The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-05

Football has made more progress tHts fall than at any time in many years. Although there are not quite as many college teams playing as in previous years more men are participating in the game than ever before. This is due to the fact that football has met with approval in the various army and navy camps and that more attention is be- ing given it by various undergraduate Organizations in those universities which have abandoned varsity foot ball during the period of the war.
 Another point which has helped foot ball in various sections is the absence in the east, of Harvard, Princeton and Vale from the fall schedule. While this has unquestionably caused lack of interest in the game in some of the largest eastern cities it has forced all followers of the sport to look elsewhere for their fun They have been surprised in finding the game played at other institutions on as high plane as 1t is customarily played by the Big Three" Indeed, this season has proven that no set of colleges enjoys su- premacy in football. The game is much the same and is played as well in one section as another. Coaches of west ern and southern teams have pretty well proven they know as much foot ball as eastern coaches. Fact is, this year. they have gone little farther The war has made football democratic. 1t has broken down the line of dis tinction. or caste, that had caused some to believe that the sport is highest developed in one section.
 We have learned much this season that we have never known before. Take the training table. for example. Two years ago an eastern coach would have held up his hands in hor- TOT had he been forced to train his men without a training table. At that time. when coaching the West Vir- ginia team, proposed the abolition of the training table and was overruled. l saw no reason for it and never could see the point that it brought the players together and built up an esprit de corpse otherwise impossible. The training table, to my mind. made the players take the sport too serious
  fessionalism.
 FIRST TRAINING TABLE
 This year. due to the recommends lions of the National Collegiate Attn 1etic association, w. & J. joined the large majority in abandoning the training table All sorts of football catastrophies were predicted as re- suit But we have so far succeeded in weathering all storms and in our one big game to date-with Penn State found ourselves, as team, pretty well able to go the limit on endurance
 Doing away with the training table has had more far reaching results than was supposed. It has put the matter of taking care of one's self up to each Individual and the players have been forced to solve this problem them selves. This has been a valuable les son to them. And it has very clearly drawn the line between the players who had their heart and soul in the work of making the team a success and those who viewed the season in another light. After two months it is not difficult for the coach to separate the conscientious candidates from those not caring about anything but their own success in making the team. It has not been a pleasant method of sraining for the bo% who wanted to win ais varsity letter and go no further.
 With such advances in football and with so many men playing this is a good year in which to make plans for cleaning the game of all unnecessary roughness, The rules are about all that can be hoped for, but there remains, in too many cases, a desire to play the rules to the limit and to take advant- age of them. Tn short, there is still too much unnecessary roughness in the