The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-26
CHANGES IN STORE
FOR FOOTBALL
Experts viii Meet This Week
to Revise Rules for
1910.
TOO MANY CASUALTIES TO
PRESENT COLLEGE SPORT
ingalls, Makes Suggestions for
More Open Game on
GridirOn.
Snccial TO The Tribune.

mitiee is scheduled 10 meet In New
York, December %, and everybody
seems to be discussing what effect radi-
cal changes will have upon football.
Lieutenant Commander M. +. Trench
of the United States navy. who played
football in 1883 on the team of west,
crn university, and who aftcrward
PLAYED four years on the naval academy
team, today gave his views in detail
as to reforms needed in the game. lie
advocated the abolition of training
tables and coaches and the return of
the sport TO the control of the players
themselves. He said:
'tThe consensus of public opinion
seems to he that the present game must
be changed so as TO make It less Tlo-
lent and dangerous, and it ls highly
probable that next season Will see a
considerable change in the rules, A
change in the rules, however, will not
give the desired results unless other
radical changes in the conduct of the
game are made at the same time,
Safer Football.
"'The New York Herald, in its praise
worthy efforts TO promote the game OF
football along safer and saner lines,
recently invited two Canadian teams to
play game Of Rugby football IN New
York city, so that the public and the
so.called football experts might have an
opportunity to witness it and Judge
whether we should adopt the Canadian
game or any Of Its features.
''The comments of these football ex"
perts, as given in the newspapers, state
that the game was not interesting, not
developed in the fine points of tackling
and line bucking, and that an insuf-
ficient number of men got into the play.
1t is further stated that the Canadian
colleges do not have training tables.
that they do not train as we know
training, and that a college never has
more than one coach. This criticism
is the keynote Of what is the matter
with our game.
Games Are Similar.
$50 far as / am able TO Judge from
accounts of the Rugby game played in
New York on December IL it was sim
liar IN many respects to the game l
PLAYED at a western university twenty
one years ago. We had no coach, no
trainer and no training table. The
players worked out the plays under the
guidance of their captain, and very
pleasant and very profitable hours were
spent by members of the team getting
up plays and working out the plan of
campaign. We thoroughly enjoyed play
ing the game and considered 1t manly
and strenuous one, IN which a player
might suffer broken leg collarbone or
arm, but II was not considered haz-
ardous to life or likely to cause per
manent injuries. AS a matter of fact,
there were very few injuries of any
importance, and during the FIVE years
that the writer played football he new
er had time called for him. Each
member Of the team felt individual re-
sponsibility, not only for the physical,
but also for the intellectual part of
the game.
''In my first three years at the
naval academy the same system pre-
vailed, but IN the fourth year the sys-
TEN changed, and coaches, trainers.
training tables and all the other mod
PLAYER became part of machine
called the team, which was taken in
hand and driven by the coaches. His
individuality was taken away from him.
and he simply carried out the will and
instructions Of the coaches, to whom
he constantly looked for guidance,
Teams Rebelled.
" AT first the members Of the team
resented this and rebelled against the
arbitrary treatment and harsh methods
of the coaches, but they were given to
understand that this system prevailed
at the big universities, and if they
wished to become really great players
they must obey the coach implicitly,
and accept his methods. The player be.
came mere pawn in the hands of the
coaches, who worked him to the limit
OF his endurance. They kept him in
the game until they considered him
played out, and then put fresh man
In his place In some cases a man
was taken out before complete exhaus-
tion in order to save him for the next
or more important game. A player
was trained and hardened as a pugi-
1t was only the trained and hardened
men who could stand the pace set by
the coaches
" An athletic game to be healthful AMI
TO bring the greatest good should be en-
loyed by those who take part in it. If
we can Judge by the drawn, anxious
and distressed faces Of the players in a
modern game, it would seem that they
get no enjoyment out of it, II is a
common sight to see player leave the
field OUT of his head and hysterical, and
much more common still to see him car
RED Oft by bis comrades or the hospita |
corps seriously injured and perhaps in
sensible'. All Of this is due TO override
vrlopnnont, of the game by professional
So1tHNo. lueIC' are now IN TINS country
scores and perhaps hundreds of paid
coaches who, make their livings, wholly
or IN part, by training college football
teams. The regulations of these coaches
depend upon winning gnmes, and they
will drive the youthful players to The
last gasp In order to accomplish this
end.
"College football in this country can
no longer be considered amateur ath.
letics. because the teams are trained by
experts and are the result of the eX.
perts' work. II the Canadian game of
Rugby were adopted in this country tho
coaches would IN one season develop
IT into much more dangerous game
than we now have
Alfred W. ingalls, Of the central
board of officials, has this to say;
Station the linemen five yards apart
measuring by the present longitudinal
lines of The playing surface. The line
of scrimmage will then cover thirty of
the fifty..fve yards width of the field ;
should the ball be downed within ff..