The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-11-22
FOOTBALL CASUALTIES

New York. Nov. 22.-Despite the eff
forts OF the football solons to open up
the game and minimize the injuries.
deaths toll from the great college
sport will be far greater this, year than
that OF any previous gridiron season.
Already no less than twenty-seven
college or schoolboy players have
either been killed In games or nave
died this year directly as the result
Of injuries sustained This number is
unprecedented in the history of coll
lege football, and, with more than a
score Of players tossing today upon
hospital cots, lowering between life
and death, and the season not yet fully
over, the number is certain to be sub
stantially increased before the end of
1909. That the deaths from football
year ago will be doubled in 1909
Agitation in 1905.
In 1905, when the high water mark
of deaths for former years in football
was reached, there was a tremendous
agitation all along the line. Eminent
educators and authorities, led by
Pres. G.. w. Eliot of Harvard univer-
sity, made determined fight for the
abolition of all intercollegiate contests.
The result was a revision Of the rules
and the introduction Of the new foot
ball, replete with it's forward passes
and onside kicks. Even those who
made the changes in the rules in the
hopes Of debrutalizing the sport now
admit that they have failed, in a
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though from the standpoint of the
spectator the game is probably more
spectacular than ever before. But with
the increase in the spectacular has
come, this year at least, an increase in
the number of fatalities and of serious
injuries.
The injuries from football of a less
serious nature than those actually re-
sulting in death or permanent dis
ability also promise to be unusually
heavy this fall judging not only from
the reports of fractures already re-
ceived, but from the records of breaks.
dislocations and bruises kept by the
trainers and physicians in attendance
upon the big college elevens like Yale
and Harvard, Princeton and Pennsyl-
vania.
is Same Everywhere.
Everywhere the report is- the same.
| 1t is certain that the minor injuries are
more numerous and more severe than
year ago. The reason Is hard to find,
excepting that injuries are an inherent
element of football. for no radical
changes in the rules for better or for
worse were made by the gridiron leg
islators between last season and the
current one.
The compilation of anything ap-
preaching a complete list Of fractures
sustained in football during the play
ing season is out of the question, for
the reason that, so far as possible.
football coaches and trainers conceal
injuries to their squads SO that foot
ball may look as good as possible be-
fore the public. Were 1t possible to
compile an accurate list with all of
the necessary statistics available 1t is
certain that the names of over 1000
college and high school players would
be included in the tabulation of frac-
lures alone.
Where there is one broken bone
there are easily half dozen disloca-
tions, sprainso wrenches, or body
bruises that compel temporary absence
from practice on the part of the vic
Tins. 1t is well within the limitations
of reason to assert that deaths, frac-
lures, dislocations, bruises and minor
hurts received every year by those who
participate in the gridiron game
amount in the aggregate close to
10, 900.