Norwich bulletin., 1918-01-02

player. now in army Y. NJ. c. A. work not only was, he likely to but he did break loose time after time for long
 and thrilling runs. I thought him one l of the greatest backs I evei, saw. That 1 night my players who had been dp | against De Hart and McLaren of Pitt
 and Rogers of West Virginia among i others, were of the opinion that, these | men could be tackled, but that down. i ing Rupp was the tiarde.K task they l ev4,' had to meet. +'
 Once the. ball was inside our five yard line on a fourth down and Rupp
 tossed forward pass to one of his men whot was forced to the corner Of
 the field.s lie went over the goal line
 all right but it was, q. question as to i
 whether he had gone out of bounds
 first. His cieat, marks were plainly
 visible, but the officials who followed
 the play closely were nevertheless at
 Variance. They eventually ruled tlGt
 player out of bounds q few inches from
 the goal line, 8 pretty tough decision
 for the Camp Sherman eleven. Another Illustration of the trials of an official happened in Pennsylvania Indian game when l was coaching ,tile Red and Blue It was during the day,s when the coaches were permitted to walk up and down the side lines, Once when the play was directly in front OF us and the cheering very deafening ! wanted to say something to one of my { assistants. It was necessary to yell at the top of my.voiee. Billy Crowell, one l of the officials, and a splendid one, l heard and saw me and came mighty i near penaiizing my team for my pre- 1 sumed coaching from the side lines l One of the most amusing incidents l T ,SfaAy~ rr-sf l in an early season game at Franklin i field when we were playing a team we ! greatly outclassed. Billy Mc<rice, a ] Penn graduate, was one of the officials ] He was also one ofeour. coaches. Once Fafter we had a large score rolled up d substitute back was sent into the game 2! by our head coach. He promptly made l a mistake and Morice, mot thinking, , corrected him. Immediately he penal ! iZed Pennsylvania 15. yards for illegal l coaching a., 5 t45s E i Although the integrity of officials lis beyond question there is no doubt i. that there, is room for improvement
 Eff We may believe half the rumors
 and kicks we hear. regarding their
 i work each fall Even allowing for
 i the fact that a losing team is inclined
 to. seek alioisf and that this results in i oftan blaming innocent officials there
 is no, doubt that football games are
 ! not any too we'll officiated.
 t To be sure the, work; of the Central 1 Board has improved the class of off
 ciating all over the country but there
 lis room for Improvement, in many
 quarters. There, are two reasons for 1 this; illegal coaching and weak -kneed | officials. The two go hand in hand.
 l. There is mo, doubt that much illegal
 coaching and. playing is practiced,
 just how much I do not know. If you i know the game of football next time
 you go to match watch the ends and
 tackles on offense and note how many ! times they hold and how few times
 they are caught. There is lot. of
 this sort of stuff going the rounds 2
 1 Another point is a charging signal The rules recommend doing away ' with this unfair means, of attack } yet few teams have discarded it. The } same is true of coaching from tft } side-lines and of sending information : by substitutes. Beng human and be. ,i ing forced to play the game to vii l a. coach cannot be expected to throy a3 a game away when he can win it b. ;; l tipping off his quarterback. And ye g this is illegal and unspo
 e As to the weak-kneed officials f ! They are the men who officiate fo
 1 the money there is in it. They sticl t pretty close to. one or two teams al S fall and,4 as they are: in right" hert a they don't want to get in wrong, S }, they are. human enough to overloo d transgressions on the one hand an e seek them on the other. In conse- s quence they have sstirred up a. lot Q = bad blood in. football. Put them in l game with a team coached illegall : and that team can nearly commi It murder and get away with it. 1T There, is a third and very larg ! tclass of officials, those who do no a know the rules The result of. itflei n appearance in a game is an unendin e series of squabbls and disputes dis x gusting to players and public alok, ,t They are continually arguing wit IT players. The game soon gets ava d. from them and. becomes next door t i- g. free. fight. This class can be dis kl ciplined and done away with in hur i'd ru.
 10 Recently talked over the prot 1t lems of officials with one of the be: to in the business. He thinks that gres Il good can be accomplished by bot IS coachers and players knowing tf to l-rules better than they do and by ha1 7 ing the Central Board hold series ID written quizzes each fall for all ol Y ficials; thus forcing them to kno sd the rules or to lose assignments. z. er Y ;. Another point he brings out is tn; Eff | the, men who do3 reach high prof Ee ciency as officials are those who loy ,n the game. and in this way contribul
 a 'their bit to. carrying, it along The =. .. . ,..