The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-21
FOOTBALL FATALITIES,

The yearly crusade against football
has been inaugurated again on the
mainland DR.. Geo. r. Simmons, editor
of the Medical Journal, has cor1e TO the
conclusion that football doesn't pay
and in support of his stand cites stats
tics showing thirty-five deaths during
the past year, as a result of the sport
While perhaps the figures given are
correct, the medical authorities seem to
consider that it is only in football
that such fatalities occur. Any sport
that is popular. is to some extent dan
gerous. 1t is the element of danger that
makes football fascinating alike TO the
spectator and the participant. If DR..
Simmons would take the trouble to col
Iect vital statistics for other varieties
of sport he would find that the mortal
ity percentage is just as high for coast
ing and skating while even baseball and
lawn tennis are sometimes attended
with serious results.
However startling the array of statis-
tics is that is brought to bear against
football as a sport, it will be a good
many years before any impression Will
be made upon the millions of lovers of
the game. DR.. Simmons collected statis-
tics both of football and Fourth of July
celebrations. Commenting on the re-
suits in the Medical Journal he says:
almost all our universities and
schools now have football teams which
engage in a series of matches. Col
lege pride and college spirit are de-
veIoped and improved by the game
and honest rivalry in manly sports and
athletic exercises is encouraged, all of
which is to be commended. little
more than twenty years ago the faculty
of a university which now has a dis
tinguished record in football, called be-
fore it student who had been guilty
of attempting to introduce to the stu
dents the Rugby game, and severely
censured him because he was attempt
ing to introduce brutal sport. A pro-
lessor of another university was widely
quoted not long since as declaring that
within the last ten years only twenty
three men had died from the direct re-
suits of football in colleges. If the
statement be authentic 1903 was a most |
unfortunate year for the devotees of the
game.
1.-The fatalities and injuries of last |
year, however, were probably not more |
numerous nor more grave than in re-
cent years While we do not wish to be
considered as opposing legitimate ath-
Ietic sports, we believe that in this par
ficular game the human wreckage far
the good resulting from three |
or four months of athletic exercise and |
training.
"Our statistics show that there oc-
Cured thirty-five deaths during the last |
year and over 500 severe accidents to
players Besides these thirty-ive
deaths, there We're eleven cases of |
spinal injuries followed by paralysis /
which in most cases seem to have prov
ed permanent, 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 ninety-one
cases of fracture of the clavicle, nine
teen fractures of the fernur, and four
of the skull. 1t is. of course, impossible
to estimate accurately the number of
permanent injuries received in these
cases as many of the fractures were
compound, and nineteen 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
fifty deaths or permanent total disabil-
ties resulted from the football games
Of 1903"