Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-11-27
CHANGE OF RULES
IS SURE TO FOLLOW
SAUNDERS INCIDENT

sed. He pointed out the lack of any
rule to cover the ease. except one. and
that would have given penalty of
only FIVE yards from the point where
the foul occurred.
This penalty would come under
Rule 20. Section H.. which says:
In case the play is interfered with
by some act palpably unfair and not
elsewhere provided for in these rules.
either the referee or the umpire shall
have the power to award five yards TO
the offended side
IF the officials wanted to penalize
the Navy for having IL players on the
field they could have given them no
worse than Is yards. John Foster.
secretary of the Giants. long a foot
ball follower. was of the opinion that
the game should have been forfeited
to Great Lakes without giving the
midshipman a chance to win it after
the incident. but his contention is not
supported by the rules"
The probable change of the rules on
account of the Saunders incident
brings TO mind the many changes in
the football rules, the necessity of
which was brought out by some spe-
cial style of playing by one player or
team. or some peculiar incident where
the condition of the rules made pos
sible an advantage which a team did
not really deserve. OF course. there
have been special rules passed time
after time TO prevent the old heavy
mass plays or plays which gained too
much impetus through flying starts.
These rules would be passed, and then
some coach would find the means of
getting around them, and the phrase
ology would be changed to cover that
particular play
The rule against hurdling was pass
ed largely to overcome the individual
work of Weeks, halfback, of Columbia,
fifteen or so years ago, an active and
powerful back who used to jump clean
over the line, feet first, and often
would hurt severely some opposing
tackler. The rule was changed to
prevent this kind of hurdling. The in
cident of a Carlisle Indian back who
hid the ball under his sweater and
walked through for a touchdown
while fake play diverted the op-
position, is well known A rule, pass
ed before the opening of the next sea-
son. preventing the recurrence of such
play.
Another famous happening which
brought forth more football legisla-
ton, was goal kicked by a Darth-
mouth back against Princeton, some
years ago. The ball was kicked along
the ground. but struck a tuft of earth
and bounded over the bar and between
! the poles. Much to the surprise oil
everyone, it was found that the rules
did not require the ball to be kicked
directly over, and that such a goal
was allowable. Now the rules add tc
the section covering goal from the
field, I'm no case shall it count goal
if the ball, after leaving the kicker's
foot, touches the ground before pass
| ing over the cross-bar or goal posts
Baseball has even more cases of the
sort. Perhaps the most interesting
one was brought about by play OF
Mike Kelly, one of the greatest and
headiest players that ever wore a
glove. Mike was captain-manager OF
his nine. and was sitting on the bench
back of third base. An opposing bat
ter hit up foul in that direction
which no player on the field could
possible have handled Mike stood up
and yelled at the third baseman, bill
you're out of the game; I'm in" He
then caught the foul
The play was allowed, for the rules
at the time read that the captain could
substitute player at any period OF
the game. BY the next season, how
ever, they required the reporting to
the umpire, which is now the rule in
every branch of sport.
This incident is of special interest
because it may be that young Saun-
ders had in the back of his head some
where, in the excitement of the mo-
ment, that he really had the right to
get in the game.