Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-02-20
D0ESTHE GAME PAY
Fifty Deaths or Total Disabilities
From Football in Sea.
son of 1903
ACCORDING TO MEDICAL WRITER
Question Raised Whether the Sport
is Worth All IL
Costs.

| DIR. George II. Simmons, editor of
the American Medical Journal, is in
clined TO the belief that football is a
sport that does not pay. DIR. Sim
mons finds that there were so deaths
or total disabilities in the game in the
season of 1908. and in the current is
sue of the Journal discusses the sub
ject as follows:
Last spring we made arrangements
for the collection of statistics regard
ing fatalities and injuries from the
Fourth of July celebrations. The re-
7Ilts which we presented were start
ling, for they showed Il much larger
fatality and greater number of in
juries than had been thought possible.
Last summer we made similar ar
engagements for gathering the statis-
tics regarding fatalities and injuries
resulting from football. While the re-
suits of this game were not as bad
and the fatalities not as numerous as
are those from Fourth of July cele-
brations, at the same time they are
sufficient to call attention to this Wig
Orous sport and to make the query,
Does it pay?
AllEOSI All OuI UlilN SlliCS anu
schools now have football teams
which engage in series of matches.
College pride and college spirit are
developed and improved by the game
ard honest rivalry in manly sports
and athletic exercises is encouraged.
all of which is TO be commended. \
little more than 20 years ago the fac
ulty of university which now has Il
distinguished record in football, call
e6 before ii a student who had been
guilty of attempting to introduce to
the students the Rugby game. and
severely censured him because he was
attempting to introduce brutal
sport. \ professor of another univer-
sity was widely quoted not long since
as declaring that within the last 10
years only % men had died from the
direct results Of football in colleges.
If the statement be authentic. 1903
was Il most unfortunate year for the
devotees of the game.
Not More Than Usual.
The fatalities and injuries of last
year, however, were probably not
more numerous nor more grave than
in recent years. While we do not wish
to be considered as opposing legiti-
mate athletic sports, we believe that
in this particular game the human
wreckage far outweighs the good re
sulting from three or four months of
athletic exercise and training.
Our statistics show that there oc-
CURED 80 deaths during the last year.
and over 500 severe accidents to play
ers. Besides these 80 deaths, there
were eleven cases of spinal injuries,
followed by paralysis, which in most
cases seem to have proved perma
nent. and, consequently, worse than
death. Sprains, Commissions and scalp
wounds have not been included in this
list, although reports show that many
of these injuries that were at first
considered trivial finally resulted
seriously. There were 343 fractures,
most of them of the bones of the leg
and forearm There were 81 cases of
fracture of the clavicle, 10 fractures
of the femur and four of the skull.
1t is, of course, impossible to esti-
mate accurately the number of perma-
uent injuries received in these acct
dents, but when we consider that
many of these fractures were COM
pound, and 10 of them of the femur,
we must believe that in this class
alone the percentage of permanent
injuries could not be very low. We
can, without eXaggeration, say that
at least 80 deaths or permanent total
disabilities resulted from the football
games of 1908"