Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-01-22
SOCCER FOOTBALL
VS.. AMERICAN GAME
Advantages of Former and Dangers
OF Latter Pointed Out by
Student of the Sport.
(Ry John Morcnn.O

The football season of 1908 will be
memorable for the large number OF sad
fatalities that occurred to players par
ticipating in the gridlron sport, with
the result that several public schools
anG minor colleges have taboocd the
game, as played under intercollegiate
rules. the faculties of the above In
stltutions OF learning being influenced
by the fierce agitation that swept the
country. demanding either radical
reform of the rules or else Its total
abolishment-
Last season. the one just ended. sew
eral thoroughly tralneo and experience
ed athIeteS received injuries which
ended fatally. The apoIoglsts for the
college game state In the pIainest man
ner possible that none but thoroughly
trained athletes should take part In the
game. In former years their excuse
was that these sad fatal accidents only
happened to young and Inexperienced
payers and advocatec that none but
thoroughly trained athletes should take
part In contest. which taking them
at their word, means neither the stu
dents at the public schools nor the
high schools should be allowed to play
the game. In strict sense of the
eNi III IL NOulu COIlIiHllS lHt SpOIl
to a few fully developed athletes In
the larger universities, such as Yale,
Harvard, etc. on the supposition of
the apologists for the sport this talk
of football as played under college
rules developing physical manhood is
all cant. hypocrisy and humbug. in
asmuch as to use their words, none but
thoroughly developed athletes should
take part In 1t.
The public schools of several cities
have decided on adopting soccer" or
association football as the ideal fall
sport and the faculties of similar
schools In this city would do we'll In
emulating their example, Soccer is not
only an ideal game for those who are
thoroughly developed from a physical
standpoint but also for those who arc
In less fortunate physical condition
as by indulginG in this probably the
most attractive and spectacular of out
door sports will eventually attain not
only immense physical benefits but
also healthy recreation which after all
Is. and should be, the main object of
all outdoor sport.
In the short two months OF the last
intercollegiate season fully S3 persons
met with accidents that terminated
fatally, others are crippled for life and
such eXceSseS as that Is the price VIC
have to pay" to develop courage and
physical manhood in the mass of stu
dents Is nothing but utter rot ,inasmuch
as barely more than the half OF one
per cent of the mass OF students ever
get the chance of making the team,
The great mass of the students are
only onlookers and rooterS while tho
average football squad Is at most about
20 to 80 selected athletes out of a
student body averaging from $500 to
as high as 5000. so the value of foot
ball as now played under college rules.
In developing courage and manhood in
the mass of students is practically nil
and those who claim that for the
game are guilty not only OF cant but
OF humbug and hypocrisy.
Football is not worth the sacrifice
OF a single life let alone the awful
price American parents have to pay
annually to provide a gladiatorial con-
test for the amusement of the public,
and to maintain the reputation of cer-
tain professional coaches in turning out
successful teams, who in their mad de-
sire to win at all and every cost turn
what should be sport and recreation
into nothing but mere drudgery, so
that after leaving college not one In a
thousand will indulge In the game
for the love of ii ana what few do take
part after leaving college take part In
1t only as paid coaches In other uni
schools. More deaths occurred In the
short two months of the intercollegiate
season with Its comparatively few
players than have occurred In all Great
Britain during the last 25 years Yet
moro football games are played in
England alone on one ordinary Sat
urday afternoon than are played in
all America including Canada during
the whole of the college season. Not
only that but the season is four times
as long and hundreds of matches are
played in midwinter. important profess
Sional league contests at that, on hard
frostbound grounds, when it is not only
difficult on the slippery surface 10
maintain Il footbold but Is also in q
sense dangerous to life and limb. Yet
one over there seldom hears of a very
dangerous. let alone fatal accident
Yet football whether "soccor" or Rug
by Is not the ''parlor" game that many
writer's In the American press, who arc
Ignorant of football conditions in Brit
ain as they are OF the beings on Mars
like to state II Is
IL half of the ignoramuses who ar,
| forever prating OF "parlor" games only
had an opportunity OF witnessing some
| of the stubbornly contested games. tn,
| dlng-dong struggle and terrific pac,
| maintained in some OF the professional
| league games they would soon oui
| harpinS about "parlor" games | fee
tolerabiy certain about one thing anc
| that * that neither Yale, Harvard
| Pennsylvania, Michigan. nor any Of tn.
others could turn out a team o
athletes who possess the stamina an,
| endurance to stand an eight-months
continuous struggle against teams o
an equal caliber where every week the,
would have to strain every nerve I,
win. The most any eastern collee,
does is to play about four hard matche
in season. the rest of the game
would be against far weaker opponent
and are generally runaway affairs, bu
have they the trained athletes TO stan
the racket or hard ding dong strug
gle week In week out In all sorts a
weather from Sept. / TO April 81? Whe
it comes to developing, endurance.
stamina, staying power. Soccer ha
the college game skinned to q finish
All the virtues that are claimed by Nh
intercollegiate game. such as courag,
resourcefulness. self confidence. er
DURANGO. physical development, agiIit,
taking hard knocks In good humo
self control. etc, etc, can be elaine
with equal force by the Soccer gam