Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1913 — WANT GRIDIRON SERIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WANT GRIDIRON SERIES

Postseason Match Between East and West Is Urged. Critics Ridicule Plan and Declare Proposition la Impracticable From Every Standpoint of GameFew Reasons Cited. Every once in a while some critic or a number of critics conceive the brilliant idea of a world’s series in football with the champion of the east meeting the champion of the west in a postseason conflict Judt at present the idea seems to have taken a hold in the east and a number of experts are calling for such a contest. They declare it would be a great thing to have a championship gridiron eleven and propose a conflict in sohae neutral territory. They compare the proposed game to the world’s baseball series and declare a contest between Chicago and Yale or Harvard and Michigan or some similar meeting would fill the largest athletic field in the world. It is all very well to speak of such a contest, but the easterners evidently have forgotten a number of objections to the plan. First and foremost, of course, would be the difficulty of getting the faculties of the schools interested, but granting this to be obtainable, how is one to determine which is the sectional champion?

Of course, last year produced a well defined eastern leader. Harvard won the in the east beyond a question, but could any one pidk a similar leader in the west. Wisconsin and Notre Dame had an equal right to the title last season, and to select either one would provoke a riot at the other school. So far as picking one this season—help!

There seldom have been well defined champions either east or west. Of late years there has been no western champion in fact, the honor being claimed by two, three or a half* dozen teams. To talk of selecting a title holder when there is ho elimination between Chicago, Wisconsin,' Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska and Notre Dame is ridiculous. These teams are mentioned because they are usually at the top of the heap. Every season, however, sees one or two “outsiders” with claims to present, such as the Michigan Aggies this sbason and South Dakota last year. Nor is the eastern champion so easy to pick. Yale, Harvard and Princeton are usually considered the triumvirate of the eastern gridiron, but it is not. too much to say that every year sees some other elevens with equal claims to press. For instance, Brown a couple of years ago and Penn State, Dartmouth and Carlisle more recently. The person who picked the strongest eastern team would have just as pleasant a task as the man to whom selection for the western title !holder was delegated. Up to date intersectional football games have proved flat failures. The

Chicago-Cornell series was abandoned for this reason. Of course the Ma-roon-Red games drew good crowds and became the "society” games of the year, but they were not football. Chicago would a hundred times rather beat Purdue or Northwestern than Cornell, and Cornell cares more for one Pennsylvania contest than for the entire list of Maroon contests. Exception .might be taken to this assertion by quoting how the Mich-igan-Pennsylvania game* have drawn. This is about the classic of infersectional contests and has become Michigan’s big game of the year. Ask any Michigan alumnus or undergraduate how he would like to have Chicago and Minnesota substituted for Pennsylvania and Cornell on the Wolverine schedule and one will discover how scantily these games have taken root in the affections of the Wolverine rooters. ' t

Pontius, a Michigan Star.