The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-11-06
THE FOOTBALL SEASON

Sioux City Journal-Football is the
most ancient game of which history
has taken notice. The ancient Greeks
played a crude form Of the game
which they called h%arpaston. The
Romans played almost the same game
under the Latinized name of har.
pastum. In both these countries the
elementary principles of the modern
game are found. 1t is played in al
most every part OF the world. 1t
was found among the native Poly
nesian islanders when they were first
visited by white men. It is played
by the Eskimos inside the arctic cir
Gle. But the game as played today
is almost entirely English in its de-
velopment, though it has been so i'm.
proved in America that old timers who
played at Eaton and Rugby and Har-
row n Charterhouse and Westmin-
ster would not recognize the sport
were they back in the flesh. In its
scientific form and strict adherence
to rules, it is as much distinctly Amer
lean as baseball. Football is a sport
that tests the soul and develops cour-
age in the individual. The man with
faint heart and indicision has no place
on the gridiron. The game demands
the alertness Of a spy, the decisiveness
of a commanding general, the cour-
age of a soldier and the enthusiasm
of a crusader. Every man is pitted
against each other, each determined
to win in the clash that each knows
will ONE The body must be trained
to take punishment without effect on
the mind. The mind must be trained
to see and the muscles to utilize the
advantage of a fraction of a second.
Each mar on the team must do the
work required of him on his own
vo%lition, yet so closely harmonized
with that of each of his fellow players
n with the team as a unit that what
he does aids both. He must accom-
plish his task so that his fellows will
know, without giving him a thought,
that his assigned position is being
played perfectly and will fit into every
advance and plan of every other mem
Der. Jolted ribs, trampled faces and
h%eadlong falls must be met without
finching. 1t takes the real stuff of
a man to play the game. There will
be accidents. There will be some
black eyes and some broken noses his
season as always. But the good that
comes out of the training is worth
many fold the injuries received. It
is the game of science and courage.
1t is the battle in which manhood is
tested. 1t is the struggle for suprem-
acy which makes individuals and ma.
lions great. It's latent principles Of
assurance and self reliance are the
same as those which enabled an Amer
lean soldier to walk on the necks OF
a score OF Germans at the same time
and startled the world with his 10
or die methods of fighting. 1t is re-
grettable that schools and colleges
and universities do not have a dozen
football teams instead of a first and
second. If the teams were selected
so that the sides would be physically
balanced and games were played be-
tween them on the home gridiron, the
physical condition of the whole stu
dent body would be improved. 1t
would give mere boys a chance to de-
velop, though they were unable to
reach the regular team. Football, 10
be valuable to the individual, must
be played with the brains and muscles
and not with the mouth.
-w. g. S.