Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1915 — FOOTBALL IS POPULAR GAME [ARTICLE]

FOOTBALL IS POPULAR GAME

Largest Crowd of Persons Ever Congregated in This Country Witness Recent Harvard-Yale Contest. If there are any left who harbor the idea that football is not a popular game, or that it has no drawing powers commensurate with baseball, they can disabuse their minds very readily by referring to an account of the YaleHarvard game which was witnessed by about seventy thousand persons. It Is said that this is the largest crowd of persons that ever congregated in this country to witness a single contest of any kind, and I can readily believe it, says a writer in the Milwaukee Sentinel. The fact that this number of people are able and willing to pay a large sum for the privilege of seeing a football game is good evidence that the game has something back of it. It is noteworthy and quite commendable that this game is still amateur — that the professionals have not gotten hold of it and control it. I think the fact that it is an amateur game and that those who play it represent a high class of young citizenship are large elements in its popularity. Certain it is that professional football would not awaken anywhere near the interest that the game does as at present constituted.