Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-21
OLD STYLE
is ROASTED
BY JORDAN
SAYS RUGBY is ONLY GAME ON
GRIDIRON
Praesident Of Stanford University in
Address to Occidental College Calls
American Football Direct
ors Hard Names

Roasting everything and everybody
connected with football as played in the
| good old American style, David Starr
Jordan of Stanford university yester-
day addressed the students of Occidental
college and discussed the complicated
condition of American athletics Ac-
cording to President Jordan's version the
recent corruption charges are all due to
the present style of football played by
every school or college of consequence
in the country except Stanford and the
University of California, and the lee
ture evidenced the fact that the Stan
ford head does not believe that the ma
jority is right. but that he alone-with
his Rugby team-holds the solution to
the problem. In part DIR. Jordan said:
II have felt ashamed of the entire
university world on account of the cor
rupt condition under which college
athletics are allowed to continue. j can
not bring myself to the optimistic views
of those who are willing to be content
with the assurance that affairs are i'm
proving. In the football season just
past / can cite dozens of instances of
rank professionalism existing in the
teams of colleges all over the country.
Players have come under my personal
observation who have been taken right
out of our own state to play in eastern
football elevens and excused from the
usual scholarship examinations on the
excuse that the change of climate from
California would have a deterorating eff.
feet on their ability to pass the tests.
'I have seen nothing to criticise In the
elevens representing Harvard and Cor
nell this year, but the teams OF Yale and
Michigan contain professional players,
and the athletic directors of these in
stitutions make no effort to disguise the
fact. The game has resolved itself into
puppet warfare and the controlling
strings are operated by such men as
Camp, Yost and other professional men
who are working for money and willing
to descend to any means, fair or foul.
which will result IL a winning team. In
fact the so-called American game is
merely creation of these coaches who
have perfected it and who control the
slight changes which are made yearly
and which make it each season more
cruel
"The slight concession allowed by
Camp in the forward pass play this
year and the on-side kick rule is the
only advance toward a civilized game
that has been made for several seasons
retracted from the old barbarian style
of close formation play. The same
coaches who control the game are re.
sponsible for the style of playing and
promote brutality in all forms. One of
the commonest tricks taught in their
training camps is the scheme of direct
ing the combined efforts Nof team
against one player of the opposing side
with the result that he is literally killed
-. k1I,1 y
placed by a less skillful substitute. The
coaches excuse this foul method on the
ground that everyone practices the same
tricks and what is fair for one is fair
for another. AS an instance of this
can name the captain of the Swarthmore
team whom 1 recently saw. The side of
his face was a mass of bruises and he
was disfigured for life through the eff
forts of an opposing football team to put
him out of commission in a game this
season."
In upholding Rugby, President Jordan
was loud in the praises of the English
game, and in expressing his preference
for 1t said:
''The difference between Rugby and
the American game is the difference be-
tween brain and Drawn. Any heavy
duffer anglearn the American game In
three months a man with no knowledge
coached into a destructive machine. On
the other hand the man who plays Rug
by must be able to use his head as well
as his muscles, and must combine every
energy of mind and body in his efforts.
The game promotes the best and cleanest
In athletic competition, eliminating the
brutality and chance for intentional dirty
work which is found in the American
game. Besides. Rugby cannot be manip-
ulated solely by unscrupulous coaches
In reference to the adoption of Rugby
by Stanford and California universities,
President .ordan said
when Rugby was introduced into and
eventually adopted by Stanford and the
University of California it was after the
careful consideration of the game from
all standpoints. The athletic directors
of the two institutions had decided to
make radical changes in the football pro-
gram and Rugby was therefore consid-
cred. When the authorities of Stanford
and California were convinced that they
had come to the same understanding of
the situation. the new game was adopted
and the students were told that they
were to play Rugby or nothing. can
say that now neither institution is sorry
Of tha choioe