The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-12-03
Other Colleges May Follow Lead Set by Big Three in
 Disseminating Sport
ARMY AND NAVY TO
 MEET FREQUENTLY
Contests Between Rival Camps and Soldier and Sailor Elevens Seem the Big Card for the
 1918 Season
By SOL METZGER
Coach of Washington and Jefferson

Coach of Washington and J""erson
 What about football next year? That question naturally arises IS the cur tain is being lowered on the season of 1911 by all odds one of the most remarkable ever witnessed in Amerl' ca. Are we going to continue with it? Is the game to be as it was this past year? Or will the colleges follow the lead of Harvard, Princeton and Yale and see nothing but bad taste" in go- ing ahead should the war carry on, as seems more than likely?
 good many considerations arise when the question of intercollegiate football comes up for 1918. But the one thing which will have least influence on the decision is the factor-"Dad taste"-which was the official reason for giving up the game at Harvard Princeton and Yale. The mere rect that the nation needs recreation dur ing a time such as it now faces. that football has proven a valuable asset in training camps, that Canadian sol diers have proven that country can 20 in for sport in wholesale way and still make the bravest and most aggressive fight at the front are fac tors that will not down in considering the future of football.
 The problem of having football next year and in the years to come-as long as this war continues-depends upon the financial condition of the country and the draft. If the latter is far-reaching it will wipe out about all the material now under. draft age, which has formed the bulk of our teams this year. That means that the teams of next year-if we have them will be made up of younger men. mex perienced and untried, and that the chances for winning victory is chance. Whether certain colleges will want to continue along these lines, whether they will want to build anew and take chances of losing games and with them, athletic prestige, is the dominating fac tor in this matter of whether or not we will play football in 1913.
 MAY NOT PLAY
 Tn short, in another year, the teams that played this fall are likely to be in the same shape that Harvard, Prince ton and Yale were in this past fall
 
 to be called into service. Now, the answer to the question of whether they will play is doubtful one. My experi- ence teaches me that none of them like to lose and that this fact will have much bearing on the answer.
 There are alibis abounding for those not wishing to continue. Bad taste, loss of entire varsity eleven, the finan- cial situation and hundred and one I, h,,f hn in making decision will be the outlook for a winning team. Teams which have ranked at the top do not want to fall by the wayside, even in war times, should they play. Yet there is no good reason under the sun why college foot ball should not continue if the colleges remain open. It is high time we gave our coaches an actual job-that of starting even with the other fellow and winning on pure merit. There should be a heap of upsets and a heap of fun out of such a situation. More over, there would be a lot of good re- sulting to everyone.
 One thing is pretty certain to hap pen next fall and that is a lot of foot ball will be played here and in France by the men of the army and navy The public IS going to take more and more to this kind of football. It can be run at lower cost than college foot ball has been run, it will contribute much to army and navy morale, it can be made to raise large funds for patri- otic purposes and it can be made as good a game as the college game.
 Football of this nature and football between college and army or navy teams looks to me to be the surest bet for 1918. And this sort of football should be encouraged. There was a tremendous opportunity for the col leges to do big thing for the nation as well as for themselves when this season closed by playing post-season games for patriotic funds but in the one big attempt, which was requested by the Red Cross, I fear that two of the sectional leaders in the gridiron world placed mythical championships be- fore q simple patriotic duty. That hurt football tremendously. I hope this was not the reason.
 For example, there was, and still is this opportunity of using our college football teams for the purpose of aid