The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-19
ASSOCIATION GAME
IS WINNING ITS WAY
Football Reform Is Brinqina
Style of Play Into
Favor
SneciaI to The cInho

Speclai TO Tine Globe
NEW YORK, March 1S.-Of the four
recognized kinds of football, the Amer
lean college game, the English Rugby
game, the Gaelic game and the aSso-
citation game, the former holds first
place In this country, but the latter has
peen working its way into favor with
recent years in a quiet but convincing
way. Advocates of association do not
advance it as a substitute for the col
lege game. They hold it to be as DIFF
ferent from that as baseball is, and
look only to place ii alongside the
other sport, but still the continual re-
vision OF rules in the college game in
order to eliminate Objectionable fea-
lures attracts more notice to the as
ISOLATION style by contrast, and the
widespread criticisms at the close of
the last collegiate session have given
the lesser known game noticeable i'm
petus since.
DEFINITE arrangements have Just been
made in two directions through which
association football is about to enjoy
more prominence than ever before.
The first is the formation of a local
leagI1e, and the other IS the completion
OF plans on the part of the Corinthians,
the foremost amateur players in Eng
land, to make tour of Canada and the
United States next August.
The Metropolitan Association Foot
ball league is the name of the local
Dody just organized and has been
brought about largely through the eff
forts of Jerome Flannery, an enthusi-
asst of the game. At present there are
SIX clubs in the organization, but this
number will probably be increased.
Ihe members are the Brooklyns the
Favorite Athletic club, the Caledoni-
ans, the Newark Football club, the
Bronx Athletic club and the Paterson
Rangers. A series of games for a cup
presented by the league will begin
shortly. The schedule will proceed ac-
cording to the round robin principle,
with preliminary drawings, each team
TO drop out after defeat.
The visit of the Corinthians next
summer is likely to prove even more
important in the way of bringing the
association game before the public.
The Corinthians expect to arrive I'm
Canada Aug. 4, playing games I'm Que
bee, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg.
From there they come to the United
states, to play in Chicago. Detroit,
PlttSburg, Philadelphia, New York and
Boston. Mr.. Flannery, who is to ar
range their schedule in this country,
expects them in New York about the
first week in September, when all New
York team will be organized to con-
test against them, and an effort will
be made to secure the use of the Polo
grounds. The visitors will leave this
country from Boston Sept. 49,
Here in New York association foot
ball has been played more this winter
than at any previous time, and its
popularity has also been growing In
other cities. The colleges, too. seem to
be feeling their way into it, Owing, in
part, perhaps, to dissatisfaction over
the showing of the varsity eleven at
Harvard last fall, the effort to intro
duce the game in Cambridge sub
sequently has met with decided sue
cess. students have been playing Ii
there ever since the season for the
other game closed, and have lately ar
ranged with the boys club of this city
to send its team up for a match on
March rs.
Association football is a game for
all the year around, but is, of course.
particularly adapted to the cooler
months. In England, and to some ex-
tent here. it is played right through
the winter, even with snow on the
ground, but in New York as soon as
the ground gets frozen hard, or after
Christmas, it. is abandoned until
spring, when second season begins
The association game makes its prin-
cipal appeal on account of it's OPEN
ness. 1t is more open even than bas-
ketball or hockey, because played on
a larger field and does not depend
upon fixed alignments of any kind. It's
other characteristic difference from the
college game Is that it is a kicking
rather than carrying contest Neither
Is the kicking limited to any one man,
but 1t Is distributed among all play
ers In the association game the ball
cannot be carried, passed or bounced
along the ground. No player except
the goalkeeper is allowed to make use
OF his hands at all except in kicking.
The maximum size for an association
football field is 200x100 yards. and the
minimum 100x50 yards. The goals on
the end lines are two upright posts
eight yards apart, with a cross bar
eight feet from the ground The bali
used is perfectly round, instead of
tapering at the ends, as is the college
game ball, and about twenty-eight
inches in circumference A team con-
sists of eleven players, divided into
five forwards, three halfbacks. two
fullbacks and one goalkeeper. The
forwards consist of two right wings
two left wings and a center. the lat,
ter the field general, and the most i'm
portant man on the team. The for
wards are usually the lighter and fas-
ter players and are the skirmish line
for attack. The halfbacks are used
partly for this, and partly for defense.
The fulibacks are the bulwark OF the