Los Angeles herald., 1907-11-09
RUGBY GAME
HOLDS S WAY
BIG COLLEGES TO MEET FOR
ANNUAL STRUGGLE
Both California and Stanford Confident
of Victory on Cardinals New
Field and Large Crowd
Is Expected

This is the day when the two great
state educational Institutions, the Uni
versty OF California and Stanford uni
versity, meet on the football field to de-
termine the supremacy for the coming
year. This season it will not be a giant
struggle between beefy heavy weights
clad in all the armor of the old American
football game. The men will not go down
Ii. grmy, sweaty, struggling mass,
burying their heads in the sawdust at
every down.
The spectacle this year will be alto
gether different. Swift, athletic sprint
ers. clad in light running trousers, will
engage in a match of skill and, to some
extent, strength on clean grass field.
Skill will count for much more in this
game than in the old; endurance is one of
the chief requirements. while brute
strength is not so essential.
This year the game Is to be played on
the new Stanford field and will be the
first intercollegiate Rugby contest held
On the new grounds.
The grass was planted early in the sea-
son and has a good start. 1t makes
swift field to play on and the men quit
work with their costumes as clean as
when they began. There is no dust to fill
the lungs of the players or obscure the
plays from the spectators on the
bleachers.
Rugby enthusiasts, as well as all low
ers of amateur intercollegiate athletics,
are going to be there in swarms to wit
ness what promises to be the greatest
exhibition of Rugby football ever seen or
the coast Special trains are to be run
from San Francisco all day and the rail-
way company is preparing to handle a
crowd of $1,000 persons. The new bleach
ers at Stanford will be tested to their
utmost capacity and all standing room is
expected to be occupied.
Try for Hoodoo
California has beer making herculean
efforts to overcome the hoodoo OF the
series of Stanford victories of the past
FIVE years. Ever since the famous coach,
Jimmy flanagan, the man who never
PLAYED football except in his head and on
paper. took charge of the Stanford ath-
letic destinies the Cardinal has carried
everything before it.
With it's imported coach, Taylor, an old
Rugby man. California players have been
training for months in systematic effort
to overcome their slump. They count on
Stanford's overconfidence as one element
in their favor. The followers of the Blue
and Gold are sure their team is this year
destined to carry away the laurels from
Stanford and they are entertaining rond
hopes of executing tho serpentipe on the
green lawn of the Stanford field.
Stanford students are equally confident.
Coaches Jimmy flanagan and George Pres
icy spent the summer in Australia learn
ing the game from the most successful
of Rugby players. They have been able
to show the Stanford men many stunts
which they learned from the New Zea-
land crack team. Hardest of all tasks,
they have been able to instill to large
degree the spirit Of the English game
into the players.
Last years s game was disappointing TO
most of those who witnessed it. 1t was
the first attempt at adapting foreign
game to the needs of the American pup-
lie. which wanted something stirring and
exciting. The game was slow and full OF
contention. Too much depended on the
decisions of the referee. This year the
public has had an opportunity to digest
the mysteries of the serum, and the try
and numerous other radical features OF
the English contest, and the players have
had a chance to learn the game. Ihe
coming exhibition promises to be the
greatest of its kind in the United states
and will largely determine the perma-
renee of Rugby football on this coast.