Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 280, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1914 — FOOTBALL GAME IS MORE SPECTACULAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FOOTBALL GAME IS MORE SPECTACULAR

Sometimes, while watching a college football game, one can’t help going back and wishing the old-style stuff was in vtfgue. With no intention of throwing a harpoon at the modern system, the man’s-sized article was the kind to stir the blood, writes Malcolm Mac Lean in Chicago Evening Post. There were linesmen then, boys—linesmen who were heroes. Instead of being skilled in basketball tactics they had to have Spartan blood. Let us go back to the old YalePrinceton clash. Yale would kick off to the ten-yard line. The quarterback would gather the ball to his chest. Ten mates would hasten to hie side. In a flash a flying wedge was formed —a powerful stalwart at the front, two wings protecting the runner and the man with the ball crowded into the midst. Down the field would thunder this V-shaped phalanx, arms locked and jaws set. Pudge Heffelflnger, leaping headlong and with disdain of sudden death, would hit the wedge with a smash. Men would tumble, the runner would be nailed with a crash. The shock was terrific. Later on came the tackles and guards back. With a Truxton Hare to lead the* Pennsylvania smash it was a life-sized job to stop the assault. . Those were the days when a linesman would distinguish himself. Jake

Stahl of Illinois, Curtis of Michigan, Schacht of Minnesota, Curtis of Wisconsin, Perry of Chicago—the list is a long one., Where the mass plays were the heaviest these wonderful, courageous linesmen would be found fighting, pulling, shoving to the last ounce of strength. : " Their object wasn’t to block a possible forward pass; it was to smash, crush and otherwise demolish a certain mass formation. They had to check a fearful interference and get the man. They have line plays today. Yes, indeed. . But they are trifles aS compared to the former assaults. It was no cinch to tackle a runner who was being pulled along by a couple of huskies and shoved by three or four others. Weak hearts had no business in a line then. As has been stated some million times, the game of today is more spectacular. A prettily executed, gentlemanly,’ orderly forward pass, with a couple of opponents leaping in the air to stop it, is thrilling.' It is scientific. It is brilliant. It is strategic. Yet the old cry of second down, two yards to gain, and the shock of two all-steel locomotives meeting head on have passed. A new order rules. And so have the great linesmen gone. They are not needed like they were in th-j cave-dweUipg days.

Coach Alonzo Stagg of Chicago University.