Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-10
CRIDIRON May
OUTSTRlP ALL
OTHER SPORTS
Game Furnishes Thrills Galore
for Both Untutored and
Technician.
By WALTER CAMP.

Copyright. 1922. By The Great Falls Tribune
New York, Nov. 9.-No one knows
where the enthusiasm of the public
for football will stop, but it is easy
to see why it started. The American
intercollegiate game is without doubt
the most remarkable form of sport
that has ever been played. This IS
due first to its perfect simplicity of
purpose combined with its infinite
variations of technique and execution.
The spectator who has never seen
the game played before can readily
understand the purpose of The players
on the gridiron before him. lie sees
a goal at each end and two sets of
eleven men striving with might and
main to reach their objectives in spite
of the opponents. So he selects his
favorite and ~endeavors in his excite
ment to help that ~favorite by the I'M
conscious pushing of his neighbor,
The student of the game, however,
has always Il delight iii the study of
the tactics pursued by the two teams
as well as the skill of the individual
players. The game has in spite of
many yicissitudes developed sym
metrically, so that there is an excel
lent balance of attack and defense and
this tends itself to added interest. The
game has spread the country over
Back in the late seventies the first
game between Yale and Princeton was
played at the st. Georges cricket
grounds. Elysian Fields. Hoboken. The
spectators numbered 267 only. Most
of these broke through a hole IN the
fence. There was not money enough
taken in to pay for the suppers of the
players!
Big Stakes Up
At almost any big game there will
probably be $4,000 people who pay ~
apiece for seats. | spend anywhere
from $40 to 500 in getting to and
from the game And they enjoy them
selves. On almost any Saturday
there are almost capacity crowds in
hundreds of fields!
Right in the midst. of the football
season. it is we'll TO stop and think
| what this game now means to the
country. There are thousands of
teams playing from Maine to Cali
fornia and from the Canadian border
to the gulf. In fact, the country is
striped with gridirons in every com
munity.
But most impressive of all is the
growth of these structures holding the
SDeIlttiVtS fhCh II Ah"' ~ VI
stadium, the first of its kind to he
erected, was in contemplation. owing
to a gift of 100000 from one of the
Harvard classes, the chairman of the
Harvard Athletic committee came TO
the writer and said he was very hest
tant about putting 100000 into a
structure to seat 10000 people for a
football game.
Compare this with the dedication of
the Ohio State stadium costing over Il
dozen times the figures that the Har-
ward chairman hesitated about, and
seating over $4,000; or with the Yale
bowl that has in the extreme seated
over $4,000!
Many Stadiums
The Harvard stadium was built in
1908 and 1904. About the same time
n half oval was constructed at Wash
ington university, st. Louis, seating
about 10000. Syracuse built her
double-ended stadium in 1907 with a
seating capacity at that time of
10000. In 1910 a stadium was erected
at Tacoma. seating some 10000. In
1912 the University of Chicago put up
their structure to accommodate about
10000, and the following year Lehigh