Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-10-19
The Greatest Game OF All.

|
ioyed by all lovers of virilc, manly
athletics. The time has long gone by
when football needs any defense. \
few anaemic croakcrs still object to
the game, but their wall is feeble and
unaVailinS. 1t is the great under
| graduate game of the fall season, ana
it has the strong advantages that It's
nature prevents il from becoming u
professional sport. Popular interest IN
it is high, and all the great papers de
vote columns every day to the prac-
tee and prospects Of the teams of the
| leading colleges. Foot ball is a great
game for those who take part ana Tor
| those who look on. 1t fills Il pidc" III
the athletic world that no other sport
can ever occupy.
The growth Of this game has been
most remarkable. A score of years
ago only two or three of the Dig uni
vorsities played the game and they
played il in most crude fashion.
| Even a decade ago there were COM
paratively few elevens playing the
game. In Maine only Bowdoin College
then had team. and it had to go to
Massachusetts to find an opposing
eleven A little later it was beating
! Colby and Bates by scores running
even as high as 20 to in one game.
| hut now it finds in both Of these col
| lcges foemen worthy of its steel In
the early days of Maine football. Cony
High school Of this city was the first
fitting school to boast of an eleven. and
it is on record that in the first regular
game ever played in Waterville the
Augusta boys beat the Colby College
eleven "A to 0. Bur a great change has
taken place in a few years. Now not
only have the Maine colleges football
teams which are known ana respected
far beyond our borders, but almost
every high school and academy has its
team. making the fan games OF great
interest to almost everybody in the
state. This year Bates is given the
honor of having games with both Yale
ana Harvard; ana BoWdoin, which
Harvard once beat 90 to 0. scored on
the Cambridge University, last fall
and this fall held the figures down T.
IS to o.
No longer is there a monopoly Of
fuotb2ll. This fall the oace invnoiblr
Pennsylvania eleven has been defeated
by the boys from the Carlisle school
far Indians. ANA tod by Brown Uni
! Nersity. Cornell, which had q strong
/, ana before the aamr was played in
| University: ami even Yale is plainly
Heightened ty the Wisconsin eleven
which has come East to meet it on thr
! gridirun. Saturday. Precedent ANA
! tradition no longer count. and practice
and discipline are evening things up in
a way that promises wei for the fu-
ture If this great branch Dc athletics.
| There is only one Harvard game
Us in the beginning bat there are mum
Gus games where equal skill ana power
Ivy, shown ~ the contcndiug teams:
land there are very many where equal
interest is manifested by the partisans
/ II lie eIcycns.
The secret ~ til" success ANA popu-
Iarity Of football is not far to seek. Ii
! is in the Au"lo-Saxon blood to love the
rush ana thc scrimma2o. the fierce
! tactlc ana th, rluuuc into the line.
! II is a contest that requires the great
cst skin in gencralship ana tie most
m3chino-likr co-opcration Of pIayrrs
nuickucss of wit as well rs ljghtnnss
nf foot are vital factors # rnuuirrs
tba couraro tbot a1orins IL tbo tost ,r
etrn,otb n,, M mon ana fam, "A
team. There must be perfect dis