Waterbury Democrat., 1901-10-21

a good place to make an honest days pay. The article also stated that one of the largest players on the Merri- mac team threatened to do" pr Hayes We'll, if Dr Hayes was i'll danger, or threatened. it was nobody's fault but his own. For he was on the fence all through the game and did ev- erything in his power, by voice, advise, shouting and action, to help the High school win the game. He abused the player above mentioned and told him he had no business playing in the game. That, Mir Editor, was over stepping his authority. The captain and reserve the right to play any player we see fit. The doctor had no right to talk to him that way. and if the doctor was threatened with a jolt on the jaw, or called name that must have seriously offended the worthy gentleman's dignity-then, as I said be- fore, it was all his own fault Playing with politicians and football players are two entirely different things The thing that the doctor seemed to be most indignant over was that such big fellow was playing against the
 
 ledge that the player is big and prob able a little older than any player on either of the teams. But the school team oughtn't to balk because one of their opponents happens to be few years older than themselves. The player in question is twenty-one. the oldest player on the Merrimac team. The writer of the article makes special mention of the differences in the ages of the players on the two teams. The average age of the Merrimacs is eight cen and a half years. and don't think that is a year over the average of the school team. The article states that the game was rough! It was rough.
 Was there ever game of football played that wasn't? I acknowledge it wasn't any Sunday school affair: our players can't play that way; neither can the High school boys: neither can any team that plays outside of a par Tor. Our boys did give some hard knocks; they did land some blows-but. take notice, so did the school players. That sounds terrible. doesn't it? They struck just as often and they roughed it just as often as did the Merrimacs. Are our players to be criticized and insulted just because they retaliated in kind? A few of the High school players were cut up a little and q few will have to lay off for repairs for a. few days. But what about our team? Did they come out of it without any injuries? The writer of the article didn't consider them. If he could see them this morning he would see team of players with cut races, black eyes, lame legs, bruised 1 bodies and sprained arms! The High school players were the cause of all this damage to our players! Sounds strange, doesn't it. to hear of Harry Durant's pets playing and using their \ opponents so roughly? But the boys l didn't complain. They expected q few
 hard knocks and when they did get them they didn't come out in the paper the next morning and insult their op- ponents and call them out of their names. We don't play the baby act
 we play football And if any team
 defeats Us they won't find us crying out like the High school team that they played rough and punched us.''
 Instead, they'll get all the credit they
 deserve from us something we ask l when it is due us.
 And l want to say, Mir Editor, fo1
 the benefit of the gentleman @ who wrote that article and also for the l High school players that if they expect l to retain the Yale cup, they'll have to stop crying over rough football and l play q little better than they are at
 present. They are going to play the | New Britain team in a few weeks and if they don't go into the game with
 more vim and train themselves for
 better wind, the New Britains will
 win that game Our team isn't in
 training as yet and at the wind-up of
 the game they were in much better shape than the boys who are supposed to be trained so finely and who walk around the track five or six times every day to better their wind. If our 1 players went through such a system
 atic course of training why, there
 wouldn't be anything left of the school team last Saturday. It was a good
 thing for the school team that the time l limit expired just when it did, for if l the game continued q few minutes l longer the score would have been to l V III ll1c 4hSIIlludCo ldf 1Hcy were pushing them all over the field and Howard, our full back, was making five and ten yards at every plunge
 when time was called. We haven't any ill feeling against the High school l team. We hope they will win the cup and we are willing to aid them in any way to put them in condition to meet 1 the New Britains when they come here to play. Another good game like Sat
 urday's would probably improve their
 wind and give them a little more pluck, I'll leave it to Coaches Durant, Kenne- l dy, Monagan and Joe Gaffney if the game Saturday wasn't of more benefit 1 to the team and did, more to put them | in good shape for the coming struggle
 with the New Britains than all the league and practice games this fall. I AS to some of the Merrimacs wear ing spikes :" which they stuck into the l High school players" the only thing necessary to say is that Referee Ken nedy, the coach of the High school team, examined the players shoes dur | ing the game He found no steel spikes and very few leather cleats. 1 Coaches Durant and Gaffney are SUD- posed to be we'll acquainted with the rules of the game to know that they ! 4.1 l1...