The daily Alaskan., 1915-11-26
LUCK MlSNOMER
 FOR GRID BREAKS
Real Skill Is Behind Strokes
 of Fortune In Football
SAM WHITES SPECIALITY,

He Won For Princeton by His Ability
 Going at Top Speed, to Pick Up
 Bounding Ball -"s "shoestrlns' Plays
 Futile.
 There is an ever growing proneness' under the new rules in football, to at- tribute too much to what is termed luck. Victories due, as was Harvard's over the Massachusetts Aggies recent ly, to an intercepted forward pass in the final moments of play are too often ascribed to mere good fortune. The query presents itself, Is there really any such thing as luck ln footOallf
 To him who battles on the gridiron the word luck, as applied to the breaks of the game" Is a base misnomer. In ninety-nlne cases out of Q hundred 1t is skill that makes the most out of a sudden break, a tumble, an intercepted pass. To the onlooker 1t appears Ike the easiest thing in the world for Q runner to make forty or fifty yards to the goal line after intercepting pass and nobody to stop him, but the close follower of the game knows better.
 In the first place, 1t isn't the least difficult thing to get ones hands on a football intended for one of the other eleven fellows against whom the team Is fighting. But once the player has intercepted the pass or picked up the tumble the fine work of the coaches comes in. The players are taught that just as soon as one of those "breaks of the game" pops up every man is to single out an opponent and fall on him with might and main. As a result, the player with the ball gets what appears to be avery lucky sltua- tiOn--a clear field.
 "shOestring' Plays Futile.
 Close victories of big eIeyens over smaller ones-that of Princeton over Rutgers recently. for instance-are very often due to the breaks of the game" that are the direct result of the reckless style of play adopted by the minor team. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, the small eIevens have altogether too much re- course to ''shoesuing' plays, and when one of these plays is successful and con- verted into a touchdown the cry goes up-"LuCkw
 A "shOcstring" attack at best pre- Eents nothing more than a gamblers chance and leaves all kinds Uf open ings for q break in favor of tie other fellow. If Rutgers had relief more on its straight plays there might have been a different story, for, except at the ends and a quarterback, it pre- scented better developed combination.
 Princeton more than any other big college has been said to have been the beneficiary of that misnOmer luck" in football. The Tiger coaches as far back as Bill Roper always taught their men to take advantage of the breaks, and. as a result, Old Nassau in Its "preliminary" games has beaten many a more advanced eleven which 1t had no license to beat. The Dartmouth and Williams contests last season are glar- ing examples
 The Case of Sam White.
 Some years ago Princeton developed superspecialist in its speciality of taking advantage of the breaks, He was sam White, who, through his abil. ity to see a loose ball, pick 1t up and run for a touchdown, defeated both Yale and Harvard in 1911. Whites dashes for scores from fumbles were not mere luck. They could not even be cIassed under breaks of the game. They were football masterpieces be- gotten of the highest skill.
 Whites big asset, possessed by about one player In a thousand, was his ubil- ity to pick up a ball on the bound while he was running at top speed, Those who have tried know how diff fcult 1t is to get hold of the elusive pigskin when 1t begins It's uneven ca reer on the turf. However, White so perfected himself in that art that un. faillngIy he could, going at full speed, 1 pick up the ball instead of having to obey the time hOnored instructions to fall on the ball when you see 1t loose"
 White very early in his varsity eX' perience realized that the chances for scoring from a tumble were very great if a player could get hold of the i bounding ball He then set to work developing his ability. He worked all by himself on dry fields, on wet fields, IEn the bright sunlight and in the twi' Fight He even went as far as to soak flls ball in order to be able to handle the slippery pigskin, and he mastered f1aE too. Certainly that wasn't luck