The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29
MORAL EFFECT OF FOOTBALL PLAYING Camp Tells of Good Lessons
 Game Teaches SUCCESS REQUIRES WORK Discipline Is Also Good ResuIt-sport Appeals To Best Element Be- cause Qualities That Are
 Required.
SUCCESS REQUIRES WORK
From the New York Sun.

1 From the New York Sun
 Some people have the idea that all we i do at Yale Is talk athletics" said Wal ! ter Camp the other day. That is not so l At this period of the year you might
 wander over the campus and visit the I students in their rooms all day, and you
 wouldn't hear football or any other topic
 of sport mentioned. However, I for one
 at Yale think there are good reas IS for 1 trying to succeed at what one under | takes, and l don't know but what the
 system that has brought a certain degree of success, in football at any rate,
 has resulted in our worrying less and i giving less thought to football than is
 the case at some other institutions. Who
 shall be captain and who shall be head l coach for next season are not matters 1 which are giving Yale men any great 1 concern, for they have come to know | that those questions managed here | that whatever is done about them will 1 be the result of a system that has been
 successful.
 We think success in football is worth 1 striving for because it teaches men that 1 if they to accomplish what they set | about to do they must do so by work ] and submission to discipline. That Is a l good lesson to teach a man. Further ] more the moral tone of college men has | improved a great deal in recent years, | and in this the successful athlete has ] done his share. Drinking, dissipation, is 1 not good form for college men nowaways time was when not much was thought | of it. Take such men as Tad Jones, a
 leader among his fellows and who leads l an upright life. Other students initiate
 his habits, and such imitation, uncon- | scious, perhaps, does them a world of
 good.
 "The man who goes in for athletic soon | finds that he must go according to a | schedule if he is to keep up and make l the most of his time. When the mo- 1 ment comes for study he has no time
 to lean on window sills and talk with | his fellows. He must get right down to
 his books, and must apply himself during
 his study hours. He quickly learns that
 he must sytematize his hours for sport
 and study, and habits of regularity and
 order soon come to him.
 Football appeals to the best people.
 That Is evident when one sees the size
 of the crowds and the people composing
 them. It Is a game of strategy, skill
 and brains. and 1t appeals to culture 1 and intelligent people who appreciate 1 what qualities 1t represents. In New York | Boston, Philadelphia and other places
 where there is culture and refinement | f00tDaH Is very popular. U didWS ic- l spectable, thinging people and many of | them.
 | Another thing about football, it de- mands courage to stick to your plans and | not become Hurried demoralized when 1 your plans go wrong temporarily. mere l is the courageous defense, for example. It l may seem to be wrong and to be gfv- ing way and it requires courage at
 such a time to stick to 1t and give 1t a | chance to prove itself The temptation
 at such times is strong to forsake your 1 plan, to try hurriedly to check the op-
 ponent by some other method. Sometimes | your plans are wrong and you lose, put | if your opponent scores on you at least l you learn that you have planned wrong,
 and besides you'll be scored on still often- l CT if in a moment of panic you do not
 stick to what you have. are hurried | into moistrust of and failure to hold 1 to your plans sudden wavering or | that sort on the one-yard line will result
 more disastrously than sticking to and
 having faith in original plans.
 | "So far as learning the lesson from one | contest is concerned l have found that | that must begin at once. It doesn't do to l wait to draw the conclusions furnished l by actual contest on the field. The time 1 to learn your lessons that you may | profit by what they teach is While you | still have a clear picture of the game | week after you'll find your recolections | are getting hay. It won't be quite clear l in your mind whether a certain player | stood four feet or six feet away, and l you must know positively about these | points,
 | q am a believer in the freshman rule; l it has been a good measure, but in one 1 way 1t has increased the difficulty or de- veloping varsity material. The pest
 school for developing varsity material IS l ttc los | by hard knocks in competition with the | varsity Often the freshman. being by | himself for a year, comes to the varsity | team without having had any experience | on the second team. He may have been | told dozen times just where to stand | when about to kick, but if he is doing | 1t wrong that fact won't be impressed on | him half as forcibly as if he were on the | second team and had some big varsity man come through and block his kick and | inset him. One or two of the latter ex- | periences are worth all the telling" | In conclusion Mir Camp said regarding | the report that he favored abandoning the | forward pass that one paper went so far
 as to say he wanted to close up the game | again-make 1t as 1t was before the new | rules. Camp never said that he wanted | to abandon the forward pass. He merely | wants to restore it to the rule that gov | erned it in 1906, and most good Judges who | have the Weltare or the sdihe dt heail | agree with him. The 1907 forward pass | regulations made too much of luck and l too little of skill As to wanting to close up the game, such statement is absurd, l because, If for no other reason, Camp | fathered the 10-yard rule. But if the
 Yale adviser took occasion to deny all | the foolish football charges laid to his | door he wouldn't have tune to attend to | his clock business.
 l
 Concrete.