The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-03
BIG GROWTH SHOWN
 IN GRIDIRON SPORT
Participation Never Before So General As During the Past Season-Standard of Play Lower-Wartime Cond tons Raised Havoc Pittsburgh Again Leads the Eastern Eevens.

The modern game of football has become such an uncertain proposition that the difference between high class team and an ordinary eleven is not as clear-cut as it WIS under the old rules. Football, as shown during the season just ended, is as uncertain as baseball. In the past a football team which started a season with 8 few fundamental principles of the game gradually increased its strength as the season progressed, adhering to form right up to the end of its sched- ule- Form doesn't count for so much in football nowadays, for an eleven which shows remarkable skill on ono Saturday falls down before a. nedi- ocre opponent the following week.
 There has never been a football season quite as whimsical as the one Just ended. In the first place, it cannot be summed up by the same standards as in other years, because the conditions under which many of the elevens were developed were far different. Military training took up much of the time formerly given over to football practice, and Varsity foot ball was dropped at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. which robbed the Eastern gridiron of its most pictur- esque competitions. Practically all of the football players who would have gained prominence in the game this year under normal conditions en- listed in either the army or navy. Naturally the standard of play on the Eastern fields this season was not up to the standard of the past The games which were played, however, were none the less interest | ing, and an element of uncertainty l added to the zest of the, competition. But the season as a whole showed nothing new in tactics, nor was there any unusual development of the or ~dinary repertoire of plays.
 The main object of the colleges which, pursued the sport was to pro- mote the physical training of the students SO as to better fit them for military duty. The desire to win at many institutions Cornell for exam l p1e-was not to win. games for that sake alone. but to play them so that | they would attract as many young | men as possible to compete. It was a season when championship was not an object.
 Pittsburgh finished it's fourth straight season without. a defeat, and while the Panther eleven was not uT to the standard of a year ago, il easily outc1assed the other Easterr teams. It was not the wen-balanc- ed machine that Warner developed 1T 1916, but 1t had much power, whicE was in evidence when the occasion de
 nanded. There was nothing impress
 i've, however, in any of Pitts impor' tant games.
 The Pennsylvania team showed promising possibilities, although there
 were several other elevens whicE
 could be placed in about the sam'
 class as Penn The Red and Blu'
 lost two games, being beaten b.
 Georgia Tech. and Pittsburgh. Th'
 Quaker team developed a strong de
 fense, but did not show the attacl
 which was to be expected from an ex
 perienced backfeld.
 Of all the teams, two stood out be
 cause of smoothness in the execution of their plays. These elevens were
 Rutgers and the Navy. George Foster
 Sanford took Rutgers eleven whicf
 was comparatively green and at th' end of the season it displayed more
 speed and effectiveness than most O
 the Eastern elevens. There was co ordination of action on the Nev