Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-29
Eastern Game
Is Questioned
The Practice of Kneeing Still Pre-
walls in Football, Although osten-
sibly LegisIated Out of the Play by
Recent Rulings

College football when clearly played
is a game which brings out manliness
in men, and a star player is greatly
admired by healthy minded men and
women. The homage given is his just
due, for the qualities which make the
man great in football would, If applied
with the same amount of energy send
him to the front in business or real
battles. There is no room in this
great college game for towards or
Shirkers, and in the long run the clean,
honest player who scorns to take a
mean advantage of an opponent is of
most value to his team, since his work
never brings a penalty.
But, unfortunately, all college foot
ball players are neither clean nor hon
est, and, more lamentable still, some
football coaches teach their players to
do dirty tricks in order to put dan
gerous men on the opposing team out
of the game. This class of football
players and football coaches are re-
sponsible for the popular outburst of
public Indignation which came so near
killing the game two years ago and
caused the football rulemakers to set
about it to correct the most glaring
evils.
The rules against unnecessary
roughness were made more strict and
additional officials were engaged to
help enforce them, but in spite of all
that was done college football is still
a brutal game, for the reason that
players who transgress against the
rules are not severely punished.
Hardly a game has been played on
Franklin field this year in which not
one, but several players have been Sc
Verely injured by member of the
opposing team who seemed bent on
putting someone out. 1t is only neces-
sary to go back over the list of in
jured players and note who they were
and their Importance to the team on
which they played, to see why it was
advisable from the standpoint of win
at any cost" to get them off the field.
Every team that has played Penn
sylvania this season has had good
reason to complain on this score, and
some of the hoWls that have been sent
UP have made quite stir in football
circles. The many bumps given the
two mainstays of the Pennsylvania
backfield show that the Pennsylvania
players were not the only ones who
transgressed. The trainer of the
Bucknell team, while he does not at
tempt to deny that Keinath was in
tentionally injured, declares that two
Bucknell players were put out of 1t
by unnecessary rough play on the part
of the Pennsylvania men, even charg-
ing Hollenback, the captain of the
team, with "kneeing" one of the Lew
isburg quarterbackS.
'Kneeing' was supposed to have
been. legislated out of college football.
for it is one of the most dangerous
practices known to the game. Elbows
are bad enough, and when properly
used often result in knockouts, but
knees are even more deadly and al
most invariably result in broken or
fractured bones
Hinkey will always be remembered
as the Yale captain who came near
killing a fallen Harvard player by
jumping on him with his knees. The
feeling against Hinkey for his display
of brutality was so great that his foot
ball career was cut short. The mod
ern method of using the knees is not
quite so glaring as in Hinkey's day,
but it is just as effective.
Kneeing is entirely uncalled for now,
since ground gained by player who
crawls after he has been thrown is
no longer allowed, the ball going back
to the spot where he was thrown. But
despite this fact the knees are used
in every game played. PENIS chief
coach was badly hurt and rendered
unfit for play for days by being kneed
by another Penn coach while illustrat-
ing to the players the most effective
way of breaking up forward pass
The play of the teams that meet
Penn shows that they, too, have been
taught to scrap and knee. This is all
wrong, and the welfare of football de-
mands that it shall be stopped. The
officials should be more watchful in
looking for foul plays of this nature
and also more severe in dealing with
the men who play dirty" football.
The dangers to life and limb in foot
ball are infinitely greater than in any
other sport, save automobiling and
ballooning, even when the contestants
try to be fair, and it is really brutal
sport when unfair methods are used.
Cut out the kneeing and cut out the
fighting, but tackle hard and f1ercely,
for that is in the game.-A. M. Gillian
in Philadelphia Record.