Arizona republican., 1912-09-01
FOOTBALL |S
 ON HORIZON
Sport of Collegians Made More Interesting by Rule Changes; Preparations Are Wide for Greatest Season Ever Recorded

On October the 1912 seasons of the two big eastern leagues close with four final games. On the 27th the Coast League winds up it's most successful season. After that the Worlds Series.
 And then Football will be king. By every sign, the college football season of 1912 should be the finest, closest and best to watch and play in that ever pulled a yell out of a rooter Interest in the game is more evident among the collegians than it ever was before. Because why? Well, first, perhaps, on account of the inn mense impetus given all sorts of athletics by the Olympic games and their very satisfactory ending for American entrants. With wider publicity than was ever before given an event of that kind, the doings of the athletes at Stockholm have pen
 etrated the American intelligence, made people see the value of body training and in many cases has caused to spring up associations of 1 self -improvers, who are determined | to put some of their members on flu ture Olympic lists.
 1 It is the same way with college football, bringing it to the close notice of a sensation hungry public will make it a better game. will add l to it's followers men whose influence
 cannot help but make good for the sport.
 The rules have been changed some what This years game will be
 more like the old style football, in the feature of closeness of play for
 some situations. It might be said
 the new rules will widen and make
 narrower the form of attack, will
 concentrate and spread the defence. | The field will be an even hundred yards long, with the other dimen- sions the same as before The num-
 Der of downs allowed for a ten-yard
 gain has been increased to four, a
 thing that will make it easier to score. and give more interest to the
 play The rule of a year before last permitting forward passes of any length made possible some mighty pretty plays, and, sure it is most glad We are to see it back in the book. A set of men developed the
 knack of tucking the little end of l the ball into one fist, so that with a slicing heave they were able to
 pass the pigskin almost incredible distances with Whirling spiral mo-
 tion that made the flying missile look like a dirigible balloon in flight.
 At the same time the coaches l trained their ends to sneak along the
 sidelines until the signal moved the sphereoid, then with a long run to | the back of the opposing line they were in place to take that long pass
 right under the pole to score. The return of those long sudden throws
 and the quick catch and dash that | followed, will add much to the spec
 tatOrs' appreciation of the game. l All the changes will tend to make scoring more frequent. And certain
 changes in the scoring rules will
 make the tallies higher. Of course, 1 it will be possible to play close
 games this year, but the numbers on the cards will read more like In-
 Hated values, that's all.
 1 By making it possible to play four
 downs instead of three, the new rules put premium on close line buckinS, at least for two tries. This closing up will be offset by the tendency to | fast heady openers to right and left. quick eye-deceiving dashes around
 end, tricks, passes and best of all, that short "onside kick, which
 makes everything sift out where the
 individual work of the players can
 be seen and their strength and agility
 appreciated.
 The shorter field will increase the
 number of desperate runs for score. The passes this year will be beauti- ful to watch, so open and free, like a | spread out game for the bleaeherites
 to howl about. It will be necessary
 to use light fast men in the back field wings and at the line ends. If
 heaviness was the only needful quail ity, there would be more reason to
 kick at the revulsion to old brutal
 bruising forms of play, but as speed
 and brains is demanded of the player | in the position of most peril, it will
 not swell the casualty list appreci-
 ably, this sudden change to the old