The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-07
1910 RULES SAFE AND sOUND-NEw
GAME FORECAST BY PRINCETON's
STRATEGIsT, p. II. DAVIS, OF THE
INTERCOLLEGIATE COMMITTEE

gridiron True, six weeks must, elapss
before the moleskin suits come forth from
| the lockers and the lines of lime ais
| painted upon school and college swards,
| With the publication of the rules how
ever, the season really opens. for with
the rule book in hand every strategic gen.
ius OF the gridron will fhrrow his
brows in long and laborlous porting over
each word and phrase of the code, seek
ing to invent some novel tactical evo-
tuition that next November may brr:s
victory to his alma mater and widespread
| fame to its inventor. Football essential
ly is game of strategy, more elastic and
profound than chess, only less elastic and
| profound than the tactics of actual war.
| In the radical and revolutionary revision
of lhe rules presented for 1910 football
tacticians, players and spectators will find
| a new game.
| Football In its time has encountered
many reforms, but footballs time indeed
| is long. Five hundred years before the
Christian era this game was played at
| Sparta under the name of harpaston.
Those who at times forget that nothing
Is new under the sun will be surprised
| to learn that football "a centuries ago was
played upon rectangular field, marked
with side lines, goal lines and q center
line. Two players, corresponding to mod
ern center rushers took their positions
| at midfeld, the one with the ball stand
ing 10 yards behind the line. At the sig
nal to play the ball was passed forward
| far down the field and the game was in
| action. The object was to drive the ball
| across the opposite goal line and In ac-
| complishing this the ball mig hit be kicked.
passed or carried. Its progress was i'm
| peded by blocking, holding and taclSling,
| but the play was prolonged and dlsor-
derby scrimmage and scramble.
| When the Romans came in contact
With the Greeks and seized their novel
and admirable institutions they also
adopted this game, slightly Latinizing
| the name to harpastum. The Romans,
however, also had at the time football
game of their own called follis but which
was not so ingenious sport as Its
Grecian counterpart. The two games
| existed, side by side, until about Is B. c.
1t would seem that human nature was
no different then than it is today for
among the first official acts of Angus
tus Caesar was a call for a revision of
the football rules. But Augustus griev-
ance was directed at the gentleness of
the existing games both of which he
| considered too childish for manly Roman
youths. Accordingly, committee of
philosophers was appointed to make the
reform. The game evolved by this, the
original rules committee, almost 1000
years ago, has been preserved to foot
ball posterity In the writings of Julius
Pollux, an Egyptian sophist who taught
at Rome in the second century. Here
again are we impressed with the futility
of seeking for any originality in these
modern days.
| The players In the Augustan game
were 81 In number upon ca IN side Or
ganized in the manner of Roman military
| tactics, the plan of the game being that
of a mimic battle There were Is for
wards, five defensive backs, four half
| backs and three full-backs The playing
field was in the form Of rectange pro-
vided with goal posts. Scoring was ac-
complished by kicking or carrying the
| ball between the posts and two fouls,
such as driving the ball out of bounds,
were equivalent to a 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
partisans provided with tanners and
horns sat behind the goal posts and
paraded at the end Of the game when
custom required the fanquished to de-
liver then banners to tho victors.
Even the most superficial antiquary may
find the reforms of football scattered
throughout the entire history of England
1t was frequently the subject of royal
proclamations from Edward II to Eliza
beth. Oliver Cromwell inveighed against
1t and Archbishop Laud spoke and wrote
for 1t. 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.
The reformation of the crude game OF
their time into modern Rugby has been
duly accredited to William Webb Ellis.
school boy genius at Rugby 80 years
ago. From his time to the present day
football has been divided into two lead
ing styles of games the first in which
the ball 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
convention December !, 1863, at the Free
masons' Tavern in Great Queen street,
London, at which a reformation was eff
fected In existing rules and an organiza-
ton formed under the name of the Lon
don Football association. Hence the game
devised upon this occasion. In which car
rying the ball Is prohibited, has since
been known as the Association game"
The words Soccer and "socker," by
which it also is called, are merely deriva-
tives of the word Association" January
&c. 1871, the advocates of the carrying
principle in the second of these two games
assembled at the Pail Mall restaurant In
Regent street, London, and formed an
organization under the name of the Rug
by Football union, adopting the rules
Of the Rugby school as their playing
code Five years later, or to be pre-
else, November 10, 1876, Harvard. Prince
ton and Yale held a convention in the
old Massasoit House at Springfield, Mass,
and formed the Intercollegiate Football
association, adopting the Rugby union
rules This code has been subjected al
most annually since that time to minor
notifications and periodically 1t has come
up for complete overhauling and radical
reform. 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 in
vention which annually seeks to attain
victory through some formidable tacti-
cal evolution which shall overwhelm skill
and strength by sheer brilliance of STRAIT
egg. For 80 years this strategical devel-
opment has been devoted to the develop
ment of mass plays. the trick, flying
wedge, guards-back and other familiar
formations. Unfortunately for the pop
ularity of football however, 1t Is the
mass play that has been the most pro-
life source Of personal injuries In foot
ball.
Statisticians Of the gridiron contend
that football Is no more dangerous than
baseball and they point to the fact that
the fatalities upon the diamond during
three weeks of last April equalled the
record of football last autumn for ten