Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-28
SEVERE CRITICISM
OF THE BIG THREE
Harvard, Yale andPrinceton Re-
fuse to Accept Officials AS
signed for Their Foot
Ball Contests. l.
By Edward R. Bushnell.

Harvard. Yale and Princeton have come
in for some pretty severe but well-deseryed
criticism for the attitude they have taken
toward the subcommittee on officials APP
pointed by the intercollegiate foot ball rules
committee. One of the reforms demanded
of this committee almost unanimously wa.
that the rules committee should appoint tbs,
officials for all the important games. east
and west, in order that the rules of the
game might be impartially enforced and all
forms of unnecessary roughness and foul
play eliminated The custom of letting the
interested colleges select their own off,
Gals was bitterly censured and pointed out
as one of the principal causes Of the dis
repute into which the game was falling
And of all the reformers occupying promi-
nent places in the band wagon none made
stronger pleas for the new order of things,
including the selection of officials by the
rules committee. than Harvard, Yale and
Princeton.
But for some unaccountable reason these
three universities have refused to adopt one
of the very reforms they advocated with SO
much ardor. They have announced within
the last week that the officials for the Yale
Princeton ami Yale-Harvard games have
been selected by the representatives Of
these three universities, the committee on
officials being ignored entirely. Now the
intercollegiate world wants to know why
they refused to take the same medicine they
prescribed for others. OF course. no college
Is bound to accept the appointments of this
committee unless it is so inclined But the
best interests of the game would be greatly
conserved If these three institutions were
more consistent in this regard. When the
subcommittee announced its~willingness to
undertake the disagreeable task of supply
ing competent officials for the various
games nearly all the minor colleges
OF the east. few Of the bigger
eastern universities and the whole of the
in 10 sl.os..
schedules. asking the committee to supply
all officials, thus showing their honest de-
sire for reform In this department. OF
the eastern big five" Cornell and Penn
sylvania agreed to abide by all the APP
pointments made by the committee Prince
ton did likewise. but the refusal of Yale to
let the committee select the officials for the
Yale-Princeton game compelled the Tigers
to stand with the Ellis in this particular
case.
Yale Particularly Censursd.
Another thing for which Yale in par
ticular. Is censured is the manner In which
the Ellis have referred to the officials the
committee has been sending to their pre-
ltminary games. 1t should be noted that
the games In which the officials decisions
dad no. please Yale were those in which a
Yale man had been disqualified for rough
work or for smuggling. In the Yale-Sprng-
field game the umpire sent Levene from
the game on the ground that he had struck
one of his opponents. The next day the
Yale coaches exonerated Their player
claiming that he had merely been improper
~ coached and that the official. who, by the
way, was a New Haven man had erred. A
hue and cry was also raised after the
Yale-Penu State game q week ago when
Erwin had to be sent off the field to-
gether with a member of the opposing
team with whom he had engaged In fsti-
cuffs on the field. After this game Yale
again criticised the officials and accused
the Penn State team. which had given 1t
its worst scare of the season. of playing
too rough a game Now Yale men are
demanding that the Penn State College be
dropped from the Est of Yales opponents
hereafter.
Yale may be able to justify this policy.
but 1t IS plain that the rest of the college
world does not approve OF 1t. The senti-
ment throughout the entire east Is that
the subcommittee on officials is doing its
work well, and that the colleges should
take their medicine and give the committee
the encouragement 1t deserves. And since
Yale and Harvard were among the leaders
in advocating reforms. especially in the
matter of better officials. it is felt that
they should be the first to secure all their
officials from this committee.
Development of the Kicking Game.
No previous foot ball year ever recorded
SO many field goals In a single days games
week ago. In almost every OF the
important games played in the east there
were ono or more drop or place kicks made
In the games. And not few very impor-
tant contests were won by a place or drop
kick. Il was a place kick that enabled
Bucknell from the 4O-yard line to be the
first college to score on the Tigers. In the
Dartmouth Mass. A. c. game. Glaze of
Dartmouth scored two field goals; two field
goals We're made by Cornell in the Bowdoin
game. one n the Yale-Penn State game;
one in the MichiGap-Ohio State game, while
in the 9ennsylvania-B Brown game Ca plain
Greene Of the Quaker eleven scored on a
place kick from the 3S-yard line, with a
wet ball. and at bad angle Not only
iE these big games were field goals scored
but in many minor contests throughout the
country goals were scored in a similar man.
ner and in not few instances they won
games.
The enumeration of these goals thus
scored merely shows how valuable a good
kicker, especially one who can score from
the field is to team. Because of the
great premium which is paced on the kick
Ing game coaches everywhere are working
ly emphasizes what Coach Yost OF Michi-
gan says. that '.kickers are born, not
made" And one would not be far wrong
in declaring that IL a game between two
evenly matched teams more points will
be scored on neld goals than on touch
downs. If actual experience proves this
to be the case X Is highly proba BILE that
tho rules committee will be obliged to cut
down the number of points which a goal
from field counts.