
question is rapidly arising if it is suit
able for men. either, for, with record
of from two TO ten highly educated
victims every year, football is becom-
ing as much q terror as a sport. You
read paragraphs likening the game in
brutality to a DriZefight.
Basketball, on the contrary. is only
five years old Rules were made for it
three years ago, but the game is yet
so young that these rules have to be
amended yearly to meet requirements.
In the Smith college games, for in
stance, the players cannot snatch the
ball from one another. But in the
University of Chicago games there is
the utmost appearance of roughness,
this arising from the scramble to snatch
the ball though there is really very
little personal contact. and the extra
ordinary agility and skill of the teams
alone gives the impression of tack
ling" While the player is getting ready
to toss the ball, the opposing team stand
opposite, jumping I'D and down like
marionettes, ready to leap into the air
and hit the ball the minute it is thrown.
Basket ball as played at Vassar, and
substantially everywhere else, consists
of a court 50x70 feet. At each end, at
a height of ten feet, there is basket
suspended from hoop two feet in di-
ameter. The opposing teams-in some
colleges there are eleven to team
line up beneath the baskets, facing
each other at opposite ends of the
court. In the middle stands the ref
cree. The game begins when she losses
UP the ball in the air between the OPP
posing teams. Each side makes run
to get it. The object of the game is
to throw the bail into the basket. Each
time it is lodged there counts one for
the team who succeeds in throwing ii
successfully.
1t is not an easy thing to do-to
throw a ball into a net ten feet high,
with five pairs of hands trying to pre-
vent you from doing it. The best play
ing comes in when the ball first leaves
the players hands. AS it passes into
the air a hand suddenly stops it, or
hitting it with the finger tips turns it
aside, diverting it from its course. The
ball must be struck with the open hand,
a c1enched hand -denoting a foul.
With well-ma tched teams long
game is certain, for basket ball re-