Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-24
Some Outlines of Sport.


r INTERCOLLEGIATE foot ball, which
started only some so years
ago in a friendly meet between
Princeton and Rutgers University
seems to have grown into a national
problem. 1t is the youngest Of Ameri-
can sports, but the money that is spent
on intercollegiate foot ball overshadoWs
all of the million-dollar gates drawn by
Tex Richards prizefights and all OF the
expenditures on the national pastime,
base ball.
intercollegiate foot ball and its hold
on the popular interests has grown 10
such an extent that it not only has pc
come of much better concern TO the
educators of the nation, but 1t Is apouI
to become a matter for congressional
investigation. More than one solon an
noyed the last Congress with denaIlo
that the foot ball relations OF the TWO
service academies, West Point and An
napolis, be investigated.
The biggest sports crowd ever as
sembled in the United States gathered
to see a foot ball game and an I'M
important one at that. In the same
Enclosure, where the biggest fight crowd
was gathered, in Soldier Field, Chicago,
a still bigger crowd assembled TO see
Navy play Notre Dame, when Doth
teams were out Of all calculations in
connection with the mystical intercol-
legiate foot ball championship.
The history of American intercol-
legiate foot ball might be divided into
three periods, the Camp Period, the
Rockne Period and the Period OF Gen
eral CONSERVATION, which is the pres
emit Whether or not the CONSERVATION
is justified Is still being argued and
the argument will continue.
The games started as modeStly as
the American game OF base ball. A
committee of Rutgers students invited
Princeton to organize a foot ball team
and to bring the team to Rutgers to
plav. The invitation was accepted and
the Princeton students and the faculty,
including the president, took the train
ride to Rutgers to see the sport.
TT was an entirely friendly gathering
i There was no organized cheering and
there were no stands. The members
of the Rutgers faculty entertained the
members of the Princeton faculty. The
students lunched together. The foot
ball players, who had no training
table, ate together. After lunch the
members of the rival foot ball teams
strolled through the town OF New
Brunswick and they shot some friendly
games of pool.
There was no advance ballyhoo and
no long articles exporting the chances
Of the rival teams. There was a slim
notice6in some of the New Jersey news
papers announcing that foot ball teams
from Princeton and Rutgers would meet
that afternoon. Maybe q stray old grad
or two from both the universities might
have seen the game. The townspeople
were not interested. If they happened
to be passing that part Of the campus
they said, ct Is only the students anus
ing themselves-they are always anus
ing themselves" and let it 60 at that.
In the absence Of q grandstand the
spectators from the rival universities
perched on the fence around the i'm
provised foot ball field. 1t is recorded
that during the game the fence became
overcrowded, with the result that it
collapsed and the students and the
faculty members squatted on the grass
in mixed groups. OF course, there were
no gate receipts. Who, in those days,
would pay to see lot of students anus
ing themselves?
1t is history that Rutgers won the
first game Of American intercollegiate
foot ball. And that was the start Of
the "overemphasis."
THAT spontaneous Rutgers-Princeton
i idea grew. In a few years there
were intercollegiate foot ball games
all over the East. The game developed