The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-12-18
OLD HARVARD END WRITES IN
TEREsTING LETTER TO WAL
TER CAMP.
MAKES A PLEA FOR
OLD TIME FORMATIONS.
ADVOCATES HAVING A RULE so
THAT LIGHT, FAST MEN
CAN PLAY.

With Camps Assertion That He FaV-
Ors Ten Yards Gain in Three
Downs, 1t Is Believed the Dean OF
Amateur Athletics Will Favor
Some of HaIIOweII's Ideas when
the Rules Committee Meets-Says
Close Formations the Evil to Be
Combntted.
With thousands of football players
and spectators calling for a radical
change in the rules which will elimi-
nate much of the brutality that now
exists, James HalloweE, an old Har-
ward end, for three years selected on
the alI-Amerlcan, has written a most
interesting letter to Walter Camp.
chairman of the rules committee and
the dean of amateur athletics.
Frank Butterworth spoke very plain
ly in regard to the difficulty of MAX
ing radical changes in the rules when
he wrote an article in Outing some
time ago entitled Honesty in Foot
ball" Butterworth cited that the
present system of play represented the
coach and his methods, and left lit
tie for the individual merit of the
players themselves. For this reason
the change IN rules, which would
serve to open the game, would be con-
demned by all paid coaches, as it
would greatly decrease their power and
necessity.
Following is how Hallowell sizes up
the situation and the needs of the
game:
Roughly grouped. the faults of the
present college game, as voiced by
current criticism, are as follows:
First. The element of concentrating
brute force is allowed to play too i'm
portant a part in the winning OF
games The effort now of success
full coach is to weld eleven men to-
gether in a compact battering ram.
This battering ram is directed by the
quarterback at the most Vulnerable
points in the opponents defense. The
team which in its machine-like regu-
1arity most resembles a pile-drtver
can win nine times out of ten.
Minimize Brute Force.
Second. The minimizing the ele-
rnent of brute force limits the possible
players on an eleven with the excep-
ton of a few positions) to a compare
lively small number of undergraduates,
to wit: to those weighted down with
the most beef The light, active, wiry
man, whose brilliant tackling, running
and lodging add fascination to the
scene, has little place in the modern
rush line.
Third. Moreover, the value of
bruisers of sufficient muscle and avoir-
dupois is now so unduly emphasized
and the supply of requisite material is
therefore so limited that a premium
is placed thereby on an undesirable
e. xtsIatn oh fGfc 70
extent. to wit: on efforts to rake over
the preparatory schools and scour the
country for suitable material.
Fourth. In order to weld together
the different parts of the humanized
pile-driver, the undergraduates who are
selected to form part of the machine
are by the difficulty of the problem
required to put an amount of time
practice and study upon it wholly dis
proportionate to the importance of the
game. 1t ought to be an athletic
recreation; it is now almost an athletic
business.
Stupid and UninterestinE.
Fifth. The game developed by the
above method is so massed that IL be-
comes stupid and undressing 1 still
remember with thrills of delight al
though a hacker of the Crimson, the
days when Snake Ames and your own
Laurie bliss ana Lee NC
Chung used like winged Mercuries to
carry their colors on to victory while
10000 persons rent the air with thun-
dering, spontaneous shouts, only ex-
celled in electrical effect by the bril-
liancy of the play before them. Now,
instead, when / witness big game /
see 4,400 pounds of beef showing each
other around the field few yards at a
time, while carefully instructed under
-
ers, cheer on the heterogeneous pile in
order to put spirit into it. Moreover,
It is difficult even TO see either how
the plays are executed or how they are
stopped.
Sixth. And, last, the present meth
cd eliminates the undergraduates to
an unfortunate extent and turns the
game into a contest among coaches.
The mechanic who can produce the fin
ished machines which now play the
big games of the year must not only
be a skilled master of his trade, but
must have under him an able corps of
superintendent and second hands.
Radical Change Necessary.
These abuses cannot. in my opin-
ion, be prevented without a radical
change In the rules. The rules must be
changed. and radically changed and
this power lies in the hands of your
committee.
1.-THE field is now marked off by five
yard lines running across the field
Lay out similar lines running length
wise down the field, but only four
yards apart. Preserve the same rules
as to offside play which exist now, but
also provide that when the ball is put
in play after a down, the men shall
not line up in close formation as they
do now.
Instead. pass rule. enacting that
at the moment when the ball is put In
play only one player on the same team
shall be standing in any one OF the
quadrangles formed by three lines. Two
umpires on each side could easily see
that this rule is observed.
"Other rules regulating the method
of putting the ball In play and possi-
bly, the position OF the backs would
likewise have TO be passed: but these
are matters OF detail which undoubted-
~ could be worked out. With the field
thus broken up. when the ball IL put
I'm play, and the possibilities for long
passes. quick lodging runs and bril-
liant tackling IN the open. the import
ance Of mere avoirdupois would be
Ininimized, and brute showing power
ought 20 be Of less importance than In
dlvidual brilliancy.
The game would be open 70 men
who ought TO play n, 20 the light.
weight men Of nerve and dash and
rkill, and whose contests exceed in ~.
terest those Of the present beefy con.
Riomcrnfion by about as much as
race between thoroughbred horses ex
ceeds in interest a race between steam
rollers