Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1905-12-02
Carter
Defends
Football

The lack of rules for the proper Sc.
lection of umpires Is. | think. to a
great measure. responsible for the
present agitation against football"
said Governor Carter yesterday
The Governor Is. as It Is well known
a veteran football player himself, and
las on several occasions shown his in.
terest in the local eXponents of the
noble sport.
ut needs a strong man to umpire a
football game" continued the Govern.
or. Such a man must see strictly to
II that the twenty-five struggling men
live up to the rules of the game and
hat they are enforced. II Is where
this Is not done that there Is trouble.
and | have myself seen many games
which illustrated that.
las a rule the men who get hurt in
football are the ones who are not fitted
to play the game. When a man is soft
or has not had sufficient training he
gets hurt in scrimmages where the
man who Is In perfect condition es.
tapes without injury. This applies es-
recially to the players on the teams Of
minor colleges and those on the small
elevens of the larger ones as well,
here men play the game without hav'
ing been hardened by sufficient train
I ing.
Another thing which, think, would
tend to make the game less dangerous
and more interesting would be the
changing OF the five-yard line distance
TO one of ten yards. As you know. II
a side does not make gain of 1--WE
yards in three downs the ball passes
TO the opponents. BY making II ten
yards IL would practically be rendered
impossible to buck the ball the er;ire
) distance and the result would be that
the third attempt would generally
be made by a kick, as II Is always bet
ter TO kick and have the chance OF
having your own side get the ball
through its end rushes. In this way
the heavy mass plays, in which most
OF the injuries suffered occur, would
| be eliminated, at least to some extent.
! Football Is certainly valuable sport
because II gives the player fine train
ing in acting quickly and coolly while
l under intense excitement II also gives
him the confidence in his own
strength. which no man can have I'M
d
against that of some of his fellows. /
remember an incident which occurred
while | was at college, and which II.
illustrates this point we'll
/ 81 and a friend. who was a more
physically powerful man than / but
who had devoted himself to boating in
| stead of football, were walking toscth.
or one night when crowd of tOughs
came up behind us, jOshing and insult.
! ing. ] turned around on them and
faced them. My friend did the same
and they scattered. After that my
| friend said to me that he had noticed
that men who played football were al.
ways ready to face an emergency. They
had measured their strength and re-
lied on 1t. He had never measured his
strength with other men and would
rot have dared to turn on those men
had he been alone. Since then | have
found that this Is really a fact about
! football.
These crusades against football oc.
cur quite occasionally, and | am In.
clined to think that they are bene-
fetal. On the other hand statistics
have shown that there are less acct
dents at football than In any other
game with the exception, OF course, OF
tennis and such games. have not fol.
lowed football closely Of late, but re.
member that in the eighties there was
wave of agitation against football,
and at that time statistics were pub.
! lished, which showed that there were
more accidents In yachting. la crosse
and other such sports than there were