The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-11-17
BEAT PLAYERS WHO SEE
Are FasterOn Offensive Than
Opponents Who Have Eyes

ed with most intense and partisan IN
terest the struggle for supremacy Of
two football teams. noted the tricks Of
the game, the bulldog tenacity the
4 giantlike strength, the cunning and at
times ferociousness Of these gladiators
OF the gridirou, will find some diff
Guilty in grasping and accepting the
statement that here in Louisville there
are eleven blind boys who play the
game for all there is in it These boys
are just as cunning as their seeing
opponents, as scientific as their needs
demand, full of pluck ana endurance
and splendid courage and at all times
as keenly alive to what is going on
around them as though they were gift
ed with sight
TO the uninitiated this seems inn
possible, but there is reason in plenty
for its not being impossible First of
an. the inmates Of the Kentucky insu-
TUE for the blind are just like any
other boys. with the same instincts,
\ the same love for fun and the same
wholesome desire for supremacy. In
a general way, they are absolutely un-
conscious of The fact that they do not
see, because nature, having denied
hem visica. as we understand it, has
TUNED their ten fingers, their ears and
1 every muscle OF their bodies into so
many eyes wherewith they may have
vision after their kind
During .he season Of 1904 the blind
boys football eleven made most re-
markable record. playing three games,
winning one and tying two This
season they have arranged a schedule
running up to Thanksgiving and ev-
esy game is with team averaging
from eight to fifteen pounds heavier
: to man. It remains TO be seen what
they win accomplish
Now a little something as to how
these boys from the Kentucky insti-
, tute for the blind play the great game
CT football In the first place. they
depend upon two senses, that os hear
ing and that OF touch muscular ac-
E tioii,e is the way Trainer Gregory ex
presses It. In only two respects does
their style of play differ from that
PUT up at Yale, Harvard or on any
other gridiron.
The FIRST of the exceptions is found
I in the ball, FOR, instead or using th'
{ regulation or Rugby bali, they emplo,
be association sphere This is due
/, to TIE TACT that the Rugby ball, being
= oblong or oval. does not ordinarily
I bounce in a straight line, but rather
at a tangent II the game was one
that did not require the promptesi
y sort Of action. this would not make
any material difference, for the bllnC
/ players know just the direction the
a ball has taken, but their aflictioT
does not permit them to turn SO quick
: ,y as their more fortunate brethren
q thus enforcing handicap that is al
most impossible to overcome. AS th'
!. association ball is perfectly round anC
a bounds in a straight line, these boys
81 are enabled to follow its course by th'
" exercise of their wonderfully develop
< ca sense Of hearing,
on the kick OF they plunge dowr
the field just as does any other team
and they are generally right on TOT
n Of the man who captures it. Nov
'r and then they make a mistake an,
a tackle one OF their own team, but th'
error is generally known before an
1 great harm has been done.
~ The second difference in play come
in passing the ball II is never snap
X ped" back, but is passed directly int
the hands of the man who is to maxi
!. the play. and what these little fel
r. lows don't know about tricks peculia
sr TO the great Rugby game is not writ
ten in books when the signals ar
"A toned on every man is on the aleT
or and they generally move as one piec
g OF machinery.
Ii Is here that muscular ~ ion" ai
; serts itself By this he r.eans tina
any movement, whether forward or {
either side. Is instantly transmitte
to the line. and by them to the back
as accurately as though each of theI
had seea the play To put IT, perhap
little palmer, suppose the opposin
side has the ball The signals ar
called on. the two sides come togethe
and then by the mere touching OF thel
opponents they know 10 which sid
Of the line tho ball has been passe
or whether It is a straight.line pla.
No seeing team could be bllndloldo
ana successfully accomplish this, fc
10 other reason than that their mu
cular sense has not been developed
such high perfection.
"On offensive work said coac
Gregory, Jr- = honestly think III