Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-10
Two Points Of View.

4 Two POINTS Oh tbeWs
~ THLETIc NEWS, an English
n publication devoted to sports,
"A discusses the American APP
Il \ preach to sports as compared
with that of the English, and
demands to know whose way is right.
Whose method Is beSt?" demands the
writer '.Britain's easy-going way OF
striving for efficiency in sport or Ameri-
cas- thoroughness and coaching by au-
tocrats? Shall We judge by efficiency or
enjoyment" 49,.
On the subject of American inter-
collegiate foot ball the writer sets down
many things that have been said be-
fore, particularly after the foot ball
season, when there is some scattered
talk about the overemphasis of the
game. Also he stresses the fact that
American college athletics have been
made drudgery. Owen Of Harvard wrote
something along this line some while
back and created no little indignation
BY 1t.
Here is what the correspondent OF
the Athletic News has to say con-
corning the foot ball season and the
overemphasis which Is bursting right
In our faces:
The American is very patriotic. He
IL intensely loyal to his institutions, be
they his fraternal order, his school, his
home town or his State, so 1t is easy
to impress on the plastic, youthful mind
the absolute necessity of turning out to
Tight for his school in whatever game
he is best IN,
Coaching is a distinct profession
here. Practically every coach is O COL
lege graduate who has been q star ath-
lete. After graduation many of them
take postgraduate course in physical
culture and also acquire some medical
training.
THE foot ball season lasts about
three months at most educational
centers. In that time 10 to IL games
Will be played. The players practice
daily from one to three hours. = The
American foot ball game has no
counterpart on land or sea. 1t Is O
typical product of the soil. It was
taken from Rugby originally. but
there Is no resemblance to 1t. The
only point in common is the ball.
Even the goal posts had to be i'm
proved
1T isn't really foot ball. Beyond the
TACT that goal can only be scored by
kicking the ball over the cross-bar is
little or no kicking. call it animated
chess because players are simply trying
to put into effect certain moves their
coach has thought out.
ACdHlc COlalSb VI IL pldyeTS, DuC as
substitutes are permitted it is not I'M
usual for 20 to take part in a game.
The coach and reserve players sit on
the side lines. If things are going badly
the coach will send In replacements,
who report to the referee, giving the
names Of the players whose places they
are to take. Players come and 70
through the game
"A player may go in just to kick
goal and then retire again. oh, it's a
wonderful camel"
Perhaps the writer becomes a trine
ironical here, but 1t still remains o
wonderful game-a game that at
tracts more interest than base ball,
which long has been called the ma
tional pastime. Some of the writers
for English papers,, by the way, viii
not give us credit for having orig
mated that game. They insist that
it Is "glorif1ed FOUNDERS
But the admission that the American
foot ball game has no counterpart on
land or sea and that it is a typical
product of the soil sounds highly COM
plimentary. 1t may appear strange
thing, but 1t is our own. 4, 1t is. as the
writer says, typicaliy American, even