Evening star., 1924-05-20

Catholic University and George
washington are playing in contests
IN which little can actually be said
or their chances of victory, as not
much is known of the strength of the
squads to which they will be opposed
The meeting for the selection of
officials for foot ball games next fall
Will be held Friday. June 6, at the
Biltmore Hotel, New York Coaches
and graduate managers are due to
wordy wars will be waged. In all
PROBABILITY, too, there will be more
sumshoelng than at social agther-
ing of a political club two weeks be-
fore the organization candidates for
primary elections are announced.
Many of the officials for the big
games will be decided on, and prac-
tically selected before that meeting.
Graduate managers will get together.
determine who they want, arrange
with the officials they desire, then
tell the central board to appoint the
men upon whom they have agreed.
Considerable dissatisfaction has
been shown over the plan of the
central board for choosing of Off
cialS. Colleges and universities are
grouped in classes and games in
which these institutions play are
given first choice of officials, thus as
Suring them of the best or next best
and SO on down the line. Willingness
to pay better fees does not get a
school grouped, say, in class any
more of chance to obtain an even
break with schools in a so-called bet
ter class. In fact, on just what the
central board has based it's grouping
of the schools for this purpose is one
of those obScurities about which
enough is not known to talk.
One foot ball game next fall that
should have better officiating, if
money can hire better officials, is that
between Johns Hopkins and Maryland
in Baltimore on Thanksgiving day.
On occasions the handling of that
game has been fairly good, but never
has it been as good as it should
have been. Many of the games ac-
tually have been poorly handled and
big and the feeling between the two
institutions too acute to consider
again turning it over to any but the
best officials the game has produced.
Lack of knowledge of the rules of
foot ball is absolutely inexcusable on
the part of a foot bali official, yet it
is amazing to learn just how many
officials do not know the code they
try to apply. Foot ball games have
been played in Washington and else
where in which officials have been
paid for their time larger compare
tive fees than is received by the
President of the United States as his
salary.
With eight hours as a working day
and a fee of $50 or SIS for a game
an officials time is paid for at the
rate of somewhere between $4,000
and $4,000 per year. Even at $50
per game an Official would be receiv-
ing pay at the rate of about $4,000
per year. And yet it actually is a
fact that very few officials take the
time to study the rules and very few
actually are closely enough in touch
with the rules to answer questions
asked them, let alone apply those
rules in quick decisions on the field
of play.
The official, though. who does ap-
ply himself to the rules and who un-
derstands them; the official who ac-
tual1y tries conscientiously to handle
a game right and call fouls when
they should be called, has opened to
him a good way to pick UP some So
called easy money every fall
stance, unquestionably the best ref
one referee who studies the rules
and learns the rules and their various
applications; Magoffin is in excep-
tional demand to referee foot ball
games and can never accept half the
engagements he is offered. And it
would, indeed, be surprising for many
to know the amount of money Ma
coffin earns in less than two months
in the fall.