Evening star., 1926-12-17
NV Is Years on the Cridiron
BY WILLIAM A. ROPER,
HEAD COACH PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
XX-What Think of Professional Foot Ball

Twenty-Five years Of foot ball-as
nlayer. fan and coach, and I'm not
sure which description fits me best
have taught me. first OF all, that the
game is played not by IL men, out
by 1,100 or 11,000-by the whole stu
dent and graduate body OF the inssy
tuition, large or small, which these IL
men represent.
This may sound like the loose and
windy bombast Of the all too common
COLLEGIATE spelIbinder, but my expert
ence has convinced me that 1t Is
very sober fact, and there Is CON
firnlatory evidence TO be had In the
! case of the attempts to introduce the
game as a professionally played spec
tacle..
have no quarrel with professional
| foot ball. / think the promoters are
managing it as clea1lly as It can De
managed. But / am convinced their
/ efforts always will fail, not only as
regards the game itself, but as at.
| fractions to the sport-loving part OF
the public.
Regardless Of their quality of foot
hall. they would certainly continue II
they paid in dollars and cents. Tnax
they flourish for little and then die
Is not a theory, but fact, and the
| fact La significant chiefly In connection
with the doctrine that it is not two
teams which play the game. but two
institutions and their friends who
meet and tussle on the chalk-marked
turf.
Pros Individually Stronger.
! Your professional team and player
have everything that any college team
and player have, and, indeed, some
professional aggregations have a dis
| tinct advantage in the individual bril-
lance Of their men and the fact that
each of these men has behind him his
own following OF personal admirers,
who transfer their allegiance to any
team on which he plays. first-class
| professional eleven always Is chiefly
composed Of former college stars, each
far better advertised before he begins
| his professional career than any pro-
| fessional base ball player can hope
| to be- and each OF these men has, too.
a certain box.off1ce value based on
| his college connections. Individually
at least the professionals are GER
f, tainly superior In ability to college
players. No college except by a re-
mote coincidence can hope to put on
| the field an eleven composed entirely
of Individual sta~'s. which is the nat
/ ural beginning OF any professional
| team.
IL anything, the advantage, there
/ LufG, OuEHL LO Ak0 WILL LIAC III O1SS-
| sional, and yet not only is profes-
! sional foot hall duller to watch for
even a man like me. closely and tech
| nically interested in every minor move
on the field. but IL is actually poorer
foot ball. play for play. than one may
see between even second-rate college
| teams.
Difference Is I'm Spirit.
The old game, with It's imperative
ternand for courage and heart, and
! che new game, with no less demand
FOR these and the added requisite of
lightning intelligence, fail alike when
the men are playing for pay instead
Of for something less tangible but
more compelling. The one thing
which the professional team lacks and
which the college or school team has
.s the spirit which stands behind the
institutional eleven and does not and
cannot get behind a mere collection
of hired gladiators. Player and spec
| tator alike feel and show the lack Of
1t, and 80 long as the rules stand
roughly as they are. just SO long will
promoters OF professional foot ball
lose their money In the end
Again and again professional teams
have played in competition with in
stitutional elevens, Offering a spec.
tacle which ought to have drawn 10
neutral onlookel-s to every / at
rracred by the school or college games,
and on every such occasion the heavy
preference of tho public has gone to
the inferior elevens, which had some
thing better than a pay envelope to
play for. I remember myself watch.
ing the wonderfu, Homestead profes-
Gionals play at the ball grounds in
Philadelphia before q few hundred
spectators while a University of
Pennsylvania eleven. which the Home.