Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-14
FOOT BALL RULES FOR
1910 SAFE AND SOUND
New Game Forecasted by Princeton's Strate-
gist, Parke H. Davis, Of Intercol-
legiate Rules Committee.
By Parke H. Davis.

by fdTke II. UaVlS.
The appearance of the foot ball rules
for 1910 once more invites attention 10
the gridiron. True, six weeks must
elapse before the moleskfn suits come
forth from the lockers and the lines OF
lime are painted upon school ana COL
lege swards With the publication or
the rules, however, the season really
opens, for with the rule book In mana
every strategic genius of the srldlron
will furrow his brows in long ana
laborious porting over each word ana
phrase of the code, seeking to invent
some novel tactical evolution that next
November may bring victory to MS
alma mater and widespread fame to It's
inventor Foot ball essentially Is a
game of strategy, more elastic and pro
found than chess, only less elastic anu
profound than the tactics OF actual war
In the radical and revolutionary re-
vision of the rules presented Tor 1'1V
foot ball tacticians, players ana spec
tators will find new game.
Foot ball in it's time has encountered
manv reforms, but foot balls time IN
deed is long. Five hundred years be-
fore the Christian era this game was
played at Sparta under the name Oh
harpaston. Those who at times forget
that nothing is new under the sun VIII -
be surprised to learn that foot pail
twenty-four centuries ago was piayeu
upon rectangular field, marked with
side lines. goal lines and a center me
Two players, corresponding 10 mooeru
center rushers, took their positions AT
midfield. the one with the ball standing
ten yards behind the line. AT the stigma,
to play the ball was passed 1orWdIu
far down the field and the game was IN
action. The object was TO Drive .na
-, 0nonSifa
in ACCOMPLISHING this the bail mlsht pe
kicked. passed or carried. Its progress
was impeded by blocking, holding ana
tackling, but the play was prolonssu
and disorderly scrimmage ana scraiiioie'
Roman Foot Ball.
When the Romans came in contact with
the Greeks and seized their mover anu ao-
mirable institutions they also aoopleu
this game, slightly Latinizing the Maine
to harpastum. The Romans, however
also had at the time foot ball game Oh
their own called follis, but which was
not On ingenious a sport as its Grecian
counterpart. The two games existed, slde
by side. until about % B. c. 1t Woulo
seem that human nature was no uiIieIeh.
then than it is today. for among the nrst
official acts Of Augustus caesar "a5 a
call for a revision of the foot bill rules
But Augustus grievance was directed at
the gentleness of the existing games, poth
of which he considered too childish for
manly Roman youths. Accofolnsy
committee of philosophers was appolntea
by this the original rules committee, al
most two thousand years ago, mas oeeh
preserved to foot ball posterity an Tue
writings of julius Pollux, an Egyptlan
sophist who taught at Rome IN the secona q
century. Here again are we impressed
with the futility Of seeking for any origin
atty in these modern days.
The players in the Augustan game were
twenty-seven in number upon each slue'
organized In the manenr OF Roman milf
tary tactics, the plan of the game being
that of a mimic battle. There were nj
teen forwards, five defensive backs, four
halfbacks and three fullbacks. The play
ing field was in the form of rectan Vie
provided with goal posts. scoring was
accomplished by kicking or carrying the
ball between the posts, and two louis,
such as driving the ball out of bounds,
were equivalent to goal Sides were
changed after each score. The game was
called at sunset and awarded by the six
Judges, three for each side, to the team
that had scored the most goals. The par
tisans, provided with banners and horns,
sat behind the goal posts and paraded at
the end of the game, when custom re-
quired the vanquished to deliver their
banners to the victors.
Even the most superficial antfquary may
find the reforms of foot ball scattered
throughout the entire history of England.
1t was frequently the subject of royal
proclamations from Edward II to Ella
beth Oliver Cromwell inveighed against
it and Archbishop Laud spoke and wrote
for It. Even the poets, Addison, Cowper
and Sir Walter Scott, all of whom were
players, have contributed in their writ
ings to the science of this noble game.
Reformation of Game.
The reformation Of the crude game
been duly accredited to William Webb
Ellis. a schoolboy genius, at Rugby
ninety years ago. From his time to
the present day foot ball has been d.
vided into two leading styles Of games,
the first in which the bali only may
be kicked, and the second in which the
ball may be kicked but also may be
carried. The devotees of the first OF
these two games held a convention De-
cember 1, 1868, at the Freemasons Tav-
ern in Great Queen street, London, at
which a reformation was effected in
existing rules and an organization
Foot Ball Association. Hence the game
devised upon this occasion, in which
carrying the ball is prohibited, has
since been known as the Association
game" The words soccer" and sock
err" by which it also is called, are
merely derivatives Of the word "asso-
citation" January 26. 1871, the advo-
Gates of the carrying principle in the
second of these two games assembled
at the Pail Mall restaurant in Regent
street, London, and formed an organi-
zation under the name of the Rugby
Foot Ball Union, adopting the
rules of the Rugby school as it's
playing code. Five years later or to
be precise. November 10, 1876, Harvard
Princeton and Yale held convention
in the old Massasoit House at Spring
field, Mass. and formed the Intercol
legiate Foot Ball Association, adopting
the Rugby Union rules.
This code has been subjected almost
annually since that time to minor mOd1-
fcations and periodically it has come up
for complete overhauling and radical re-
form. The cause of this continual change
in the American game Is the necessity
Of keeping the rules abreast with the
spirit of American vim and invention,
which annually seeks to attain victory
through some formidable tactical evolu-
ton which shall overWhem skill and
strength by sheer brilliance of strategy.
For thirty years this strategical develop
ment has been devoted to the develop
nent of mass plays, the v trick, flying
wedge, guards-back and other familiar
formations. Unfortunately for the pop
ularity of foot ball, however, it is the
mass play that has been the most prolific
source Of personal injuries in foot ball.
Foot Ball Not Dangerous.
Statisticians of the gridron contend
that foot hall is no more dangerous than