Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1906-03-31
.MAaE u E0OI.BAA
Remarkable Popularity Of Grid
iron Game in Short Time
FIRST REAL GAME IN 1876

Great strides sIede in Last Five
Years because Of National Inter-
est Crcated--iIas Never Gained
the Favor Baseball Claimed in its
Beginning.
About the time that organized
baseball became q powerful factor in
American sports. says the Louisville
CouFier-Joarnal American football
crept In, Not so many are apt to rat
tie OF football statistics as are able
to tell stories of all the baseball play
ers of prominence. and yet when the
statement is made that the game OF
football has developed with more
rapidity than any sport in the Uni
ted States, growing from a weakling
to a lusty young giant in an incredl-
bly, short period of time. it is stating
a common truth which is well known
TO every sporting authority and
cheerfuily granted by every dealer in
sporting goods in the United States.
In 1876 the National League of
baseball clubs was organized We
had plenty of baseball before then,
but this new organization helped
vastly TO put baseball on the substan-
tial footing it enjoys at the present
time
How many are there who know
that. in the same year, SIC. the real
game of American football was in
spired? How few there are who
would think. so far as time is con-
cerned, that the rise of baseball and
football in = measure is synonymous.
And the reason for il all is the fact
that football was a little backward at
the start and has only leaped to its
popularity within the last score of
years. while baseball swung into gen.
eral favor from the date OF the incep-
ton of a well constituted organiza-
ton
The missionaries of football
throughout the United States have
been the college men. Westerners
who went East to study at Harvard
and Yale, at Princeton and at other
universities which have picked up
football one after the other, returned
home filled with the longing to see
football elevens established in the
cities In which they resided.
As the West became more thickly
settled. and colleges sprang up here
and here throughout the country,
there was a desire on the part of the
students 10 emulate the East in the
matter of participation in football,
and the result was the gradual in
PRODUCTION of the game into the larg-
er educational institutions, and from
those TO the smaller.
From 1880 to 1890 there was al
ways football in the United States,
but little was heard OF it except in
college centers. 1t was a long way
/. from becoming n sport which was
some day TO command thousands of
columns of attention from the news
papers of the land After 1890 the
big games between Harvard and
Yale. and Yale and Princeton, and
between other colleges of promi-
nence. began TO be Witnessed by sys-
tematically increasing crowds 1t
was discovered that men were tray-
cling from one limit of the United
States 10 the other TO be present at
the annual football game between
their alma mater and some univer-
sity dearly loved as an enemy. AS
the crowds swelled and their inter
est waXed the game was forced more
and more on public attention, but it
IS only within the last FIVE years that
football has attained anything like
the popularity of baseball and now,
considering the brief time in which
1t. is possible to play, it is a ques-
ton if, all things considered, it does
not outstrip baseball in the feverish
anxiety of its votaries TO make the
most of their opportunity.
When 1t is known that the output
of a factory furnishing football sup
plies is now twenty times greater
than 1t was five years ago, some idea
may be had of the increased number
of football players in the United
States The output of the same fac
tory is almost fifty times greater
than il was twenty years ago, or
even fifteen years ago.
Whether boys Of tender years
should be allowed 10 play football is
a question which it is not the pur-
rose OF this article to debate. 1t is
. matter which rests solely with the
parents. One thing is very certain,
no boy should be permitted to take
mart i'm the game who is not sound
constitutionally. II is the most try
ing OF all our outdoor pastimes, and,
While it may be splendid exercise
and a toaic for the strong, it is far
100 greedy in its demands for the
weak To go through 8 game Of foot
ball is the equivalent of splitting
wood in the back yard. and If that
fact were impressed energetically on
some youngsters who want to play,
but are hardly up to physical re-
auirements. it might discourage
them 10 such an extent that they
would be willing TO sit on the fence
AID watch the others.