The Washington herald., 1917-11-11
FOLLOWS
flag into FRANCE
With Baseball Already Introduced.
American Gridiron Sport Inter-
ests Foreigners.

1t has been said that baseball has
followed the American flag into
foreign lands; now Old Glory Is to
blaze the way for football on the
shell-swept fields of France Base
ball has already been introduced in
that war-torn land by our sailors.
soldiers and ambulance men, and
the poilu and his folk have taken
kindly to 1t. Soon they will have
their first glimpse of the gridiron
game, says a New York Evening
Sun writer.
In navy yards and cantonments,
at naval bases abroad and in the en-
campments of the first American ex-
pedition to France elevens are be-
ing whipped into shape and foot
ball Is now the leading sport. The
teams in the military and naval
centers in this country are for the
most part composed of men who
gained fame as college players and
who entered the service at the out
break of hostilitics. These teams
are engaged in playing elevens from
colleges and universities, and are
finding that which Yale. for ex-
ample, has declared to be an i'm
possible task-preparins for war
and indulging in sport at the same
time-rather easy to accom- rlish.
However, the teams which will first
get into action on roughly laid grid
irons in France behind the line of fire,
but perhaps within range of the big
guns of the enemy. will be those made
up of the rank and file of Uncle Sans
army and navy. In peace times the
bluejacket and his companion in arms,
the enlisted man Of the regular army,
have long been ardent football
bugs" The battleships of the fleet,
the cruisers aLd even the destroyers
have for at least ten years struggled
among themselves for the gridiron
championship of the navy and the
rivalry has always been keen.
Many of the games on which the
championship hinged have been play
ed in Guantanamo, at Puget Sound,
and In the various navy yards, where
the spectators were almost exclusive
ly officers and men of the service, so
that the general public has not been
in a position to follow closely the
work of the navy teams or to get a
good line on their capabilities. The
writer recalls one championship game
which was played in New York a few
y dkO. however. DtlWetn Int
teams of the United States steamship
Nebraska and the United States
steamship Missouri.
The Atlantic fleet was lying in the
Hudson river at the time-it was dur
ing the holidays-and the contest was
played at the old American League
grounds on :he hilltop. OF the crowd
OF about 1900 that saw It about 500
were sailors and the rest were civ
iliars, and the "landlubbers" were
genuinely surprised by the skill
shown by the bluejackets on the grid
iron.
Last fall the teams at Fordham and
Columbia played a number of prac-
tice games against outfits from battle
ships in port at the time. The Ma
rooms managed to beat the sailors in
! majority of the games played, but
the Blue and White made sorry
showing against the teams II en-
countered. the sailors easily outplay-
ing the colleGians.
Likewise football has for many years
been exceedingly popular in the army,
and the forts around New York have
boasted OF some splendid teams. On
the Mexican border last fall innumer-
able contests were played between
teams from regular army and Ma
tional Guard regiments. Efforts are
now being made by various organiza-
| tions to supply every outfit in PERISH
| ing's expedition with football para
phernalia and very shortly scores of
contests played in France by soldiers,
marines and sailors will be sent to
us by cable and wireless. These aro
the men who will place the gridiron
pastime on an equal footing with
baseball. cricket, boxing and the Eng
lish game of football on French soil.
The men of the new national army
are also doing their share toward
keeping the game in flourishing
state in this country. Last Saturday
the first game was played at Camp
Upton. at Yaphank, while teams have
been developed in other environments
throughout the nation.