New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-21
Big Three" Have Practically
Abandoned Sport-Came
Thrives in West
By Louis Lee Arms

! BY LOUIS Lee fnIIho
| Football authorities VINO INSIST thAt
the war will not greatly affect the WI
playing season are IN the position Oh
the gentleman who whist.ed while walk
ing at night through the graveyard.
( From the plaver's viewpoint this may
be good football ycar-rthough we
! doubt that-but so far as the spectator
: is concerned IL will be a poor one. TINS
more particularly applies TO the East
where Yale, Harvard and Princeton, the
: big Three" in intercollegiate circles,
have tantamountly abandoned the sport.
Z In the West and Middle West IL has
been decided TO have football as usual,
/ and though many Of tina athletes III
these colleges and universities have
answered the call to the oolors, the
! standard Of play, at leas; thus Tar, does
not seem to have been affected.
Not Pointing Anywhere
The trouble with the current season
: is that il isn't pointing any place IN
particular. In the army and navy re
/ serve officers training camps there wall
be football aplenty, but II is not to De
of the well-ordered kind, with prear-
ranged schedules. In other words, so
far as we are given TO understand, no
training camp eleven is shaping grimly
toward one game, as Princeton usually
"preps" for Yale and Harvard and wee
versa.
The football which we shall get from
the army probably will be conspicuous
for its individual brilliancy rather than
distinguished for its machine develop
ment. 1t takes a regular schedule Of
games and routine of training for an
eleven to reach its highest point Of
physical ard psychological perfection.
That is precisely what training camp
football will lack. The young student
officers will be playing for the JOY Of
the game, without the solemn duty of
preserving the honor and traditions of
their respective colleges.
The War Department thinks highly
of football, and with good reason.
More than any other sport it values
physical contact The bruising line
+ plunge, with its whirling mass Of
bodies. is about as close % hand-to-
hand warfare as it is possible to get.
Army officers desire TO train their
] men in t0e-to-tOe struggle. A sergeant
at Van Cortlandt Park told US last sum
mer that many of the New York boys
were too soft He did not mean so
much that they were physically soft as
tender-hearted.
Boxing gloves were introduced and
the dough boys" slugged valiantly at
one another, but in comparison 20 foot
ball boxing is only retail conditioning.
When our soldiers go TO France 1t Is
the desire of the War Department that
they be physically and mentally fitted
for hand-to-hand fighting. 1t is the
work at close quarters now that is
swinging the pendulum in this grand
ose spectacle Of war.
Therefore, the training camps already
have been well supplied with coaches
and there will be plenty of football
among our soldiers. The navy has fol-
lowed suit, and already more than nifty
prominent athletes, many occupying
highly remunerative positions, have
volunteered to coach enlisted men at
our naval training stations.
As an example of the effect war has
had on Eastern collegiate football the
situation at Yale is typical.
OF twenty-three men who made their
"Y" at Yale last year only one man has
returned to college. He was too young
to be accepted for service. The remain
ing twenty-five men all are IN some arm
OF our national service.
The record follows:
Allen Ames, 10, aviation, Long ISL
and, n. Y; Howard Baldridge, 'lS, Cap
tain Battery +, 33Sth F. A., Camp
Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa; Clinton r.
Black. jr lcaptain), II $, |. ). \. K,
Newport. r. l.; James Braden, 10. rec
commended for o. r. c., Fort Niagara,
y. Y; John Callahan. Is, th.rd-class
ouartermaster. \. R., Newport, X. l.;
Harold Carey, rs, second o. X. u
Plattsburg; Heyliger Church, IL, hrst
sergeant Aviation Section, American
expeditionary forces; Charles A. Com
erford, rs, American Ambulance
France; Lawrence Fox, II. second lieu
tenant L. s. R. F. A., San Francisco;
q Artemus Gates, 'lS. ensign. L. S. A. c.,
Long Island, n. y; James Gould. Is;
O r C.. Fort Niagara, y. Y; Reginald
Hutchinson, IS. n. c. D. r., Newport
r. l.: Emile Jacques, II, commission
lIr ordnance utpdIIIHcAIt w. ~ -N -
Chester La Roche, 'iS. American AM
bulance Field Service; Harry lie Gore,
~, second lieutenant, 9Th Regiment
U. S. NJ. c., France; George Moseley,
II, Lafayette Escadrille, France; Jo-
scph Neville, rs, second lieutenant,
F. A. 0. R. c., Plattsburg, n. Y;
Charles Sheldon, II, second lieutenant,
F. A. o. R. c., Fort Riley, Kan; Charles
p. Taft, second sergeant major. United
States artillery, France; Howell Van
Nostrand, 'ls. second lieutenant, F. A.
o. r. c., Plattsburg, n. Y; Franklin
Waite. II, o. r. c., Madison Barracks,
\. Y.
Has any other sport, amateur or pro-
fessional, come near the record of Yale
football?
The multiple kick came into being
last season as the brain child Of Coach
Sanford of Rutgers. In addition to