The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-12-10

FOOTBALL CAUSES
 SEVENTEEN DEATHS
Not Single Varsity Player Any Collegiate Team Included in List-Boy of Nine Years is Youngest Victim-Tel
 Chiefly of High School Players

| Chicago December 9--Football, the
 most strenuous of American outdoor l sports, exacted a toll of r victims this fall, the number being one larger than the total of 1915 There is bit of con
 solation for the sport in the fact that al
 least 15 per cent more players engaged | in the gridiron game than a year ago,
 thus reducing the percentage of deaths. l Again the defenders of the popular col | lege sport point out that eight of the victims were members of amateur and
 semi-professional teams; five were high schooIers, one a member of a grammar school and three with college affilia ton, | but of the latter group only one could
 be recognized as 8 real varsity player. Where the game was conducted under expert physical condition not a single
 death was reported or even a real seri-
 ous injury.
 | According to ages, where reports car ried that fact, three players of 21 and
 as many of r years met their death di- rectly or indirectly through the misfor- tunes of the game; two were IS years
 old and two 19. The youngest player was l 9 years old, Chicago victim, and the
 oldest 20 years old.
 1 Three deaths should not be placed to
 the discredit of the sport. One developed
 into a case of heart disease after the player had overexerted himself in the
 game; the second victim died from teta-
 nus developing from a cut in the left hand received in a prairie contest, and the third player came to his death after falling over a water bucket. He injured 1 his intestines and died later from peril 1 tonitiS.
 1 PLAYERS UNFRAMED 1 Ninety per cent of the cases showed | that the players entered the game lacking l the proper education and physical con-
 ditions for so rough a sport. Several in- | stances are cited where the player met 1 his death through ignorance of the rules, such as piling on the carrier of the ball, l tripping, assisting the runner, illegal in | terference with forward pass and roughing the punter.
 l Special emphasis was made by the rules committee, demanding that no player 1 should be permitted upon the field who had not undergone competent medical l examination; who had not digeSted the rules before he put a ball in his hand,
 and wouldn't give his word to play the game cleanly.
 l Every precaution to make the game as clean as it possibly could be was made l by the rule makers. Several players were | injured in 1915 when crashed into as they
 were receiving forward pass. To remedy l the situation the committee put a 15-yard 1 penalty clause in the code to check a de- 1 fensive player, who was not permitted to
 touch a man receiving pass until that player had the ball.
 ANOTHER GOOD RECORD | Chicago high schools passed through another season without a mark against | it's wonderful record for sane football. l There were several injuries, such as broken legs, ribs and collar bones, but in no case was the player disabled per manently. Chicago has had a rule for physical examination and this has been 1 adhered to religiously since the forma- ton of the league F years ago. The same conditions exist in the suburban organi- zation.
 1 Football among the western conference 1 schools again was a clean game. It has 1 been years since contestant went to hls grave with the curse of the game with l him. Coaches have made it their business i to play the game sanely and safely and
 spirit of dirty tactics of other days-when five yards was the necessary distance tc