The San Francisco call., 1913-09-03
STIRRING SCENES
IN RUGBY WORK
Initial Practice on Califor-
mia Field Signals Open
ing of Season
By WILLIAM UNMACK

| Varsity men. near varsity men and
| aspirants for places on the varsity or
near varsity turned out In force yes
tial practice of the year.
The under graduates piled onto the
hleachers In big numbers. and the big
squad of men who will try out for
places on the varsity squad got big
hand when they filed on the field
. Coach Schaeffer and his assistant.
Cedric Cert, had close to 100 men out
in suits for the first days work. The
coaches gathered the men together on
the field and gave instructions for
light work.
The big squad was divided up into
sections and kicking and passing in
dulged in.
The punk. punk. punk of the numer-
Gus footballs was music on the ears OF
the eager fans on the bleachers
The kicking of number OF the men
was considered high class. Drops and
punts were INDUCED In for the most
part Numbers of the men formed in
line and practiced passing rallies up
and down the field, but none were al
lowed to do more work than was con-
sidered necessary for them.
Plenty of old faces were seen on the
here, there and everywhere, helping
the coaches direct the men.
big Bili' King was on hand and
showed the necessity OF little train
ing.
Dills. an aspirant for varsity honors.
was right on the job, as was Dixie"
Fish and Dave Brant.
McKim, Douglas. Fleming, Hoskins
and Saunders were among the we'll
| IT,,
Montgomery. Gianelli, Hayes and
others of last years freshmen were
also picked out from the bleachers.
Though California has lost a num-
ber of last years veterans, the OUT
look for the coming season. judging
by yesterdays workout, looks to have
far more gold" in Its coloring than
blue"
Before college opened the opinion
was expressed that the varsity team
was going to be "all shot to pieces"
Yesterday. however, 1t was evidenced
that there is sufficient material on
hand to work out team that is
going to make the old opposition car
dinal hump it, to take the laureis on
November 12. which neither side man
aged to pick out of the mud last No
vember.
The freshman situation at the Uni
versity of California is another en-
couraging feature to the men on the
grandstands. The big SQUAD of 1917"
infants has been voted one OF the
best In point of ability and the best
in point of knowledge that has ever
donned the practice uniforms.
Coach Jimmy Schaeffer and Shook
Cert have ideas OF their own coach
| ing which have proved to be just the
right kind of ideas for a number of
years past. The new baby squad has
| been tasting these ideas for a little
more than a week and are starting
to show the effect of the'work of the
coaches.
The big squad has plenty OF high
class mflaterial hidden away in its
skirts. The first game showed some
| of 1t, and by degrees the coaches are
wedding out the wheat from the chaff.
| There was too general an idea to
kick the ball as soon as a man laid
! his hands on 1t. In the first game par
| ticularly. when one side or the other
was close to the opposition goal lines
on the attack. This Is feature
which in a contest would tend to
| make or break team. and the
coaches are gradually eradicating the
| error
The back field men OF the baby
squad show great promise. more so
] than the forward division. The latter.
/ however. have plenty Of time to be
developed in their part OF the game.
The back field men are always more
quickly noticed than the forward work
| on account of the more openness OF
| the formation, and this was undoubt-
edly the cause of the featuring of the
backs in the initial game.
/ Next Saturday afternoon the babies
will be given their first serious try
outs. On that afternoon the strong
Olympic club team and the old time
Barbarian Rugby aggregation will be
on hand to give the infants a thor
ough trial.
/ The clubmen have been In training
for some weeks past. and both intend
to put strong teams on the field
| against the babies.