Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1913-11-28
FORT SMITH BOYS ARE STATE CHAMPS Nothing Nothing Game Is Played With Little
 High School. PLAY IN RAIN STORM Big Delegation Accompanied Border City Lads To BattlcfieId-The
 Features.
PLAY IN RAIN STORM

Little Rock, Ark, Nov. 27-Because neither side was able to score today, Fort Smith High School becomes state champion. In secondary foot
 ball. Had the team been able to play
 on solid earth, Fort Smith would no doubt have piled healthy score on the Little Rock eleven, but three
 fourths of the game was played in a
 doWnpOur of rain. and scoring would
 only have been possible by harness
 ing water buffalo to mud scows, in
 which to transport the player with
 the ball.
 At one time, West End park was
 used as baseball field, in the
 Southern League. grass diamond
 was carefully nursed at that time,
 and it has continued to thrive
 through years of idleness, while the
 outfield had remained barren tract
 of sunburned clay. The diamond, an
 island in sea of mud, was the point
 of vantage for which both sides
 fought this afternoon, for it meant if nothing else-a change from the
 mOnOtonous sliding through ankle
 deep mud, with the face of the player
 for the pilot, and a mass of line
 rushers for a rudder. With the ex-
 ception of this grass plot, which was
 in one corner of the playing field, the ground consisted of thin
 veneer of liquid earth, supported by
 from two to ten inches of genuine,
 old fashioned red clay. The heavy rain had made the mud like that of
 country road, and in this the play
 CTS floundered.
 Rain began to fall just as those
 who defied the high cost of living sat
 down to Thanksgiving turkeys, and for three hours it fell in torrents. Few people anticipated a football
 game under such conditipnsA and instead crowd of five thousand, the grand stand contained less than 300 of the royal rooters. Fort Smith rooters, having travelled 165 miles to cheer their champions on to victory, were as numerous as those for the Little Rock eleven. As both teams have yells so similar, it was impossible for either team to distinguish in the roofing, so both were cheereo aid kept up the fight in the vermillion colon ed slush.
 Fort Smith failed to score as much through luck on the part of the Little Rock eleven, as through the in- ability of the heavy backs to get started with the ball. Not once dur ing the game did Little Rock made first down, a thing often accom- plished by the Fort Smith team, but | the short quarters prevented the Bor- der City eleven from scoring when i started.
 It would be impossible to single out stars in this game, but the ends of each team, Hardin and Lee for Fort Smith, and Robbins and Harris for Little Rock, blocked nearly evry- thing started around the ends, and Little Rock could not gain at the line.
 The first quarter ended with the ball on the Fort Smith twenty five yard line. Little Rock kicked off and Fort Smith several times made first down, to lose on a tumble, and back and forth the ball went in the mud. The half ended with the ball again in Fort Smith territory, simp- ly because neither side could make any headway. It took so little res- lstence to stop a play that Little Rock was placed almost on an with the heavier contestants. Seeing no headway could be made at the line. Little Rock, within ten yards of the Fort Smith goal. tried Rob- bins around right end on an old fash toned sricc cross. He swung we'll around the line but sprawled all cverhimself in a mud puddle without gain. He would have made little gain had he not fallen, for Leininger and Hardin were waiting to pull the to his feet, instead of down ing" him.
 Fort Smith was rather unlucky in this quarter, for Little Rock had been held to downs, and still trying to tear a hole in the line for fourth down, fumbled. Little Rock re- gained the ball and instead of losing it on downs, was given four more trials, within few yards of the Bor- der City goal.
 Fort Smith kicked to start the second half The ball, heavy and 1 rain soaked. went but a few yards