The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-08-27
Racing, Baseball,
Golf, Air Riding
THE NEW FOOTBALL GAME AS
TT WILL BE PLAYED TN 1910
BY Parker N Davies of the rules committee.

The appearance of the football rules
Tor 1910 once more invites attention to
the gridiron. True, six weeks must
elapse before the moleskin suits come
Forth from the lockers and the lines OF
lime are painted upon school and col
lege swards. With the publication of
the rules. however, thA season really
opens, for with the rule book In hand
every strategic genius Of the gridiron
will furrow his brows in long and Ia
borious porting over each word and
phrase Of the code, seeking to invent
some novel tatical evolution that next
November may bring victory to his Al
ma Mater and widespread fame to it's
inventor. Football essentially is a
game Of stragety, more elastic and
profound than chess, only less elastic
and profound than the tactics of actu-
al war. In the radical and revolution
airy revision Of the rules presented for
1910 football taoticlans, players and
spectators will find a new game.
Football Played 3. c.
Football in lis time has encountered
many reforms but footballs time in
deed is long. Five hundred years be-
fore the Christian era this game was
played at Sparta under the name of
barpaston. Those who at times for
get that nothing is new under the sun
will be surprised to learn that football
twenty four centuries ago was played
upon rectangular field, marked with
sidelines, goal lines and a center line.
Two players, corresponding to modern
center rushers took their positions at
midfield, the one with the ball stand
ing ten yards behind the line. At the
signal to play the ball was passed for
ward far down the field and the game
was in action. The object was to
drive the ball across the opposite goal
line and in accomplishing this the ball
night be kicked, passed or carried. Its
progress was inTpeded by blocking.
holding and tackling, but the play was
a prolonged and disorderly 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,
ball game Of their own called follis
but which was not so ingenious a
sport as its Grecian counterpart. The
two games existed, sided by side, until
about % B. c.. 1t would seem that
human nature was no different then
thanit is today for among the first Of
ficial acts OF Augustus Caesar was O
call for revision of the football rules.
But Augustus grievance was directed
at. the gentleness of the existing
games both of which he considered
too childish for manly Roman youths.
Accordingly, a committee of philoso-
piers was appointed to make the re-
form The game evolved by this, the
original rules committee, almost two
thousand years ago, has been preserv-
ed to football posterity in the writings
of julius Pollux, an Egyptian sophist
who taught at Rome in the second cen
fury. Here again we are impressed
with the futillty of seeking for any
originality in these modern days.
The players in She Augustan game
were twenty seven in number upon
each side, organized in the manner Of
Roman military tactics, the plan Of
the game being that of mimic battle
There were fifteen forwards, Ave de-
fensive backs, four half-backs and
three full-backs. The playing field
was in the form of rectangle pro-
vided with goal posts. Scoring was
accomplished 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 parEsans provided
with banners and horns sat behind the
goal posts and paraded at the end Of
the game when custom required the