The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-12-03
FOOTBALL STARS
REIGN is BRIEF
Close of Season Finds Many
Gridiron Heroes Thrown
to Discard
!, PLAYS BIG PART
Oldtiners Anxious to See Pres
ent Rules Amended to
Help Ofense.


ball season. an unusually large num-
Der of the moleskin heroes will pass
| into the discard. The career of tho
football star Is the briefest Of any
athlete-to-day hero. Tomorrow
forgotten. With the ending OF the
Army-Navy and the Yale-Harvard
games. followers of the pigskin
said good-by to some OF the greatest
players that ever followed the game.
Captain Arthur Howe. of Yale, made
his last appearance. Jim Scully and
Charley Paul. the Blues tackles, and
Elmer McDevitt and Pete Francis, the
bulldog guards. also played their
last football games for their college.
over at Harvard. Bob Fisher, the
Crimson captain, led his team for tho
last time on Saturday. as did Bob Pot
ter the great quarterback: Hunting
! ton, centre: Leslie, guard. and Gardner,
oack Held man. Every one OF these
crimson wearers made an excellent
showing in their getaway contest.
Former Great Contests.
With the departure OF these stars,
one goes back to former Ynle-Harvari
! contests. This year neither team had
much chance to score by rushing with
the ball. Before the new game was
adopted by the rules committee, large
/
New Havenites sent Coy and Philbin
ploughing through the line for big
gains. and won the battle by a score
OF IL to 0. But since the defense has
become so perfect and the offense so
weakened. neither Harvard nor Yale
have been able to make any Roadway
by steady line plunging.
In 1905 an even more marked deve-
lopment in defensive play was noted.
n 10 .,
ball to any extent Coach Haughton's
| seneralship In putting Kennard in at
the very tail end of the game was a
great move. for the sterling field goal
kicker dropped the ball over the bar
n few seconds before the timers horn
brought the struggle to close.
In 1909. Ted Coy, without doubt the
greatest man that ever played foot
ball. who at the time was at the top
of his development as plungins ba.k
could not get within striking distance
of the Crimson goal Those who were
, fortunate enough to see that great
contest Will never forget how the
! strong Yale offense was checked. Also
to this day they probably remember
how Coy tried unsuccessfully three
times to kick goals from the field In
the first half before he finally scored.
In the second half the Harvard offensc
struggled nobly to carry the ball over
the line, but tho New Haven teams de-
Tense never allowed them to get In
side the twenty-1ve-yard line Just
before the game ended Yale changed
her method OF attack and called upon
Coy to try another field goal. He
hoisted the ball Clearly between the
posts and Yale won. to 0.
Last year and again this season the
Harvard-Yale games were a further
testimonial of the fact that the best
offense possible cannot make head
way against a lighting defense. 4
radical change In the rules must be
made.
Experts Pondcring ChanRes.
Experts are ponderlng seriously as
to whether p football game which Is
better served by defense than 1t is
bv attack IS good athletic sport.
They can't bring themselves to believe
that premium should be placed on
defense when, as n matter of fact. the
greater load of responsibility should
fall on the ATTACK. IL good defense
is better than good attack. they in
sst that the game does not balance
we'll and that some weight Is needed
OH the attack side, While a little
should be taken away from the de-
Tense side.
The Tigers defeated Harvard
sHiOu6H u pioChou flCh HnO q SAFETY.
Princeton beat Yalo because of a bad
pass and tumble Dartmouth was
beaten by kick. Of which the creator
part OF the sportsmanlike Princeton
students disliked to take advantage.
Whilo these plumbers OF the other
side were to the advantage of Prince
ton and the Tigers played for nil
they could get out OF the mistakes.
UP arose the old guard of football
And now they insist that the game
has surely degenerated When q team
could do better by playing for the mis-
takes of Its opponents than Ii could
by exerting Its own. physical prowess
to break down tho defense ef Its OPP
ponents, something is wrong. in their
view.
And there you nrc. 1t is the old
story of the old football against tho
IcontInUod on Twelffh PaEe.l