Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-03-03
FIRST FOOTBALL
WAS HUMAN HEAD;
Danes POPULAR

Football is rarely associated with
the ancient sports OF tennis, golf.
running, jumping. weight-throwing.
wrestling. and boxing II is commonly
believed that football is a modern
game But right there Mr.. Average
man fools himself. Football is an
ancient pastime. The old Tteutons
are credited with founding the game
by playing with the bleaehed skulls
of their enemies. Preliminary practice
was first heard of in Chester, England.
where the old English had sufficiently
brutalized the game to give rise to
many adverse criticisms. fragments of
which have survived to the present
day.
Started in s62
Legend has 1t that in 962. during
the Danish invasion of England. a
good man of Chester captured Dane.
beheaded him and knocked his head
out into the street to furnish sport
for the fellows The game of kick
ing the head around the city streets
and even outside the walls of the an
Client Roman-built city grew in favor.
The exercise was INDUCED in when
ever Chester sport could annex a
Danish head.
Head Supply Gave Out.
But eventually the supply OF Dan
ish heads gave out. But the sport had
secured a strong hold on the exercise
loving Anglo-Saxons and halle of
leather called a bootballe' was sub
stituted.
The game developed into rough
and tumble scrimmage, and the ball
itself would often lie forgotten for
hours while the excited players chased
one another through alleys and lanes
and even into the houses of the more
respectable citizens as results of ar.
guments over the rules. 1t seems that
even before William the Conaueror
invaded England the Interpretation Of
the football rulesxwas a much mooted
matter. Sconces were cracked. bones
we're broken and lives were lost. Yet
the game spread in favor, and, jump
ing over the intervening centuries, is
still spreading.
Old Critics Were Bitter.
The modern school,of football crit.
les. Just at the present subdned mi
nority by reason OF the general salts
faction expressed by the public and
press, is not a whit more bitter than
Phillip Stubs, literary Briton, who
way back in 1888 raked football of
that day uD and down, over and
across. in the following fashion:
AS concerning football, protest
unto You 1t NAV rather be called
friendlie kind of fight than a plaS or
recreation. bloody and numbering
practice than q followy sport or pas
time. For dooth not every one lie in
wait for HIS adversary. seeking to1
overthrow him and pickle him on the
nose, tho it be on hard stones, or
ditch or vale. or valley or hill. so he
has him down. and he that can serve
the most Of this fashion is couHted the
only fellow. and who but he.
Injuries Are Many.
So, that by this means their necks
are broken, sometimes their backs.
sometimes their arms. sometimes their
noses gush out with blood. sometimes
their eyes start out; for they have the
sights OF mix one between two. to
dash him against the heart with their
elbows, to butt him under the short
ribs with their gripped fists, and with
their knees to catch him on the hip
and pickle him on his neck. with a
hundred numbering devices
In embroidery frame that leaves
both hands free the invention of an
Indiana man is Summarized h,r ndi,,o.