Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1919 — St. Brice and Football. [ARTICLE]

St. Brice and Football.

In November is the festival of St Brice, who may be called the. patron saint of football players, not alone because his feast day comes during the season of the gridiron game, but for quite another reason. St Brice’s day was long generally observed In England, and In the year 1002 the celebration took the form of a general massacre of the Danes. It was on that day, according to tradition, that the Enfr lish game of football was Invented, with the head of a Dane as the bait St Brice, of course, was not responsible for either the massacre or the football game, having died some six centuries before. He was a bishop of Tours and lived m the fifth century.