Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1916-11-04

NlcKlng, particularly puHtlbG, Is
among the dccndent arts of football.
This. mt least, is the opinion of Coach
A. A. Stagg, who holds forth ut the
University of Chicago, and as he has
seen klckers, good, bad and in
different for a matter Of thirty
odd years, his words bear con-
siderable part of authority on the sub
ject, writes Lambert Sullivan In
Chicago News. Stagg declares the
players of the present Gay are not
kickers like the heroes Of bygone gem
erations, because they have too lit
tie time to devote to practice ut the
art.
importance Has Been Iessened.
"Kickins Is relatively less impor-
tant part of football now than II was
I'm the early stages of the game he
declared. "When yard or foot was
an important factor In determining the
result of u game good punter was
n big skare of a teams defensive
strength. He Is, of course, a factor
now, but with rules which permit
teams to rush the ball more easily
than In days of old he il not so great
factor Ia the results. A team which
has an inferior kicker cen make up for
this deficiency in other ways far
more readily than II could In the old
days.
~ remember when played mt Yale
that the kickers of the team We're
given thorough practice both morn
ing and afternoon, and some OF the
more ambitious continued their train
ing not only In season but daily
throughout the year. The result of
that work may easily be imagined; the
punter knew every quarter inch of the
pigskin ana controlled the ball with
an accuracy which would be regarded
nowadays as positively uGcanny.
The great object then, as 1t is now,
was to get the ball outside and well
down the field. In those days the
punters were able to tell almost the
exact inch of the side line over which
the ball would fall.
Richards Was q Star.
'The star of kickers when I played
mt Yale was Gene Richards, who
reached the height of his career In
1885. His work, as that of others of
this period, was the result of this
daily practice method and undOubted-
ly he was one of the wonders of the
game ut punting. In these days the
only punt used was what was called
the lumber kick seldom seen now
adays. In kicking this, thu ball was
held with its longitudinal axis Mt an
angle Of about 90 degrees to the
ground and the kick was not straight,
but was delivered with a sort of side
swipe with the foot. The result was
what we used to call Kicking the bot
tom out of the BALI and when In flight
the oval turned twisters and fliptlops
without any apparent regularity In Its
turning.
"This resulted In an extremely mean
ball for the catcher to handle ana pro,
duced greater amount OF fumbling
than the present-day spiral. 1t took
lot of work to become proficient In
its use, however, which / believe Is
the principal reason 1t no longer Is
seen. The only fall harder to judge
than tie 'tumbler' Is the 'fOater,' q
ball which seems to float On the wind
and which it is absolutely impossible
to Judge. This ball, however, Is one
of the freaks of the game and is thu
result of accident rather than de
J sign.
"Pigeon-Toed Kicks"
ITO the best of my recollection, tn
first spiral punt ever saw was MADE
by Clarence Herschberger. was try
ing to teach Hershy the lumber Su
he could not seem to get the haLg o
1t. Instead of swinging his foot owe
for a sdeswipe and hitting the ball OF
the inside of his instep, he drove hi
foot straight out and caught the bal
on the outside Of his instep, impart
ing n twisting motion to the ball. w
all ascribed Hershy's inability 10 mas
ter the 'tumbler' to the fact that h
was pigeon tocd and | guess his In
pointed toes have had great deal t