Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-13
IS RUGBY FOOT BALL REALLY
A GAME OR A MERE SPASM?
ANALYSIS Which Would Tend to Prove That
Americans Have Greatly Spoiled the
Game by Their Passion for I'm
proving It-What the Kick
ing Game Really Is.

! for play in light clothes, wherein speed
anu dexterity can be acquired. The Amer
lcan Rugby armor has the deleterious
double effect Of retarding speed and agil-
ity and making an otherwise handsome
young gentleman look like the veriest
| mucker. After season OF play, the
foot ball suits of American teams are
crosses between the uniforms of pork
butchers and the Overalls of sewer dig
gers. The finest figure appears clumsy,
crude and dirty in American foot ball
toys. Speed and dexterity should be a
sine qua non in foot ball. as in base ball,
soccer, lacrosse and every other athletic
game. But it is not, at least it is
handicapped and overwhelmed by weight
OF clogging armOr, made necessary by the
! shock of conflict in interference and the
! rigor of the ground
In our youth we glored in the shock
and turmoil of Rugby Most healthy
young men will enjoy it just as they
would enjoy the shock of a cavalry
boxing gloves. In our sober middle age
we cannot like, American Rugby. 1t Is
| not a profitable game to the player 1t
does not last long enough to get boy fit.
1t does not appeal to enough young men.
1t demands specialists. In college like
Yale with some 1900 students. 300 per-
haps play foot ball. Something like
$500 should play. In the English col
! leges and schools you will find that 95
| per cent of boys are active participants
in cricket and foot ball. In American
| schools scarce per cent, including class
team men, take part in the game, We
are more for soccer than for English
J Rugby, and more for English Rugby
| than for American Rugby.
American Rugby was developed from
English Rugby by the American desire of
winning at all costs. Yale and Harvard
eliminated the sporting chance that the
| kicking scrimmage gave the weaker
| team. They brought the game down to
science. Nothing has been left to
! chance. or at least, it was. to 1906. the
! desire to leave nothing to chance. The
value of the dropped goal was reduced.
The wonder is that they did not have the
game scored by the number of yards
| gained by running with the ball, rather
| than by goals and touchdowhs. All
| teams beaten by the sporting chance
| the long run. the tumble. the field goal.
have advanced the argument that they
| were the better teams, because they
gained the more yards running with the
| ball. Kicking has always been regarded
as an almost illegitimate method of adj
vancing the ball.
american Kicking Joke.
| As far as that goes, American kicking
and the rules governing it are jokes. The
rules say that a field goal shall count
| but three points: that a goal from the
| field does not show as much good foot
ball as a touchdown and goal. Now, a
dropped goal from the 15-yard line, with
q good protection for the kicker, is
| child's play. But goal from the 80
yard line, with no protection for the
kicker is another thing. Take a man
like O'Dea of the Wisconsin teams of
| the middle nineties, who could run across
| the field and falling to gain. and. maybe,
| tackled by one leg was liable to cut
any angle and at any distance What
was a. goal like that worth?
| The American drop kicker is largely
joke. Any drop kicker who takes his
stand. gets the ball snapped into his
hands behind fine protection has a picnic.
That is not drop kicking. The English
| drop kicker and there are fifteen of him
on every team, is liable to drop goal
/ from either foot from any angle and at
on the dead run. O'Dea. who was an
Australian, was the only player on an
American team who could do this He
was dangerous at 50 yards and he did
not need to be set for the kick at 80
yards That Is real drop kicking real
I foot ball.
Almost invariably the American kicker
| il not at home with his kicks. He is
constrained. uncertain, stifr. Usually he
| Is "one-foot', kicker. He can't dodge
| a tackle and kick with either foot az he
does 80. He must have a straight snap,
! lots of time, and perfectly straightaway
kick at it. In Englan' they regard no
1 n
| whale away with either foot from any
position. Forwards must be agile and
clever with their feet as backs OF
course an English Rugby player gets eight
: months practice, while the American two
months practice. Then the Americans
time is usually taken up with team. not
| with individual plays. One man is asked
| to kick. The others are not encouraged
| to do so.
The Lack of Kicking.
"A kicking game" says Mr.. Kennard.
who seems to be a clever young man.
Yet not or,ee this year in st. Louis have
we seen a kick of, punt, or any other
kick returned. Kicking, here at least.
seems to be set not extempore. There
Is lots Of sporting chance to kicking
| Cochems was the only man we ever saw
play foot ball in America. Cochems was
/ always willing to take the sporting
/ chance Of q tumble, and he always gain
| ed by taking 1t.
| Walter Camp, EN-? George Sanford, huh :?
| Well, the only man in America that we
| ever saw play football was Edward
Cochems. He had teams at st. Louis
University in 19O6-O7 that would have
trained 30 to O. This will cause laugh
from Yale graduates. 1t goes just the
| same. Cochems' teams beat Iowa. Kan
sas and Nebraska, 40 to o. when those
:! teams were at their best. In 1907,
1 Nebraska ran Minnesota to a hair. We
think. on the whole. that Minnesota. Wis
consin and Michigan yearly turn out
teams that would give Yale trouble. In
fact. Cochems himself played against
Yale when she beat Wisconsin, 6 to O. the
score coming on a long run of a tumble
J in the last four minutes Of play. Cochems