Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 294, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1913 — DIRTY PLAYING HURTS GAME [ARTICLE]

DIRTY PLAYING HURTS GAME

Football Facing Its Doom Because of Unnecessary and Unfair Roughness, Says George Hoff. “The existence of football will be threatened, sooner or later, unless a growing tendency to forget? the lesson of some years back and return to the practices which put the sport on trial for its life is checked.” This is the recent declaration of Athletic Director George Hoff of Illinois university, and ope of the best known men in the athletic world. In explanation he says: "I refer to unnecessary and unfair roughness. I do not criticize hard playing, and football as a matter of fact is rough. But I have noticed a gradual introduction of the same tactics which nearly cost, the colleges their favorite game. “This year I have seen ‘neck wringing.’ I have seen players drag their feet over the head of an opponent. ‘Piling up,’ even when easily seen to be unnecessary, goes unrebuked. “The blame for the existence of this tendency is to be placed on the heads of unscrupulous coaches and complacent gridiron officials. It is a matter of common report in the football camps of the middle west Institutions that certain coaches make no bones of encouraging their men to lame apd to slug if they can get away with it. Their linesmen threaten and curse their opponents, hoping to lead them Into a display of honest and almost justifiable physical retaliation. “For the most part western officials have ceased to pay any attention to unnecessary roughness. ‘Let ’em fight it out* seems to be the implied attitude of many officials, especially the younger ones. And the team that attempts to be square gets the worst of it. I am a believer in football as a square, manly sport, if properly supervised. I would regret to see it lost, but I firmly believe that after success with the new style of game all will go for nought unless coaches and officials see that the practices I mention are eliminated.”