The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-29

Football officiating is no soft snap even when you get the hundred dol lar jobs on Saturday afternoons The best of men make mistakes and the best officials are no better than the best of men. Worst of all their mis- takes count pretty heavily at times for they have turned the tide from defeat to victory and cost many a coach a splendid job. The coaches, you know, must win most of the time to hold down their positions, hence the matter of good officiating is of paramount importance to them.
 l recall a game I played in when at college. At one time the score was 6-6. According to the rules I made a touchdown at this stage of this game but the referee, who was then and who afterward proved to be one of the best at the job ever discovered in this country, didn't see it my way until-well it was just ten years later that I talked it over with him. He then admitted that I had made the score; that he had pulled a "boner'' That boner cost us a big game And so 1t goes.
 It's a mighty hard job to get a game of football properly officiated. In the first place the rules governing the game are so lengthy and so com plex that venture the assertion that not over ten per cent of the prayers nor over half of the coaches know them. As for the officials, outside of precious few there is a lamentable lack of knowledge of football rules, and when that knowledge is perfect 1t is no easy matter to conduct game without coming a cropper. So diff ficult is it to see a play correctly and to watch all of the twenty-two con- testants that as many as three off, cials will differ as to what occurred at any given time. In the W. & J. game with the Camp Sherman team at Toledo this fall which was one of the hardest played and cleanest games of football I ever saw-we had lead of points with but a few minutes to play and we were being put to the supreme 1es, on defense to hold out lead and pre- vent 8 tie score. Rupp, former Dennison player now in Army Y. M 1 c. A. work, was at half back for the soldiers and not only was he likely to but he did break loose time after time for long and thrilling runs. Thought him one of the greatest backs ever saw. That night my player! who had been up against De Hart anG McLaren, of Pitt; and Rodgers, o. West Virginia, among others, were 0. the opinion that these men could bt l tackled but that downing Rupp wal the hardest task they ever had tt meet.
 | Once the ball was inside our five yard line on a fourth down and RupI tossed a forward pass to one of hi men who was forced to the corner of the field. He went over the goal line all right but it was a question al to whether he had gone out of bounds first. His cleat marks were plainl! visible but the officials who followed the play closely were nevertheless a variance. They ventually ruled th' player. out of bounds 8 few inches from the goal-line, pretty tough de cision for the Camp Sherman eleven | Another illustration of the trials O. an official happened in a Pennsylva nia-Indian game when I was coach ing the Red and Blue. It was during the days when the coaches were per mitted to walk up and down the side lines. Once, when the play was di rectly in front of us and the cheering very deafening I wanted to say some thing to one of my assistants. It wa: necessary to yell at the top of my voice. Billy Crowell, one of the off ciaIs, and splendid one, heard ant saw me and came mighty near pena ltzing my team for my presumed coaching from the side lines.
 l One of the most amusing incidents that ever happened in officiating wa in an early season game, at Franklin Field when we were playing a tean we greatly outclassed. Billy Morice 8 Penn graduate, was one of the off cials. He was also one of our coach es. Once, after we had. a large SCOT rolled up a substitute back was sen into the game by our Head Coach He promptly made a mistake ant Morice, not thinking, corrected him Immediately he penalized Pennsylva mia 15 yards for illegal coaching.
 Although the integrity of official
 
 that there is room for improvement we may believe half the rumors an
 kicks we hear regarding their worl each fall. Even allowing for the fac that losing team is inclined to see alibis and that this results in ofte
 blaming innocent officials there is n
 doubt that football games are not an
 too we'll officiated.
 To be sure the work of the Centra
 Board has improved the class of off
 ciating all over the country but ther
 is room for improvement in man
 quarters. There are two reasons fo
 this: illegal coaching and weak-knee
 officials. The two go hand in hand.
 There is no doubt that much illegs
 coaching and playing is practicet
 just how much do not know. If yo
 know the game of football next tim
 you go to a match watch the ends an
 tackles on offense and note how man
 times they hold and how frw time they are caught. There is g. lot this sort of stuff going the rounds. Another point is 8 charging sigma ' The rules recommend going ava s.with this unfair means of attack V