The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1900-08-22
NOVEL Tf / n GOAL Pt|sTs
Safer Device For Football In
vented by . College Graduate.
FAVORED By RULES COMMITTEE.

nm. Manley, Ex-Hnrvard Player, in-
vents an Arrangement FOR Goai
Posts to Prevent Injuries-New De-
vice win NE" Used ON . Number OF
Fields This Fall.
Plunging full backs and rushing half
backs win no longer be obliged to sui.
Ter with broken heads when they gaiu
the last yard required for touchdown
directly IN front Of their opponents
goal posts, for E. ManIey, q graduate
of Harvard university. has invented
safety goal post" for football fields,
says the Chicago Record. The inven.
ton possesses all the merits of the old
uprights. but obviates the head bump
Ing features by removing the bases OF
the posts back ten feet from the goal
line.
The invention is a simple affair, but
will free football from one of its most
dangerous featuses. The goal posts
will be set back ten feet from the goal
line Instead Of being on 1t as hereto,
fore. But at the point where the cross
bar formerly was arms viii project
out over the goal line. supporting the
crossbar. BY this arrangement the bar
will be in its proper place. while the
unyielding goal posts will be far
enough away so that the carrier of the
plgskin need not fear for his head when
he hurts himself for a touchdown.
Technically the position of the goal
posts is not In accord with the inter
collegiate rules, but this is a mere mat
ter Of words.
Walter Camp of Yale, Bob wrenn of
Harvard, Alexander Moffatt of Prince
ton and John C. Bell of Pennsylvania,
all members of the intercollegiate rules
committee, are In favor of adopting
the safety goal post" for all college
games. Paul Dashiel of Princeton has
not yet fully considered the matter, but
1t is thought he will vote with the other
four. The new device will be used on
a number of fields this fall anyway.
Coach Woodruff o. PENNSYLVANIA has
already ordered one of the new posts
for use on Franklin field for the COM
Ing season He declares that the inven-
tion supplies a long felt want and that
as the spirit of the rules is not violated
by the removal Of the base of the posts
back ten feet there Is no. reason why
he should not use them. Henry Gale,
assistant coach of the University of
Chicago eleven last year. says that he
has little doubt that Chicago will adopt
the new posts. Professor A. A Stagg
has not yet returned from Orange, n.
j., and II is not known what he will
think of the invention.
The inventor of the new post ar
rangement has played football and
wears an. ''H' from playing on the
Harvard baseball nine in 1894. The
idea of the new kind OF goal posts was
suggested to him when he saw the big
crimson sweaters wrapped around the
posts whenever the Harvard varsity
and scrub elevens indulged in fierce
play near the goal Continual injuries
to players both In games and In prac-
tice finally led him to put his idea into
practice. Having had previous expert
ence in mechanics, his idea was soon
put into practice. with results as pre-
viously stated.
Still another Objectionable feature in
football which will be dispensed with
by the adoption of the new posts has
been the practice of an opposing eleven
when hard pushed near its own goal
posts to brace against the uprights and
thus gain undue advantage over the
eleven trying for a touchdown. This
very thing Is said to have happened in
the Harvard-Yale game last year. Har-
ward was directly in front of Yale's
goal and had been sending plays
through their center, Jaffray. Yale, it
Is said, braced against the goal posts
and stopped Harvard's rushes only a
few inches from the goal line.