Evening star., 1911-08-27
OMIT SINNER WORK
Colleges Not Having Ante
Season Foot Ball Practice.
TOO HARD ON PLAYERS
Army and Navy Having Trouble in
Regard to Annual Game
This Fall.
roo HARD ON PLAYERS
By Edward r. Bushnell.

For the first time In a good many years
the sentiment against preliminary foot
ball practice Is almost unanimous on the
part of the big university teams Of the
east. Without exception the gridiron
authorities have let it be known that
there will be none of the summer work
leading colleges. and which was revived
at a number of institutions with the rad
ical amendment of the rules.
Still 1t need not be imagined that the
absence of summer training indicates
radical reforms. Summer foot ball prac-
tice has been opposed for two reasons.
One is that while 1t enables teams to
get in condition for the early games it
likewise frequently results in their going
stale for their championship contests.
The second objection has been raised by
men OF the faculty type, who contend
that the early practice has a tendency to
professionalize the players, and that the
effect upon their morals is distinctly
baneful.
played q part in the abandonment OF
summer practice, though the former was
the more important. Mike" Murphy,
the former Yale and present Pennsyl-
vania trainer, has had more experience In
handling and conditioning foot ball play
ers than any other man in the country,
and while the coaches at colleges where
he has trained the athletes have not
always accepted his advice, he has al
most invariably opposed keeping his men
in training more than ten weeks. ana IA
ordinary cases hut nine. Most big teams
play their first game on the last Satur-
day in September, and end the season
about November 90 If they begin prac.
tice by September Is their season will
have run nine weeks by November 20.
Granting the truth of Trainer Murphy's
dictum. teams with a season of the length
referred to which begin practice earlier
than this do so at big risk.
Teams Had Good Excuse.
There was legitimate excuse for
those teams which last year and the
two years previous indulged in longer
practice The rules of the game had
been amended so radically that coaches
and players were obliged to devote ex-
ira study to them to know what they
meant and how to get the most out OF
the new game. At the same time those
teams which were wisely coached took
particular care to see to 1t that the
PLAYERS worked carefully to avoid over
training. This year the rules are prac-
tically the same as they were last fall,
training has been practically eliminated.
A year ago 1t was Harvard that In
dulged in the longest preliminary train
ing, Coach Haught0n having his men
at the seashore several weeks before the
opening Of the season. Apparently 1.-The
experiment was not wholly q success.
for some persons traced Harvard's poor
showing in the Yale game to too much
preliminary training.
This year most of the big colleges start
= l,o1v
exception Of the few which play Thanks
giving day they end the season Novem-
ber %. There have been practlcally no
changes in the schedules OF the leading
same big teams as las. fall. with the
exception that Harvard has substituted
the Indians fer Cornell. and elso plays
Princeton. Cornell at one, time an
played at Ithaca November IL. one week
prior to the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
game. That contest, however, Is under
stood to have been cancelled by Cornell.
who were looking forward to this inter-
sectional contest.
The ATmy-Navyt Game.
Followers of the foot ball fortunes Of
the Army and Navy elevens are much
disturbed over the fact that these two
institutions have not been able to agree
upon either a place or the date for their
annual game. After innumerable confer
ences between the officials of the two
academies they have not been able to find
a suitable place for playing the game
outside OF Franklin Field Of the Uni
versity Of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
has rendered her playing field to the
academies once more. but so great has
been the increase In demand for seats
that the two institutions know they can
not begin to take care Of their friends.
Various propositions have been made to
Pennsylvania looking to a new distribu-
ton OF the seats. Heretofore Pennsyl-
vania has divided the seats equally be-
tween the two academies and her own
students, one-thifd going to each insti-
tuition.
The construction of Franklin Field Is
such that the only way to increase its
seating capacity Is by the erection OF
temporary seats. This has been done for
number of years. but even then the
field has proven altogether too small For
this rees0n the Academies have searched
nN,nvryvuhnpA 40p am0fhnR. AAl6. ON.