The San Francisco call., 1909-12-14
[UGBY GAME HERE
EXAMPLE TO EAST
intercollegiate Rules Committee
Must Adopt More Open
Style of Play
By WILLIAM uNMAcK

The upheaval in the east over the
football question at the present time is
Identical with the conditions that pre-
vailed at the close of the 1906 season
That year the list of deaths and serious
injuries was appalling but this years
records are even greater. The rules
committee of 1905 promisd to amelio-
rate the existing conditions and the
rules were revised and altered to such
an extent that the fatalities in 1906
were very considerably reduced. How
ever. the altered rules did not have
the proper effect, and in both 1907 and
1908 the death and injury list increased
each season. The result of this years
games with % deaths has aroused the
whole country to action, and it looks
as if the intercollegiate style of foot
ball is either doomed or those at the
head of the rules committee must make
some radical changes before it will be
accepted.
Then again three other styles of foot
ball are being brought forward as
substitute for the intercollegiate game
They are Rugby proper as played here.
Canadian Rugby as played in eastern
and middle Canada and lastly soccer
football. Each of these styles. has its
followers in the east, and the adherents
of Canadian Rugby have gone so far as
to bring two of the strongest teams to
new 1OTk LOT IHe puI pOSt Ol SlNiDS eA-
hibitions of the game
Nearly all the large eastern univer-
stiles have soccer teams, notably, Yale,
Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Princeton,
Pennsylvania and many Others. Nat
urally enough there has not been as
much interest taken in, these soccer
teams as in. the intercollegiate games,
but the game will now assume greater
Importance. In many of the schools
af aaS fire MA
That the substitution of Rugby for in
tercollegiate football here has proved
"a success is now ancient history. In
the four years the game. has been
played here not one death has been re-
corded and beyond a few broken bones
no serious accidents have happened.
This, when compared with the inter
collegiate game, is remarkable and is
food for thought for those in the east
who are seeking proper substitute for
the intercollegiate game.
Soccer football is the only genuine
"foot" ball. but it will never fill the
requirements of the American colleges
as substitute for the old game. Rugby
football from which the intercollegiate
was framed. is the only logical game
for the east to take up. Already the
Chicago board of education has recon-
mended its adoption. and if it is played
there it seems probable that it will
become general all through the middle
west states In New York the voice of
Professor Storey, recently of Stanford,
is raised in support of Rugby proper
This football question" in the east
has assumed far greater and more Sc
rious proportions than we out here can
imagine. Several universities and coll
.leges. as well as dozens of educational
boards in cities all over the east, have
already actually prohibited the game.
In the last two weeks fully a dozen
schools have come out for Rugby.
Several eminent authorities on the
intercollegiate code have come out
openly and declared that until the
actual mass plays are abolished there
will be no elimination of the long list
of serious accidents
To those who have followed the
trend of Rugby all over this coast there
is a unanimity of opinion that this
style of football is eminently adapted
to the American footballers 1T has
the elements of fast open play that
the intercollegiate authorities have
been striving for; it also gives larger
number of players chance. and in
certain degree there is that element
in playing the game that calls for
pluck, even to the danger point, that the
average American football enthusiast
deems necessary.