Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-27
1907 TO BE BANNER
YEAR ON THE GRIDIR0N
1t Is Generally Believed That the Fora
ward Pass innovation Increases
Interest and Quality of
American Game

The consensus of opinion is that the
present football season will eclipse all It's
predecessors in general interest and the
quality of the game played. Last fall
there was not a little adverse criticism
made of the game because of the radical
changes made by the rules committee.
The criticism was not confined to the out
side public. but was indulged in generally
by the players and coaches. Principal
fault was found with the forward pass,
the biggest innovation ever made in the
game. SO disgusted were many of the
coaches with this play which they con-
sidered dangerous and unsatisfactory from
every standpoint, that not few of them
abandoned 1t temporarily in midseason.
But the success achieved at Yale and
Princeton won friends everywhere and it
was speedily reinstated, and before the
end of the season it was considered the
most spectacular play of the game.
This fall the forward pass Is going to
be the feature of the game. The coaches
are training their candidates to use 1t in
the preliminary work, thereby admitting
its mastery to be as important as the
rudiments of the game. The general pub
lie is expecting great things from the
coming season, and there is certain TO be
record breaking attendance at all the
big games.
With the development of the forward
pass coaches are sure TO spend more at
tention than heretofore to the kicking
game. There were not a few games last
fall which were won solely through the
ability of one man to kick goals from the
field. One of the most notable examples
of this was the Pennsylvania-Swarth
game, which the former team won by to
o. Swarthmore was actually outplayed IN
straight football, but because of the abil-
ity of her quarterback to drop-kick, won
the game when a fumbled punt put the
ball within scoring distance.
This year there is certain to be greater
premium than ever placed on the kicking
game. Any coach who has proper ap.
probation of the value of a good kicker
will see that there is one such man on
his team. no matter what his other de-
fects are.
Although the consent of all the big
colleges of the east has not vet been
secured to permit the central board of
officials to name the men to offieiate at
their football games, big step in this
direction was taken when some twenty
one institutions held a meeting in New
York with this committee, and prelim-
mary steps were taken to this end. 1t
remains to be seen how far the big uni
versities will be willing to trust the com
mittee in the selection of officials for
their championship games. If Harvard,
Yale and Princeton should reverse them
selves and permit the committee to name
their officials for their big games, as
Cornell and Michigan did last fall, and
will do again this year there would be a
great improvement in the ethics of col
lege sport.
Football candidates at the various col
leges big and little, are appearing in
goodly quantities for practice Varsity
football squads are necessarily not so
large as they were up to the beginning
Of last season, when freshmen were
barred from varsity competition, but pro-
portionately they are larger than hereto
fore.