The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-09-09
Stanford and Berkeley to Give
English Rugby Game a
Genuine Test.
STUDENTS ARE SLOW, TO
ENTHUSE OVER CHANGE
Coaches of Two Universities
Have Spent Summer Study
ing New Game.


football will be played this fall, but
not so on the Pacific coast The pres"
idents OF the two big California uni
versities put their heads together and
entirely abolished the old game, sub
stituting in its place modified form
game of football fail and this hybrid
of English Rugby succeed the game
thus introduced ON the coast may
spread from ocean to ocean. The ex-
pertinent will be watched with interest
says the Los Angeles Times, from
which the following article is taken;
An epoch in college football is about
mentous than those early days when
Walter Camp, the father of the Amer
lean Rugby game, visited the coast
universities and introduced the intercol~
legiate gridiron contests between Stan
ford and California. Again it is in
these two universities that an inno-
vation is TO be tried in the game that
may revolutionize the style of play III
the entire country if it should prove
successful during the first season. For
not only have the two stalwart presi-
dents of the California colleges dis
carded the old game, but they have
made a number of changes in the rules
which the contest between the Blue
and Gold and the Cardinal will be
copied.
One of the features of the adoption
of the English Rugby game by Stan
ford and California is the fact that
James Il. flanagan, who has coached
Stanford for the last three years and
football coaches in the country, has
given the English game a trial and
has declared himself for it. When
it was decided that the game for the
ball Of 1906 was to be a new one, M.
flanagan had been secured as coach
for football and baseball for the next
three years. He at once realized that
he was novice at this English game
and. placed his resignation with the
Stanford student body. But the 10y
atty to flanagan was so great and the
confidence so strong in his ability to
coach any kind Of a game and instill
adequate college spirit, that his resig.
nation was refused without debate,
Has Remarkable Success.
flanagan then began to prepare him
self TO coach the new game just as
he did the old, for it should be men
toned that flanagan, although thor
ough athlete, was never varsity foot
bah player. He made himself sue
cessful teacher of the game by long
and unremitting study of it's every de,
|
work of some of the best coaches and
had the benefit Of the advice of "Bil-
lie' Reed, the famous Harvard coach
and athlete.
Lanagan's success was remarkable
and he has never coached q losing
varsity football team. He now is de-
claring strongly for the English Rug
and enthusiasts are beginning TO show
interest in his work, for flanagan has
lately been in British Columbia watch
ing crack teams and expert coaches in
the so-called new game that is in re-
ality, however, much older than the old.
The man who will guide the sturdy
players of the Blue and Gold standard
Taylor, who is graduate of the Uni
versity of California and has spent the
past three months IN England, watch
ing the game as played in the col
leges and schools. He has come back
with his plans pretty well formed for
tered and played it himself in order
to know what it is from the standpoint
Of the participant. He said recently:
1.-The American game IS played by
eleven men and the English by ff-
teen. The physique required is the
same for both games, except that there
IS hardly a place in the English game
bad his day in the American game, too,
for any coach would prefer the sleek,
lSO-pound muscular man TO the 220-
pound man, who merely carries much
useless extra weight. If tho 200pounder
however, should be six feet four
inches tall, and all muscle, he would
be invaluable to either kind Of game.
The English game has places for sew
eral light, speedy and heady players,
while such men would have a hard
time making good in the American
game
Game Encourages Men.
The increased number of players in
the English game also encourages more
men 70 come out and try for the team.
The English allow no substitutes, but
the California-Stanford rules allow
three substitutes and a total Of five
men on the side lines, allowing the
captain some range in the choice Of
his men. But he can use only three
of the fve.'
Although both of the coaches of the
two coast universities are strong for
the new game, the student bodies arc
slow to enthuse, They yearn for the old
bleachers, where the practice games
between varsity and second team have
been held daily at night during foot
ball seasons for years, 1t was at these
gatherings that many of the under
graduates were taught their 1rst songs
and yells and learned to worship the
gridiron heroes in proper style. The
thud of leather on leather and the
excitement Of the scrimmage possesses
a fascination that no other sport has
been able to engender in the hearts
Of the young college men.
Strong Feeling Against Change.
There is still, both in Stanford and
California, a strong undercurrent Of
feeling against the change, and a half
hope that it is not yet too late to
secure a pardon for the old game. At
both places 1t is felt b. many that
the old intercollegiate contests were
banished without proper or fair hear
ing
A prominent exponent of the old
game at Berkeley says; "The univer-
iBity authorities here have never
claimed that the charges laid at the
door Of the game in tho East apply to