Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-12-10
FOOTBALL SURPRISES
Open Style Play Makes Many
Changes In Gridiron Game.
CREATES NEW CONDITIONS.
Small Colleges Have Better Chance to
Contend Successfully With Larger
Universities-Penns Versatile Play.
West Excels East.

Contend Successfully With Larger
Universities-Penn's Versatile Play.
West Excels East.
In the annals Of football the present
one marking an epoch in the gridirOn
game. Never before has any season
furnished such surprises nor gone so
Tar In breaking down the barrier that
in the past has stood between the big
colleges and the smaller ones.
Witness the scores that have been
made Three of the little colleges
played tie games with Princeton and
one of them. Dartmouth, defeated the
Tigers. Yet the orange and black
team cannot be set in the class Of In
feriOrs. as their recent game with
Yale demonstrated. Yet Brown played
Yale to a standstill and Penn beat
Brown. The Indians held Penn to a
tie score and fell easy prey to Har-
ward. The University of Plttsburg,
which has never been classed among
the big ones. outplayed the Indians,
although they lost the game by 6 to 0.
To go further, the army team. which
has shown it's strength more than once
during the season, particularly in the
Princeton game, could do no better
than play tie with Washington and
Jefferson, and the w. and J. team
was beaten by the University Of Pitts
burg.
These are but few Of innumerable
instances that might be cited in illus
tratiOn Of the vagaries of this season
in football. To the student of the
game the results lead to but one con-
clusion. and that is that the develop
ment Of the open style Of play has put
the smaller schools on a plane nearer
to equality with the bigger colleges
than they have ever enjoyed before.
In the past the big colleges. with the
heavy teams and famous coaches, have
beaten down the hitler ones by sheer
weight, strength and superior coach
ing. But things have changed. First
Of all, most Of the smaller schools that
support good teams have engaged Zig
college coaches and in this way have
cut away one advantage formerly held
by the big colleges. Then the new
style Of play was introduced to lessen
the danger Of the game. 1t took time
to develop this game-the new forma-
tons. short kicks. forward pass and
the numerous trick plays. But this
year has seen the successful working
Of all these and has brought the small
er college football teams into position
they never occupied before. They must
be recognized by their bigger brothers.
Disaster has Overtaken more than one
Of the big schools this year because
this fact was overlooked, so it must be
conceded that the new style Of play in
its present development has wrought a
change.
The conditions 1t created have SUI
perseded those that have ruled ever
since football was played by our col
leges and have worked out an order of
things that must take the place Of the
old order. 1t has undoubtedly made
the game more interesting from spec
tator's standpoint, and its possibilities
have not been exhausted by any
means. Give the colleges a few years
more to develop greater proficiency in
the new style play and football will be
infinitely more popular even than 1t is
today.
The west has excelled the east in the
successful use Of the open play. Chi
cago, Wisconsin and Michigan have
used the onside kick and forward pass
to advantage and have unquestionably
demonstrated their superiority over
their eastern rivals in this branch of
the game. Chicago proved this to Cor
nell, much to Cornell's chagrin. Michi-
gan tried It, too, against Pennsylvania.
but found the Quaker team had mas
tered the game and could use 1t with
greater accuracy and better results
than the Wolverines.
This fact in itself must stamp Penn
as one Of the greatest football teams
In the country this year. Had Penn
not excelled in this respect the result
Of the recent game would have been
different, for Michigan had big.
heavy team. coached by one of the
games greatest strategists. In a line
bucking contest the Wolverines were
match for any team.