New-York tribune., 1905-11-27

Sixteen deaths resulting from football in
iyries since October 8.
r.,er Camp and the rules committee Of
.,.+ he is chairman must go as the arbiters
,s football is the opinion that has been forming
a, .bA minds of many who are advocating
.hsnees in college athletics since the beginning
= .he season and IN fact IT is the view that
hss been held by many for more than one
season The death of Harold P. Moore, of
Union College, after the game with New-York
University on Saturday. has crystallized this
gradually forming opinion into a fixed deter
,nnation. Next season. unless there is a radical
change in the present plans of those who have
undertaken to reform football vigorous effort
will he made TO depose Camp, and with him all
the members of the present rules committee,
.'self-constituted and self-organized.'' Presi-
dent Benjamin Ide Wheeler Of the University Of
California has termed II.
For some years it has been seen that there
must he 2 decided change in the way football
4. played and early in the present season there
began series of informal conferences between
men representing the leading universities to the
end Of bringing about this reform. These in
formal conferences led TO formal, arranged
meetings. at which programme Of action has
Deen pTdGliCdlll decided OIL ana the IlrSL step
In the programme is to be the abolition of the
present rules committee. bag and baggage.
'You saw President wheelers statement
said one Of those who has been taking part in
these conferences yesterday. That is sgnif-
cant. You have there, in fact, the basis of the
whole plan. Go over the heads of this com
mittee. Let the universities take charge of
football, give a responsible body to govern
the game. Who are these fellows anyway?
Who appointed them and to whom are they
responsible?
There is going to be a responsible body to
govern football IN this country. It will be a
body to which the players will he responsible,
and II viii be body that does not begin and
end IN Itself but will be appointed by -the tisai--
Varsities officially and will be responsible to the
universities"
There was a high degree of wrath evident yes
terday in those who have been taking part in
these conferences and are going to see to it that
football becomes clean, wholesome game They
trace the present condition Of football directly TO
the doors of the members of the committee
They are responsible all and severaIly for the
roughness of college football" said one of the
conferrees. And, in addition to this, they trace
the professionalism that has come to pervade all
branches of college sport to the same committee
College athletics have been written of so freely
In the magazines recently. and public opinion
has become so aroused on the subject that 1t has
been determined there must be a thorough
cleaning up of all branches of college sport
With the three players killed on Saturday
there is a record so far this year OF sixteen
deaths in football games. Such a list demands,
say those who follow college affairs that there
must be change in the way football is run and
played, or the game must be abolished. DR.. f.
he 10,
iumbia University team, is especially severe in
his restrictions the game.
i have no hesitation in saying" he said yes
terdsy. that the game as it is played to-day
shoud be abolished. I have been surgeon for
the Columbia team for six years. and 1 think it
lis The most brutal exhibition 1 have ever seen
or & heard Of TO call sport. Sport!
a. WI NJ, there is no sport about game where
uIe PAYERS go on the field expecting to be hurt
aha 1 glad if they come off with nothing worse
man broken bone. And many of them go out
intending 10 injure their opponents. 1t is no
game Tor the boys who play il, when they are
Joys, Many Of them not fully developed,
ana they may be ruined for life by the strain
.hey undergo in a single football game. Suppose
Ohs OF these yourg chaps gets an eye knocked out
and 1t may very we'll happen-Or suppose that
@ .ae Lsaments in his leg are torn away and torn
ssiart there is something that he Will carry with
nm TO the grave.
And have spoken of these boys playing
eh mneh they are boys have seen teams come
..lenoers registered as being from eighteen to
t~ehty-two years old. but l will stake my name
nd not three Of them were under thirty. The
present. system OF football has bred a spirit of
professionalism I in college athletics and demor-
eized the spirit OF college honor until the sit
uation is deplora BILE"
II is not only that football itself has fallen
IA the public estimation. but that the whole
system Of college athletics is being brought
INTO oisrepute that has aroused the heads of the
great universities and colleges to undertaking
me reformation of the game. Some OF the bit
tefest things said yesterday by those men in
uis city who have been called into the confer
eaees on the revision of football were brought
out by the general condition OF college ath-
letics
Our boys are being taught dishonor. said
one man who sat surrounded by a family that
ne hopes Some day to see graduating from ms
oEn university and II is this feeling that is
pack Of the deep seated determination TO bring
about a radical change in the football situa-
ton"
The present members of the football rules
committee are Walter Camp, OF Yale, chair-
man: Paul Dashiel OF Lehigh; Robert u wren
q Harvard: AlonZo G. Stagg. or Chicago: l.. M
Dennis. OF Cornell. and II. B. Fine OF erlnce-
ION. This committee it has been declaea 70
abolish by the simple process OF appolhChs
committee officially represent The colieses anu
oe responsible TO them.