The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-12-19
College Game Takes More in
Life and Limb.
SPORT IS NOT AMERICAN
English Game Cannot BE Played
Here I'm America, as the SUN Is Too
Hot-PIayerx Have No Time To Get
Themselves Into Physical Con-
dition-FootbaIl's Toll Too Heavy.

once again starts discussion Of the value
of the game 10 the American people.
Fifteen years actual play. which en-
braced association, English rugby and
American rugby. and the Gaelic game,
and ten years additional observation OF
the game, the last i've OF which have
been filled with logical estimate Of its
cost and value, inevitably le4ds the
writer to the conclusion that the benefits
derivable from American rugby do not
at all commensurate with the tribute it
levies upon American youth.
In the first place. Rugby is not con-
genial 10 American soil The very ground
repudates it, The American earth Is too
hard for Rugby play The plant has no
business in the soil.
ASK man like George Rhodes, who
has played football in England and in
America. the difference between an Eng
lish and an American football field. He
will tell you that IL is the difference be-
tween an OstermOor mattress and an
asphalt street.
The damp climate OF England keeps the
ground soft and moist, and the grass
thick and heavy. A good English foot
ball field is soft as the back OF a fat
merino sheep. The grass grows thick
and woolly. and the ground is soft and
springy. The average American field in
the fall OF the year is hard as vitrihed
brick. II skaters bones when they are
thrown upon IL.
This is the first and most important
point For Rugby is not an American
game. II is not suited 10 the soil Il
withers on hard American soil just as
English h1Va
American midsummer sun.
Rugby Not an American Gaaee.
Football is not more an American game
than cricket is. The hot American sun
killed cricket, just as the hard American
soil will Kill Rugby. No man could en-
dure ten hours fielding or batting at
cricket under the fierce midsummer sun
OF America. So baseball grew as natural
~ as hickory out Of American soil. Base
ball called for short innings, frequent
intervals OF rest Then the hard-baked
American soil made A good cricket pitch,
nice place for the bowled ball TO bound,
impossible. In baseball there is no bound
of the ball 10 the batter.
You see, the American soil just repudi-
ated cricket II also repudiates Rugby.
No man could endure FIVE successive
days fielding and batting at cricket under
the hot American sun and on the hard
sun-baked American ground The hard
pitch menaced batters, for bswled balls
bounded into faces. The hot sun menaced
the lives OF fielders exposed for a whole
day TO its rays
Thus cricket died in America. and the
cricketers, the Wrights. and others, took
up and developed baseball. A natural
growth of American soil.
SO il is with Rugby No human being
could endure six months play at Ameri-
can Rugby on American hard soil. So
the season is two months long.
Training Period Too short.
Now. every one knows that the physical
man cannot even get into condition for
any game. much less such strenuous
game as football. Ask any wise old ath-
lete like Tom Aiken and he vii tel
you that a Splinter should have six
weeks walking before he begins TO run.
And the entire football season is only OF
seven weeks duration.
ANY baseball man viii tell you that the
average baseball player does not get III
until he has had two months play. And
baseball demands much less physical TT
ness than Rugby.
Thus the players have no time to nj
themselves in Rugby. By the time they
begin TO get really mt the season is over.
So Rugby does not even confer the bene-
fits of enduring physical fitness upon its
disciples.
The good and beneficial games are the
games that a man needs only 10 take of
his coat to play.
Perhaps the best urban game. one OF
the best games in the world for con-
ferring physical condition, is tennis. You
can play it in your yard. II requires just
pair OF shoes, a ball, a racket. five
minutes 10 dress, and one partner. Hand
ball is also very good. You can play ID
alone and aeed neither racket nor snocs
These are the good beneficial games,
the natural. simple games. To play hand
ball you need only a blank wall, a ball,
and good level clay floor. 1t employs
two hands and is a great game in that
il develops both sides of the body, hands,
feet, and eyes.
a man can play from 1 TO 1900 games
of handball or tennis in a year. He can
play about four games of Rugby in a
season. The boy who follows baseball
will get couple of hundred days play
aA H lllS DON WHO lpilUMS IkukDH VIII
get about thirty days play at It.
1t is hard to see just where the profit
of development comes in Rugby. II does
not seem that it develops any particular
part of the body or of the mind. AS
every play is made on preconcerted sig
nal and after long and careful drilling.
just as every move of soldiers in close
order is made automatically, il does not
seem that Rugby demands or encourages
what is known as quick thinking. an ac-
complishment which almost every other
game demands as sine qua non
Thus one team finds a weak point in
another's line and hammers it. This is
the very flower Of the perfection OF
Rugby. Hammer the weak spot. So
long as one play gains, keep on employ
ing it,
Now, it surely does not seem that this
calls for any great brilliancy of mental.
ity. The basic idea Of Rugby coach is
this: Form a heavy and irresistible inter
ference. Have the man carrying the ball
follow this heavy and Irresistible inter
ference automatically. The heaviest and
most impenetrable Interference wins.
Take the preconcerted interference
away from the Rugby coach and he
would be lost
You can take lot of phlegmatic peas
ants from the lowlands OF Germany, and
in a month drill them TO play Rugby
football as well as the highly intelligent
youth of American colleges clay it.
Rugby certainly calls for less qaick
thinking than any other game We 80 OF
unless it be tenpins.
Coaches Dominate College Game.
Then the spirit of it is rarely good
'Tis too much under the domination OF
the personality of the professional coach.
We believe in the professional each
for individuals. We believe in him for
baseball, track athletics, golf, everything.
Contrary 10 belief men and bows are not