The Rice belt journal., 1919-12-06
IS ANCIENT CAME
Football One of Oldest Sports
Known to Man.
As Played Today It Is Said to Be a
Mild and Tame Exercise Com
pared With the Strenuous
Original Form.
Footboll is considered a strenuous

Football is considered a strenuous
game, but the style Of play in this
generation is mild and tame exercise
as compared TO the original forms OF
the sport, according to bulletin from
the National Geographic society.
The history of the autumn classic
is described by J. Il. Hildebrand III
a communication to the society, when
follows
Running, throwing, hitting ana
kicking are the fundamental muScu-
lar operations of Americas charac-
tpriStic sports. baseball, football, ten
mis- and golf The peoples of antiquity
manifested all those instincts in cruder
form.
"LuZon hilImen, the PolyneSlanS
and the Eskimo and Sumatra islanders
had games played by kicking a ball.
Greeks played it, and the Roman
game harpastum, derived its name
from the Greek y seize which is evil
dence that carrying the ball was prac'
ticed by them. With shoes Of hide, the
medieval Italians played a game Whlch
seems the direct ancestor of the Anglo
| SfyOn college sport. Gaelic scholars
point to football game in Ireland be-
| fore the time of Christ, and until com
paratiyely recent times ShroVe Tues
day was as distinctlvely an occasion
for football as is our Thanksgiving to-
day.
In old England football was even
ror CHER than most sports OF those
har,iy times. James I thought it was
'meerpr for lameing than making able
theusers thereof" Henry VIII and
Elizabeth ruled against it. Edward
II frowned upon it for its interfer'
cnce with archery and also because
of the cOmmotion it caused. IT
those times it was played in the cit!
streets. A writer of the sixteenth
ccntnry called it a 'devilish pastlme
I; and charged it with melting 'enV!
: and sometimes brawling, murther ant
homicide
'Nevertheless, by the time 0
Cnurles II football had become talrl.
established at Cambridge. 1t wa
ever held in high esteem in Ireland
Z There, when all other sports Wer
! prohibited for archery's sake, 'onel
the great fOotballe' was exempt
!. Women joined with the men in play
n iug il or Shrove Tuesdays. SO man
participated that few knew tn
whel eabouts of the ball. An exped
u. ent which not so long ago arouse
d furore in the American sportin
world was adopted by a player WI
shook out the shavings with Whlc
4; the balls of those days were stutte
h end carried it under his shirt to til
gon'.
abandoned as a general pastin
because of it's rOughness, 1t was r
y tained in colleges until, within Il
= past half century, 1t sprang into 7
newed popularity in greatly modin'
form.
" "The British carried football in
~ Jerusalem, when they recovered Il
sacred city. Missionaries have taug
II to heather tribes.
oe THE reason why it has become
he hancmaiden Of civilization and IS
ef popular among college men of Anne
lea was summarized by Howard
Bliss, writing about the Syrian Prote
te' ant college at Beirut, of which
OF was president, in an article for t
WI National Geographic Magazine.
"'you will find the son of a.prin
playing football under the captain
'ht of a peasant or the son OF COZ
OF We believe in football there and
tor have II or 18 different football tea
in college. The game develops
ability to receive a hard oil
'rS without showing the white feather
ouS drawing a dagger. This means II
the when the men get out of college Il
lcfi will stand upon their feet as men, "