New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-10-09
FOOTBALL DENOUNCED
BY WEST POINT HEAD
Col. ToWnsIey Joins Surgeon
General Stokes in Attack
on the Game.
LUXURIOUS TO CADETS"
Of Accidents Treated 70 Per
Cent Result frAp Gridiron
Sport-Mahy Hurts
Permanent,
Permanent.
From The Tribune Bureau

Washington. Oct 6-Colonel Clar-
ence P. Townsley. superintendent OF
the United States Military Academy at
West Point, has taken a standsagainst
football which will prove shock TO all
lovers Of the gridirong land which may
menace the future Of the game espe-
cially as he is supported in histvieWs
by DR.. Charles Stokes, Surgeon Gen
eral Of the Navy.
Colonel Townsley declares that while
20 per cent Of all the injured treated
by the surgeons in the season at West
Point are due TO football casualties
the patients being the forty or fifty
cadets who engage in the game, there
is no adequate compensation IN the
way Of physical training. The remain
ing % per cent comes from over six
hundred cadets, and the injuries are
principally caused by work in the gym
nasium, such as athletics. wrestling,
boxing. etc, and from mounted drills in
cavalry and field artillery. The game
OF polo, in which the first and second
class men engage. also furnishes few
injuries
Colonel Townsley suggests that the
frequency Of injuries to football play
ers and the permanent character OF
many Of such injuries make 1t a Ques-
ton Of whether football is OF sufficient
value TO the corps to warrant its con-
tinuance and the tremendous expendi-
ture Of time and money involved.
OF the sixty-one injuries due to foot
ball and treated at the hospital at
West Point from September l to No
vember 80 last year. eleven were Of
character liable to cause future trouble
that is, IS per cent Of the injuries
were Of a serious nature. Colonel
Townsley says:
Football certainly serves no useful
purpose in the physical development Of
and attracts to its squad only the few
who are already physically strong, ac-
tive and we'll developed. Its value. II
1t has any, lies mainly in the interest,
fords to the other members Of the
corps and the thousands who attend it's
principal contests and are willing TO
contribute TO its support"
Surgeon General Stokes is on record
as opposed to the playing Of football
at the Naval Academy. For several
years he has protested against what he
terms Spectacular athletics" and has
produced statistics showing the unfa-
vorable results due to entertaining
and overst-aining. followed by periods
Of physical quietude exacted by service
conditions"
In one OF his reports he showed the
records Of 622 star athletes in classes
from 1892 to 1911. compared with the
records Of $50 Of the non-athletic mid
shipmen. showing in effect that the
former had suffered severely in health.
An excess Of 30 per cent was shown
among these star athletes over the
non-athletic in valvular disease Of the
heart, general poor health. obesity snd
tuberculosis. etc.
Surgeon General Stokes believes that
this condition is brought about by
entertaining and overstraining and has
recommended that athletics be regu-
lated to avoid such conditions, that en-
durance contests dependent upon brute
force be eliminated and that a maxi
mum effort be made TO develop a SYM
metrical. normal physique, rather than
highly specialized machine.