The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-11
MARKING PLAYERS
Football Experts Suggestion Meets With Much 0b-
 jection.
lNCITES GALLERY PLAYING
Is the Opinion of One Crihc-Another Thinks it Can't be Done,
 Anyway.

My appeal for the proper identifica- ton of the players in a football game by the use of numbers securely fast ened on the back of the jersey has opened the way to discussion of anoth- CT subject concerning the undue pub- licity given college sports, which can- not be passed over lightly, writes Her bert, the New York Tribune's football expert
 There was interest enough on the question of numbering the players, and six correspondents approved the suggestion. while two took mild ex- ception I would like to publish the views of those who coincided with my ideas, but space is lacking. The other two, however, demand recognition. R. l.. M. says in part:
 "The numbering of football players would lead, in my opinion, to making team play so essential to success, sub serviant to individual effort. A player would realize that he could be picked out more readily and would be tempt ed to play to the grandstand at the expense of his eleven"
 This does not appeal to me as a strong argument. So long as football or any sport is played, so long will some men magnify their own import arlce and for selfish measures play to the gallery when the opportunity pre- Sents. So long, also, as football or any sport is played, so long will some men outshine their fellows in brilliancy of individual effort, through no desire, however, to shine at the expense of their team. I am strong in the con- ~viction, based on close association with many athletes, that the so-called gal lery players are on the whole few and far between, particularly in college sports. There are some, of course who by virtue of their skill must be retained, but the persistent gallery player" whose vanity is uppermost ir his mind, rarely, if ever, makes a good athlete and is quickly weeded out. IT the heat of conflict the mind is con centrated on one particular thing, an6 for the moment everything else is for. gotten,i even the thought of danger.
 A letter from an "Old Grad" lead. up to the question of what part the general public has in college sports He says:
 T do not see that the general pub lie has any interest in college sports College sports are for college men, fol the actual participants in them, fol their pleasure and the pleasure of tn, college body and the graduates The, do not cry out for the forward pas, and the open game, or this or that though they may think them of goot effect, but they leave legislation in tn, game to those who understand tn, value of strategy on the field and wh' are working for a better game intelli gently. There is too much attention paid, it seems to me, to the outcry 0 the general public which knows noth ing of the causes and effects in tn, sport and judges superf1cially and ig pnrQntlv ha1inUa an1tonn would, be better off all the way aroun, without the general public, which. aft er all, represents the gate which i symbol of all the abuses and malprac tices that college sports have suffered The nearer we get to the ideal tha college sports are gentlemanly amuse ment, not a public show, the better of we will be-
 I subscribe heartily to the idea tha college sports are for college men, an that undue publicity and the exagger kted importance of the gate" ma make for evil, but I am also convince that this evil can be controlled an, Is being controlled; that much of tn undue publicity must be laid at tn ioors of those whose business it is | get the news" sometimes whether 1 be news or not, and that the awaken Ing of the filial duty which every ma owes to his alma mater, and which , aroused as perhaps could not be ac complished in any other way, by tn 'eturn to see a big football or basebaI yame, makes for good.
 HARVARD HIVE JnSE