Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 283, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1914 — CATCHING SPINNING FOOTBALL NOT EASY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CATCHING SPINNING FOOTBALL NOT EASY

The art of catching a thrown ball in the arms began to pass with the development of tossing spirals. As the ball is now thrown it spins $ rapidly upon its long axis, and is best caught in the hands as basket ball is caught. This is the surest way. In attempting uto catch it in the arms the hard spinning ball strikes the chest or stomach, sometimes with vicious force, and in any event is liable to bound out from the fingers and thus be missed.

In 1906, when the forward pass was first taken up, the old end-over-end method of passing was in vogue, and the ball, thus tumbling, was only to be caught in the arms, as are most of the punts today. Not every player, even today, can throw the swift, straight spirals; there is a knack about it. Beginners achieve it by pressing their fingers

against the lacing as the ball lies in the palm of the hand; as the pigskin is thrown the spin Is thus imparted by the fingers. Good forward passers attain the spin without having to bother where their fingers are placed. It is a beautiful sight as the ball confts along, spinning sideways, speeding towards one’s arms like a small Zeppelin. Spirals can be thrdwn extraordinary distances. “Mike” Boland Of Princeton makes nothing of 60-yard tosses in practice. Cutler of the 1908 Harvard eleven was one of the first to achieve the perfect spiral throw; Potter, also of Harvard, was another good man, but Sprackling of Brown has never been equaled in the East Elevens ambitious for success with the forward pass would do well to study the way in which Sprackling and Ashbaugh used to work it

Mike Boland, One of Princeton’s Heroes.