Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-12-01
VICTORY OF ARMY
HON0RS TO WEST
That All Eastern Teams Are
Behind Times Is Shown by
Defeat of Navy.
is CREDIT TO NOTRE DAME
Cadets Learn New Tricks from Har-
per's charges-coaehins Of
Yost Is Great Aid.


for western football. 1t was one more
demonstration of the worth of western
gridiron methods besides a clear
avowal that one team of the west leads
at least the Army and Navy and the
elevens which these two teams met
during the season.
While the Notre Dame players were
gathered in their dressing-rooms after
their game with West Point. in which
the Army had been decisively beaten
So to IS, Coach Harper of Notre Dame
and Coach Lieutenant DAILY of West
Point were closeted and discussing
the forward pass formations that
Notre Dame had used to trim the
cadets. Harper explained how his
men were able 10 complete thirteen
out of seventeen passes in that game
and showed Lieutenant DAILY the sim
plifled methods in general use in the
central west. This was lesson No. l
for the Army.
Yost Coaches Army.
Immediately after the Michigan
Pennsylvania game Coach F.. II. Yost
boarded a train for West Point and
for at least a week he acted as ad-
visor to Coach DAILY, adding his know
ledge of the new, open plays to those
left by Coach Harper. This was les
son No. 2, for the Army was quietly
taught western football methods until
the day before they ran out on the
field at the Polo Grounds in New York.
The result of this instruction from
the west was what the fasteners
styled a complete reversal of form. A
reversal that brought team consid-
cred far below the ability of the Navy
to one that proved % to better. The
Army beat the Navy by two forward
passes, taught by Coach Yost and
learned how from coaches who have
been teaching such tricks to their
charges for two seasons at least.
Boosters of ali that pertains to the
west assert that this proves conclu-
sively that the best football teams of
the country have been playing on this
side of the Allegheny mountains. They
assert that the record of the Navy,
which had placed the midshipmen
alongside of Harvard and Carlisle, and
its subsequent defeat by the Army
leaves no room for argument in favor
of the east as leaders on the gridiron.
Army Plays New Style.
The fact that the Army threw off
the ancient ideas in vogue in the East
and learned anew. the more worthy
of the west and by so doing
beat a team that figured, on paper, at
least once again as strong, is not the
only rebuttal held by the west to prove
that teams of this section lead the
world. There still remains the fact
that Notre Dame swamped the Army
with ease when these two teams met.
Many close students of football have
the opinion that there are at
least five teams in the west this year
hat could defeat any organization In
he east. There is not an official or
coach but openly declares that the Uni
versity of Chicago champion eleven OF
1913 could easily prove the champion
ship aggregation of the east should
game be arranged with Harvard and
Chicago competing. Besides the ma
Don eleven, Notre Dame. Michigan
Aggies, Michigan, Minnesota and Me-
,raska are mentioned as teams that
cad anything shown in the east this
year
1ueTe Is a TedSOu iOI Tue Supi cihoNJ
hown by teams OF this section of the
and it is in the open game.
several years ago when beef" was
he chief requisite of a football team.
Yale, Harvard and few others reign
ID supreme, for these institutions saw
O 1t that there was beef" on the
cam. Since the change in rules that
weight has been substituted for speed
nd have sense" and the west has
een the quicker in seeing that such
hange was necessary.
Adhere to Old.
Eastern coaches still stick 10 the
lea of getting a couple OF yards from
line buck and that the team holding
he ball for the greater part OF the
me is the one that eventually will
lin out. Take no chances" seems to
e the idea installed into the eastern
cams.
1t is entirely different under the
eaching of A. A. Stagg, Yost, Harper
nd a few others. These coaches teach
leir pupils to grasp opportunities, to
" trickery and to play the game as
lie new rules allow. Forward passes
re as much the daily lesson as how
, train. The line is played more open,
le back field scattered and in every
the idea Of chance is upper
lost That the west gets results
ouId prove this scheme better than