Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-10-14
WEST POINT HEAD
AGAINST FOOT BALL
Surgeon General Stokes Of Navy
Also Cites Evils Of the
Game.
DOUBLE VALUE OF GAME.
Chief Purpose Of Game Suffers Loss Of
Health.

Cpl. Clarence p. Townsley, super
inten1ent of the United States Mill
tary Aca lemy at West Point, has
taken a stand against football which
will prov, a shock to all lovers Of the
gridiron and which may menace the
| future of the game, especially as he
is supported in his views by DR..
Charles Stokes, surgeon general of
the navy.
Colonel Townsley declares that
while IS per cent. OF all the injured
treated by the surgeons i'm the season
at West Point are due to football
casualties, the patients being the 40
or 30 cadets who engage in the
game, there is no adequate compensa-
tion in the way of physical training.
The remaining 25 per cent comes
from over 900 cadets, and the injur-
les are principally caused by work
in the gymnasium, 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
freque ncy of injuries to footballs play
ers and the permanent character cf
many of such injuries make it quts-
tion of whsther football is of suffi-
cient value to the corps to warrant
its continuance and the tremendous
expenditure of time and money in
volved. OF the 6I injuries due to
football and treated at the hospital
at West Point from September / 10
November 80 last year, eleven were
Of character liable to cause future
trouble-that is, per cent. of the
injuries were of a serious nature.
Colonel Townsley says
Football certainly serves no use
full purpose in the physical develop
ment of training in the corps, as it is
voluntary and attracts to its squad
only the few who are already ply
sically strong, active and we'll de-
veloped. Its value, if it has any, lies
mainly in the interest, entertainment
and excitement it affords to the other
members of the corps and the thous-
| ands who attend its principal contests
and are willing to contribute to its
support. "
Surgeon General Stokes is on rec
ord as oppose to the playing of foot
ball at the Naval Academy. For sew
eral years he has prote sted against
what he terms spectacular athle.
tics" and has produced statistics
showing the Unfavorable results due
to entertaining and overstraining,
followed by periods of physical quie-
tude 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 midshipmen, showing in
effect that the former had suffered
| seve ely in health. An excess of so
per cent. was shown among these star
athletes over the non-athletic in val
| vuIar disease of the heart, general
poor health, obesity and tuberculo-
| sis, etc.
surgeon General Stokes believes
that this condition is brought about
by overtraining and overstraining and
has recommended that athletics be
regulated 10 avoid such conditiC ms,
that endurance contests dependent
upon brute force be eliminated and
that maximum effort be made to
develop a symmetrical, normal ply
siqus, rather than a highly specialized
machine.