The Washington times., 1911-12-07

The football season of 1911 will go
down In history as one of miracles. In
fact. aside from the sudden transforn,a.
ton of teams from losing teams to
victorious teams, and vice versa. even
the ball finally began &C take Fart n
the extraordinary Happenings end on
one day, namely, the day Of the
Princeton Dartmouth and Andover-
Exeter games, in each of which games
the ball performed what would seem to
be a miracle, namely, running along
the ground for a considerable distance
e and then bounding up over the cross
bar In the case Of the Princeton
Dartmouth game this ball was started
by q partially missed drop-kick and
thus went over forty yards, hitting the
ground occasionally before 1t struck on
Z its end on some irregularity and leaped
, over the goal bar. Then. too. the
: 5avorltes in very great proportion Of
the Important games we're returned
! eventually as the losers; nor was there
!. any consistency about these upsets. but
they came in the most unexpected ways
and upon extraordinary occasions.
Not only were teams Inconsistent in
their work. but also individuals. Men
: who had PLAYED steadily through the
season until some important gene sud-
denly seemed to lose their perspective
= and hence their effectiveness.
Fumbles Were Big Factor.
The principal contests Of. the year
were, won and lost through tumble
or q huke None of the other work
counted. Harvard lost her game to
Tl~t~ ,t~Sl aff tfyx
kick under Princeton's goal. Yale
: lost her game to Princeton when well
into Princeton's territory by a slip
of the ball going through the fullback' 3
hands and being picked up by the
Princeton end, who ran the entire two
thirds Of the length Of the field for a
the spot be regarded as provif ,ntial for
Princeton, for 1t was his hab!,. This
young man, White, was the same one
= who ran two-thirds Of the length of
the field for Princeton's touchdown
against Harvard after dropkick.
Princeton defeated Dartmouth by the
kick already mentioned earlier In this
article which ran forty-tve yards and M
defeated Dartmouth by blocked kick.
True 1t is that on two important
Saturdays the weather was atrocious
Usually for the important games Of
late. years the conditions have been
good.
The forward pass has taken no more
In late games considerably less. 1t has
resulted in disaster on one or two &C.
Gasions in contests that meant a good
Goal. The Ionside kick has been, as al
ways, matter of luck: that Is, II the
bali bounds straight the defense side
secures possession of 1t easily and the
eide on the attack has lost several yards
on the kick. If, on the other hand; the
G npttN
jumps sidcwise or hits on the end and
bounds clear over the defensive man s
head, the play results in a fine gain for
the kicker's side, possibly sven IN n,,s a
touchdown. But who can tell which
way the ball will bound?
A Wide Diversity.
- There seems to be wide diversity OF
opinion on the matter of the rules 80
far as physical injuries are concerned.
which only more careful analysis at
the end of the season can really deter
mine. Without statistical information
# seems as II injuries to the hand. arm.
and shoulder had been more prevalent
this year than before, but injuries to
the body or spine much less.
The officials have, on the whole, done
a good job. There was In midseason toe
great iaxity in two respects, namely, al.
towing the man attempting to block the
kick to run into the kicker after he had
~Totten the ball away and allowing push
ing and pulling. chiefly pushing of the
run.ier afterN he reached the line. II
men in the backfield follow the run
ner into the line he endeavors to &C
through, nine times out of ten they
must, even II they keep their hands
off him, eventually push him, for ht
IS topped when they are still running
forward and they go against him:
There was also too much interference
in the neutral zone on forward passing
1t was rather strange that the Officials
seemed to be more Intent upon this II
the case Of kick than ian IN mat the rs case O.
the pass is very apt to be bumped. no
hard, but simply by man putting him
self In his way, and 1t was seldom cahe'
Punting and drop kicking have beer
exceptionally good, and the kickint
from placement, particularly In TIT
case Of the Indians and In some OF TIT
Western teams, has held its own: Con
sldering the first mentioned, puntlng,
is doubtful II there ever were In any on,
season on the gridiron so many goot
average kickers and these men were
forced to kick, many OF them unde
most trying conditions of weather ant
field. Drop-kicking. too, has been good
but has been risky. In the Princeton
Harvard game, for instance, each team
had drop-kick blocked, one resulting
in a touchdown against them, and tn
other would have resulted In a, simila
disaster had the man who picked up tn
hall been fast enough to keep ava!
from his pursuers.
Was Most Extraordinary.
The drop-kick made by De Witt
which resulted in Princeton's victor
over Dartmouth, win pass down int
football history as the most extraor
binary since The introduction OF tn