Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-09-23
THE HARD LIFE Of A
FOOTBALL PLAYER.
HE MUST RISE EARLY, PRACTICE
ALL DAY AND EAT ONLY GER
TAIN ARTICLES OF FOOD.

The game of football has developed
into such a scientific sport that the
athletes who enter into the intercol-
legiate contests held during the
months OF autumn are compelled to go
through a course of training as rigid
as that of a pugiEst The training is
given under the direction of men who
make the development and well-keep-
ing of muscle and mind the study and
business of their lives.
The player is kept under strict
discipline in diet and conduct that
makes of him machine, and he is
watched and exercised and cared for
like a thoroughbred in preparation
for great race. Whether the young
men OF the colleges get more enjoy
ment and physical benefit from this
up-to-date fashion of doing things
than their forerunners found in their
simple boyish tumbles on the green
may be open to argument.
The training life of the players
on our leading college teams is little
known of by the thousands OF people
who so cheer frantically for the Dark
Blue, the Crimson, the Red and Blue
or the Orange and Black on the days
of the big games. They see the pad
ded, rt-besmeared, long-haired
giants lumber on the field, battle for the
flag whose glory is as dear as life to
them and vanish, wildly struggling on
the shoulders of their frantic comrades,
If theirs is the victory, or limp away
alone and broken hearted through the
throng if defeat has been their bitter
lot.
Systems Much Alike.
The training systems of the promi-
nent elevens are alike in general meth
cd. The men are cared for by a pro-
fessional trainer, two or three rub
bers," a medical adviser, and are fed
by force of cooks and walters en-
ployed by the organization in which
the executive interests of the college
football affairs are centered.
The Pennsylvania players live to-
gether in their quarters under the eyes
of their coach. who is also chaplain
and head of the household. They are
one big family and are under as strict
surveillance as the young ladies at a
select boarding and finishing school.
They live on schedule. and there is
small hope of grace for the man that
fails to keep up with its requirements.
The day opens at 1880 O'Clock.
Breakfast is on the table at S:15
O'Clock. and each lusty youth tumbes
into the dining-room arm in arm with
an appetite that would make the aver
age landlady hysterical.
A dozen years ago the athlete was
I-n I'D rct nd ht
the end of the season had forgotten
the sensation produced by a square
meal Time have changed for the bet
ter.
The Pennsylvania football men find
breakfast fare. of which the following
programme is a sample:
Fruit.
Oatmeal.
Steak or Chops.
Scrambled Eggs.
Stewed Potatoes.
Bread.
Milk and Boiled Water.
This isn't a breakfast to throw over
ones shoulder at any time, and tea
and coffee. waffles, hot rolls and such
dyspeptic luxuries are not so necessary
after all. Through the forenoon the
men attend recitations and pay atteli-
ton to the work which is really more
important than football, despite the
general undergraduate opinion to the
contrary. Lunch is attacked and
routed with great slaughter at 1890
o'clock. A heavy midday meal would
not be good for man who has to
exert his utmost physical activity in
the afternoon, so the athletes sit down
to-
Cold Roast Beef or Mutton.
Stewed Prunes or Peaches.
Graham Crackers and Bread.
Potatoes.
Water and Milk.
Afternoon work.
The early afternoon is free for reci-