Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-19
SMOKER LEADS To
FOOTBALL DEBATE
Fear Expressed That Game Is
Becoming C0mmercialized
Brings Arguments.
FORMER PLAYERS VIEWS

Whether or not the great college
game of football was being too much
commercialized was another Of the
questions debated indirectly at the
Princeton smoker held last night.
George Phillips, IA, Of Princeton.
who performed as tackle on the
Tiger teams. took exception to
statement made by Charles W. May
ser favoring winter meetings of foot
ball candidates.
Parke Davis, the noted football au-
thority, who is a Princetonian. was
among the speakers invited to address
the local alumni, but his regrets came
in the form Of telegram expressing
his inability TO be present.
Phillips. who is q local man, as
serted that already too much bust
ness was creeping into football. and
that players already devote too much
time during the playing season TO the
gridiron game without following it
I'm during the winter. Mayser argued
that many things could be taught in
a series Of lectures during the win
ter that were hard to teach on the
field
He declared that it was next to i'm
possible TO get some backs to use
the stiff arm and to teach the line
men, in some cases, how to put a
man out of a play and keep him
from recovering his feet Immediately
Phillips said that too much blame
had been placed on the shoulders of
Snake Ames. He asserted that
Ames had worked hard for the inter
est of the team. He said that some
football stars were incapable of i'm
parting their own learning 70 many
in their charge, and that it was q
mistake to invite every man who ever
won a letter to come down and stand
around the field just to get their
names In the papers for the gener-
osity In giving up their time TO aid
the cause"
Must Be Graduate.
Sanford 3. Hunt, former captain OF
Cornell and an All-American selec-
ton ten years ago, gave an interest
ing opinion on his views Of the
Princeton situation. He declared that
he had witnessed the chaotic state Of
affairs at Princeton and dwelt on the
necessity of selecting a Princeton man
for the position Of head coach. Also
that 1t was essential that the coach
be given three or five years In which
to develop a team. He said that DR..
AL Sharpe, Of Cornell, had been
failure during his first two years at
Cornell, and would have been released
If he had not held a three-year con-
tract.
Sharpe is not Cornell man." said
Hunt. He came TO Ithaca from a
prep schol in Philadelphia and he was
not a success during his first season.
He learned and learned rapidly many
things about football, and his team
this year stands out as a brilliant
credit mark to his name. The one
man system at a big college, however,
is a failure, in my opinion, when an
outsider is chosen as Cornell has done
The reason is Just this: A college like
Cornell cannot afford to pay more
than two assistants. and the grad
yates capable of helping to develop
the players will not turn out to assist
a man who is not himself a graduate.
cornell met with success because
of the rich material on hand this
year, and Sharpe deserves great
credit, but / think IN the long run
the system VIII prove failure.
Picking the Right Man.
1.-The one man system is what
Princeton needs l will admit that, but
the difficulty lies in the direction of
fixing on the right man and then let
ting him have full sway even II he
is q dismal failure for one or even
two seasons. A man can't show in
one year. Up in Cambridge the payy
pay Percy Haughton something like
$4,000 a year as head coach, but he
has some brilliant assistants in the
stars of former years. They OF
course followed Haughton's sugges-N
tions, and in turn make suggestions.
Hunt read a clipping which told Of
the system used at Harvard and how
one man was kept on the list just to
watch Yale all season and another to
watch the Princeton team. These
men, he declared, never saw the Har-
ward club play until the Crimson
clashed with the Blue and the Orange
and Black.
The sum and substance Of It Is that
Harvard has perfected a wonderful
system and the question is whether
becoming SCIENTIFIC is tending toward
the commercializing of the game. AS
in all other branches of sport or busi-
ness taken up by Americans, every
thing possible is done to perfect the
system and Harvard's success can be
traced largely TO that.
Daring Prediction.
In conclusion Mayser made a daring
prediction that, in his way of think
ing, the championship next year
would depend on the Yale-P Princeton
game. He asserted that Harvard had
lost many of her stars, and. from
what he had seen and heard of
Princeton and Yale, these two elevens
would be rich in football material
He also dwelt on the necessity of
selecting capable assistant coaches
after Princeton had chosen the zone
man" 10 guide her team, and the
absolute obedience and loyalty of all
the other coaches TO the man in
charge. He told of one instance where
coach came to him after a game
and asked him what he thought about
the way the ends on the opposing
team played. Mayser replied that their
work was splendid, but the tackles
were weak. "Oh, don't care about
that" said the coach; Il only drilled
the ends" The one-for -all-all-for-
one spirit was necessary at all times