Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1915 — FOOTBALL GAME HALTS WAR [ARTICLE]

FOOTBALL GAME HALTS WAR

British and German Soldiers Fight on the Gridiron—Kaiser Upsets the Schedule. Berlin. —A general order issued by the German army authorities prohibits football games in the field between German and English soldiers. At Christmas time men from both sides in the western theater of war fraternized and played hotly-contested games of football. Officers and men laid aside their arms and watched the players and cheered them on. The rivalry became so intense that war was forgotten and the men who kicked the most goals received more applause than is usually given heroes on the fighting line. At one place where the Germans and British played the game was a draw and the players agreed to suspend fighting for two days more in order to decide the issue on two games out of three. - News of this reached the military authorities and it was decided that football was interfering too much with the business of warfare, aside from the complications arising from too friendly contact between the advance guards. ; The order was issued forthwith and there will be no more athletic contests between the soldiers, who also are forbidden to fraternize or meet on any terms except those of bitter enmity.