El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-16

Washington, D. c., Oct. 16.-"The
greatest unifying force in American
university life" and "The most inten-
selv popular of intercollegiate sports
in this country" are complimentary
characterized ions of football aScrlDeu
to educators and to students OF the
Because Of the inferior article, as
compared with the professional stan
dard. baseball never has appealed es-
DeciaIly to the American cOlleglan ana
in some institutions interest IN
baseball dropped to such an extent
that il was deemed inadvisable to nave
teams on the diamond Field ana
sports have their followers, but no
other branch has ever appealed so
strongly to the young students as the
game that is now enjoying another
season Of success
Played by the Romans.
Football was originally introduced
into Britain by the Romans and was
first distinctly mentioned IN 1lI0-
Shakspere refers to it in King Lear
and one of the orders from King James
I was From this court I debarre all
rough and violent exercises, as the
football, meeter for lameing than max
ing able the users thereof
Despite such orders, oft repeated
football became the game of the
schoolbOys Of England at Rugby
Eton, and other schools For many
years the game was in such crude
form that there were distinctive rules
for each separate institution. Real
izing however. the necessity of uni
form set of regulations, the clubs OF
London in the middle of the last cen
tury- sent representative to a meeting
at which the regulations were codi-
fled and from these rules grew the
American game that is today COM
handing the attention Of hundreds OF
thousands Of gridiron devOtees.
First Rules of Association.
Two years after the conference in
England, men from Yale, Princeton,
Columbia and Rutgers drew up the
first code for the original football as
ISOLATION in the United States Rut-
gers and Princeton played a match IN
November, 1869. but it was not until
November 20, 1875, that representa-
tives Of Yale, Harvard and Columbia
drew up the rules that really marked
the beginning Of the present game At
first the scoring was rather involved
and this continued until 1897 when a
change was made so that q touchdown
scored five points and a goal one The
goal from the field was valued at four
points in 1904 only to be reduced to
three points five years later. The |
latest change in the scoring came last |
year when the value of touchdown |
was increased to six, the reason ]
being that a team that succeeded In /
once crossing an opponents final line |
would be able to offset two goals /
from Ln6 IlelQ-Senefally the result OF i
the skilful work of an individual 1
rather than a test Of well balanced |
teamwork by an eleven
Since 1904, when the flying wedge" |
a formation in full speed that was TO ]
be stopped by q stationary defence. |
was interdicted, the whole tendency of !
the rule makers has been to tinker |
with the code in the hope of obtaining I
a game safer for the participants
Fifteen Men Draft Code.
The code for football is drafted nv a i
committee of IS drawn from colleges /
from all sections. This is a combina- |
ton Of the original body and the rep 1
resentatives Of the intercollegiate !
Athletic association. which demanded 1
recognition following the disastrous /