The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-18
J DOn'ts for Football Players

How would you like to be real foot
lieve you are better athlete than most
of the gridiron heroes. You could
make a touchdown yourself. You know
this. And you would nab that fellow
getting around the; end. Constructive
ly, you are a great player and never
lose a game. On the side lines you be-
lieve you could do almost anything
with the pigslin. But could you?
Nearly everybody is theoretical
of people who wouldn't know Latin
root from bale, of hay will get out
and howl like dervish when college
man SmasheS through the line or hur-
dies over it, or circles the end, or does
any particular brilliant football bust
ness. While the sport depends upon
the colleges for its existence it is by
no means the sport of college people
alone 1T belongs to everybody who
likes to see a test of strength and cum
ming.
Even If you believe you would make
splendid gridiron warrior and that
you could put up a surprising game at
a moments notice there are many rea-
sons Why you could not. You, who like
your cigars, how long would you last
in fight between the goals? You who
nav PIC LOi OISSlhldSI anu dl
luncheon and sWeetmeats between
meals, how far could you carry the ball
without swearing that there was no
more air to breathe? You wouldn't
last five minutes.
No, you would not last five minutes
because you are. unframed. The man
who aspires to achieve football glory
must train like pugilist until he can
take all kinds of punishment and be
able to deal out an equal amount, or
more of it, says the Chicago Inter
Ocean, to all the eleven adVersaries on
the other team.
Football training is rigorous train
ing. And this training depends not
more on What a man must do than on
what he must not do The football
player, or the aspirant for the glory of
the gridiron, must give up many things.
In most cases he gives these up to sit
on a bench on the side lines and watch
ms huskler, Sturdier fellow students do
the playing and win the hurrahs But
even that pays, the football men say
for the man who undergoes a seasons
training comes out at Thanksgiving
day healthier, stronger, more wide
awake, and better disciplined young
man.
There is young fellow out at the Uni
Versity of Chicago who is now training for
MS NTH football season. He is only TWEEN
ty-one years old, but it is upon him that
the eyes of the small boys who peep
throqSh the fences are glued He is Wal
ter ii. EckersaI. a little dark-skinned
young fellow, who has to bear down hard
10 make the scales credit him witn 1873
pounds of fighting football machinery.
hcKersall is not the best player on the
team, perhaps. He doesn't even know
tnat he Will be chosen for the position
OF quarterback when the Midway team
clashes with the powerful elevens from
the otner big schools. But he is typical
football player of the diminutive SORT
and these diminutive fellows freouentIv
are wonders, as was the case with you,yy
alton Johnson, who was about the nearest
approach to creased lightning that ever
played on a Northwestern university
eleven.
After Eckersall came out of the game
with Monmouth college last Wednesday
he had few things to say about football
his own story
Il am a football player because 1 like
the game, and not because l want to see
my, picture in the papers, said the quar-
terback. Il crave the few inches the
training may add to my chest expansion i1,
and the endurance it may give my mus
c1es. That's reason enough for play
ing.
But the training itself is hard
thing" he added TT is both hard in
what we have to do and what we have not
TO do. DO you know what a football
player has to give up. If he is a smoker
he must quit. If he likes glass of beer
light and ballroom figure he must re-
form. If he likes the theater ne must
forget it until after Thanksgiving day
But most, of all must he curb his ap-
petite or rather regulate it. casting aside
all that long list of dainty eatables
Which make up the greater part of the
Dill of fare of the average young fellow
There ought to be some glory or pleasure