Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1902 — FOOTBALL’S DEADLY WORK. [ARTICLE]

FOOTBALL’S DEADLY WORK.

The List of Victim* Higher than Ever This Season. A list of the accidents resulting from football during the season of 1902. which lias just drawn to a close, shows that tho game has claimed more victims this season than ever before. Carefully compiled reports fynm all sections of the country place the number who have died ns a result of injuries received on the gridiron at fifteen. More than 100 minor hurts have been recorded, ranging all the way from concussion of the brain and insanity. down the list through injured spines, crushed skulls, broken legs and arms, to such smaller matters as broken ear Jrumr and the tearing loose of ribs. The casualties were, fnr the greater part, confined to the smaller and less experienced teams, as the indiscriminate and often fatal piling up of players is most common to those who are not well

acquainted with the game. And, on the other hand, the big elevens do not play their hardest until a long period of training and hardening has been gone through. No account has boon taken of the lesser hurts, such ns sprains and bruises. These were so common on every team that they seldom found their way into print. It is likely that hardly a member of any eleven has not been under the care of the trainer at one time or another during the season, laid up with trouble sufficient to bring out his name in the “among thus# injured,” had the injury, come as the result of # fire.