The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-01-03

More recently a friend wanted to
take me to the Illinois Michigan
match, but I told him gently that
1T could not be negotiated.
saw him after the match. He
was crazy about the first quarter
and Oranges great woWk. 90 / said
] to him: Evidently that first part
was the whole match to you. 1t
evidently put all the rest in the
shade"
Quite unsuspecting my fell design
he chirped on with the utmost en-
thusiasm: "Say. / wouldn't have
missed 1t for anything. 1t was the
most spectacular thing have ever
seen in football. That's all there
was to the match"
When he had exhausted his super
latives. ! said: Now, sonny. you
know why your football doesn In
terest me. / am an old rugby play
err and was reared on the kind OF
stuff you saw there, and II you had
seen the 'All-Blacks,' the famous
New Zealand rugby team Of 1905,
British, YOU would know why I
prefer football to ground-tumbling,
wrestling and haudbalI."
The New Zealanders beat the
British players by an aggregate
score Of $50 points to their op.
ponents' 80.
They played thirty-twO matches
and their average score was,
therefore, q trifle under twenty.
six per match, and that Of their
opponents q fraction over one
per match! That was a team Of
Oranges. Can you wonder ut
their fixing my standard Of real
football?
They were the greatest team that
ever went onto a football field, and
the most spectacular; but, from
what 1 know Of American athletes,
1 should say that there is no rea-
son why the footballers of this
country cannot produce just as
great, fast and spectacular q game
II the rules will let them.
Now, / don't even know the rules
Of American football, nor do I want
to know them, until America puts
the game in line with everything
else she had touched, and makes It
yield all that 1t is worth, and that
will never be done by means Of
massed ground tumbling, wrestling
and handban.
To a Rugbeian it is anathena
merely to read of any player inten-
tionally being in front of the bail;
but it is absolutely a ghastly Of
Tense to think Of his being able, IN
that position, which we call off
SIDE" to receive pitched pass.
II the ball is to go to him in any
way at football-and 1 shudder at
the thought should go off the
boot. There is only one proper
and that is laterally, which. CT
course, includes any angle back
wards.
1 never could, and never shall.
see any possible Justification, i'm
football, for the forward pass by
hand. That is not football, by
any stretch of the imagination,
and i cannot see any possible rea-
son for it that would not be
answered by an adaptation OF the
rules Of real football.
BY all means let us assist Rockne
and all those who desire to open up
| American football and make It more
| attractive for both players and pub
lie, for, as it is at present, there is,
as have tried to show, too little
| football in football.
In the Chicago Princeton match, q
year ago, the most spectacular and
| amusing part of it was the fine
nose-diving Of my friend and tennis
/ antagonist. the famous referee,
| Colonel HoratiO B. Hackett, into the
hefty crowd Of human cells squirm-
ing in the morass.
1 quite enjoyed that, for, although
we have no rules against referees
emulating the exploits of aviators, 1t
is not generally done, as the sub