The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-08

prominently displaying news items of
football players injured. Let a man twist
an ankle in a baseball game and it is
as nothing. Let a man get a corner
of his face knocked off in a prize fight
and the papers accept the fact as a mat
ter of course. Let a man be injured in
basketball or polo, and the papers pass 1t
as an accident too common for the oc-
cupancy of other than limited space But
let man receive a bruise in a football
scrlmmage and the entire game is tried
found guilty, and executed!
Inc participation in football hardens a
mans muscles, gives him a fine
physique, buoys up his physical and
moral courage, and what is more valu-
able, causes him to think quickly.
prominent gentleman of Birmingham be-
leves that he owes his life to the fact
That while in college he played football.
lie was under a street car He thought
without moments hesitation and es-
capped with his life. To the ability to ap-
preciate danger and to solve the method
OF escape instantly the gentleman in oues-
ton gives credit to the game of foot
ball.
waiter Camp, admittedly the greatest
Football expert, some years ago addressed
letters to 1857 gentlemen who, in their
college careers, became famous as foot
ball players. Camp asked what effect If
any, their football experiences had on
their after lives
Three hundred and twenty-nine declared
themselves benefited in many respects
, F1fty-six noted no effect. Two failed to
answer.
+ II IS an apparent fact that a college.
having Tor several successive seasons a
splendid football team, notes material
j growth In the number of pupils II is
equally as apparent, on the other hand.
ana strange to relate, that college facul-
ues. especially in the south, do all that
IN their power lies to handicap their re-
spectiVe teams Everybody interested in
Football desires clean sport. But nothing
IS more disgusting than the ''gnat-strain-
ing and camel-swallowing on the part
Oh so-called learned professors. You find
teachers, believed to be, well balanced
men, so earnestly in chase of clean ath-
letics that they overlook, even. the rights
guaranteed to men under the constitution
OF the United States. They question the
honesty and integrity of every man de-
string to play college football They con-
slider every candidate for the team guilty
of ineligibility and guilty of perjury. and
make 1t imperative on the man so charged
to prove his innocence
| When, In the history of southern foot
ball, has man from a northern state
matr1culated in southern college without
arouslng a general suspicion, an ever
lasting suspicion, that he is "ringer?
10 such a narrow policy have southern
college faculties become attached.
But football has come to stay. 1t will
pc Played Tor years and years to come.
The game each season becomes more and
more scientific. The sport each season Sc
cures warmer place in the hearts of
the people While its enemies are mani
fold, football numbers among its enemies
only those who know nothing of its his
tory, its development and it's present
methods.
The game becomes better understood
each season, and to that reason is proper
ly attributed the fact that the ranks Of
its enemies are thinner each season.