Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-23

in possession of the ball may retain il il
case Of incompleted forward pass
Taking advantage of the literal interpre
tatlon of this rule, many coaches las
year instructed their PLAYERS. when the,
found 1t impossible to make successful
forward pass, TO throw the ball OH the
ground and thus claim an incompleteC
forward pass. This, of course, was goot
loot ball, but not in accordance with the
undoubted intent of the rule. The mat
ter was called to the attention of TIL,
rule makers but they declined to tax,
any action on it.
To those that have been following in
tercollegiate foot ball for a number o.
years the failure of the committee tt
adopt rule or even to make recon-
mendation regarding the numbering o
players seems ineXcuSable. The fact tha
nearly every other sport in the intercol-
ieSlate calendar required such a system
OF Identifying athletes, and the great
confusion which lack of it causes In
college foot ball, make one wonder why
the rule makers hesitate to take action
on this important point. The explanation
or the failure to act was that they feared
the passage of the rule would work a
hardship on many of the smaller teams
but it would certainly be no harder than
it is now for all organizations to identify
their track athletes, and 1t is even more
important
This is reform which must be worked
universally adopted until one or two OF
the big universities demonstrate how
simple it is and how valuable it is to the
spectators. 1t Is quite certain that when
the public once becomes accustomed to
an intelligent view of big foot ball games
1t Will not tolerate the disregard of its
comfort which has marked intercollegiate
foot ball to date 1t is hard TO have
much patience with the committees view
that the passage of such a rule would
HWY
minor college and school teams Had
such a fear been genuine the committee
could readily have made this a recon-
mendation, but it did not do even this.
Cornell Basket Ball Champions.
What DIR. A. H. Sharpe failed to do in
foot ball he has accomplished in basket
ball, for the team coached by him has
won the intercollegiate championship the
first time this honor has ever gone to
Ithaca. Cornell's victory was due large
ly to Shapes coaching. and the play of
the 1thacanS was an object lesson which
the other members of the intercollegiate
league could adopt with profit.
At the very beginning of Cornell's prac-
tice DR.. Sharpe emphasized the necessity
of team play and vigorously discoura ged
any tendency toward roughness. The re-
suit was that Cornell played the cleanest
basket ball Of any team in the league and
likewise exhibited the best team work.
Instead of roughing their opponents the
Cornell men played together and for the
basket. 1t was the most successful sea-
son for the Ithacans and tribute to the
methods which DR.. Sharpe employed not
only in basket ball, but in all other sports
as well.
An unusual feature of the basket ball
season was the splendid playing of the
Yale team, although the Els were not
a member of the intercollegiate associa-
ton. Yale dropped out a year ago after
finishing last in the championship race.
The excuse given was that the Yale facul-
ty did not like the rough features of the
game and that it found little support
among the Yale students. The chances
are that after the splendid record of this
years Yale team the Ellis will be found in
the league next fall. Once before Yale
dropped out Of the league and for much
the same reason, but returned the season
following.
Efforts may also be made To secure the
return of Harvard. though this Will be
rather difficult because the Crimson has
been out of the game for several years.
The new basket ball rules worked better
this year than ever before, and spectators
were particularly pleased that all the
PLAYERS were obliged to be identified with
numbers.
C,,p 20