The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-10
BRAINS Win NOW
Football Coaches No Longer
Rely Upon Mere 'Beef."
Team Work Makes Stars of
Many Little Men.
BY JACK YEIOCK.

New York, Nov. 10.-Football used
to be a game in which brute strength
reigned supreme.
Beef was the prime requisite a few
years ago, but the little fellows were
passed up by the coaches because they
did not have avoirdupois that was
thought necessary to the upbuildiRg of
a winning team.
But the old-time caveman stuff has
had to take a back seat, for the game
of football as it is played today by all
of the larger schools of the country
has become game Where Drains
count as much as brute force.
Football has really been elevated to
a scientific level, and for this reason
the little fellows and the little schools
have come into their own at last
The intricate plays that are used by
big university elevens today require
strength, foot-sureness and speed. but
they require quick thinking players
with sure memories as much as any
thing else. The Introduction OF the for
ward pass was a big step in building
up football as a scientific game, and
since it has been universally adopted
and approved the coaching fraternity
has found a wide latitude for the use
of it's brains.
Size No Handicap.
In any season but one like the pres
ent autumn, with war interfering, the
coaches have no trouble finding plenty
of material. The new style game has
extended the field and players of all
sizes and weights can be used to ad-
vantage now
The slow-footed, beefy team of old
would be a joke in this day and age.
for, with the exception of a fairly
heavy line, the makeup of modern
football elevens leans toward the light
er and faster men. Players like Elmer
Oliphant, who is heavy and stockily
built, may increase the poundage of
a football team, but they never get
by unless, like Ollie, they have lots of
speed and natural football ability.
Another new phrase of modern foot
ball is the amount of attention now
being given to second string men.
Coaches do not pay so much atten-
ton to individual stars as they used
to. They have learned that a foot
ball team without a strong array of
substitutes is often a failure, and for
this reason the individual stars are
getting less attention from a major
ity of grid mentors.
In the old days the defensive
strength of a football team was more
important than its offense. Today
the offense of a team is what counts
most heavily. 1t is not that the de-
fensive side of football is being neg
lected, but with the open game in
ing much greater, the offense must
be developed first.
Machine Work Now.
The brightest stars of football in
other days were kickers, terrific line
plungers or players of great strength
who possessed speed and who could
throw off a half dozen tacklers after
| breaking through the line. They
were individual stars and they de-
pended more upon their own resources
to cross the enemy's goal lines than
upon the aid their team could give
them.
Today every player on a football
team is important. A modern eleven
is built like a machine, with every
man a cog and every cog dependent
upon every other cog in the perfect
running off of plays. This is why
every player, be he a 1ineman, a
backfield man or a player on either
wing position. gets an equal amount
! of attention from the coaches
| The new idea of football for the
many" rather than football for the
| few. is making itself felt strongly
this year, where a lack of playing
material in many schools has made il
/ imperative. And some of the biggest
men in football now are predicting
to-day that the game has drifted into
a new era; that there will be more
| football and better all-around mate
rial within two more years than ever
| before.