The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-21
Yale and Harvard Publication
 In Hearty Accord
PENALTY OF FUMBLlNG
Ball Should Not Be Lost on Fumbies. This Change Would Give For ward Pass More
 Play.
By MANHATTAN.

New York, December 20.-The rules which have opened up the play in foot ball have resulted so beneiciently that there are all sorts of suggestions being made for further changes which will make the game still more open, and more near ly approach the English Rugby game One of the suggestions which is bound to lead to talk If not to action is made in a communication to the Harvard Bull letn The writer claims that the pres ent game is artificial and unbalanced and will continue to be so until the long heave is carefully restricted and rem edy similar to the one he proposed is inserted in the playing rules.
 "To open the play" says the origin ator of the football minus fumbling "the extreme penalty for fumbling must be cut out. There is no penalty so severe as the loss of the ball, and tumble half the time means the loss of the ball. The penalty or rule should be that on fum- ble the ball Is down or dead where fumbled, and that another scrimmage take place at the point. The same team should retain possession of the ball un- less 1t was lost on downs or for some other reason.
 "The possibilities, probabilities and nec- essary results from this change are im- mehse. Instead of the present dull game with flashes of skill and genius, every play should abound in passes and good rushing. On the offense the rushers would not be afraid to execute passes, long and short, and the rule would be to attempt a pass before being tackled. On the other hand the defense would have to be alert to stop the ball as well as the rusher There is and can be no argument. and all would concede that the game would be opened up by this rule much more than by forward passing and outside kick ing"
 All of which is worthy of consideration
 Yale also comes forward with some sug- gestions.
 The Yale Alumni Week publishes an editorial condemning coaching from the side lines and secret practice. Taking the game out of the hands of the players on the field has been legislated against but not with any great success. occasion ally the coach is caught at it and his team penalized but oftener than not ne gets away with it. Football enthusiasts have long raved against secret practice This year there was more of this sort of thing than ever before. The Yale pub hcation speaking of side line coaching, says:
 Occasionally a team, or one man or the team, will take matters into their own hands, and win the game, and prove the woodenness of the prevailing automatic system. That is good deal more like good sport than the pulling of strings from the coaches benches on the puppets in uniform on the field. Any man able enough to be a football cap tain should be capable of running his own game. Before football came to De the highly organized game that It IS to- day. there was a good deal more indi- vidnal initiative on the field than there is now, and it was better for the game that 1t was so.
 "It would seem therefore that when the football rules committee meets they will have something to talk about.
 The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic association has decided that the baseball  the Jurisdiction of the association must wear cleats instead of spikes.
 Dick Grant Harvard '03 has been en- gagged to coach the track athletes of the University of Minnesota. Grant was very prominent in track affairs during his col lege days, and held several eastern col lege records. Perhaps his most notlee- able achievement was the winning of the Of miles,
 The intercollegiate rowing regatta next year will be held on the last Saturday 1 in June The features of the plans which | the stewards of the intercollegiate re- gatta association have made is that the races will be upstream instead or doWh, as heretofore. This means that the start l of the varsity event will be one mile l below the bridge, with the finish at the 1 northern end of the course The change v as made because of the tide conditions 1 Of June 26.
 The coxswains will have harder time l keeping their shells In the lanes allotted | them because of lack of landmarks along a greater part of the course It may be that the crew coaches will object to the change. Columbia, Cornell, | Syracuse Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, possi- bly Georgetown, and perhaps the winner O. the Pacific Coast regatta will have competing crews at Poughkeepsie next year
 It is probable that the Yale University | natatorium, which was presented to the New Haven college by Andrew Carnegie, 1 will be completed before the coming com l mencement The foundation to the big I tank was laid a week prior to the Yale 1 Harvard football game and the work is | progressing rapidly