Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1905 — BOY’S DEATH MAY KILL FOOTBALL IN CHICAGO. [ARTICLE]

BOY’S DEATH MAY KILL FOOTBALL IN CHICAGO.

Chicago, 111., Nov. 18.—As a direct result of the death on the gridiron of seventeen-year-old Vernon Wise of the Oak Park High School second team, a campaign against football in secondary schools will begin on Monday, when a mass meeting of the students and faculty will be held to abolish the game in Oak Park. Some other form of athletics, probably lacrosse, will be substituted. The Chicago Board of Education 4s expected to take some action. Several members of the Hyde Park second team, which met Oak Park when young Wise was killed, had been forbidden to play by Principal Loomis of Hyde Park. Those boys will be examind and on the result of the decision Superintendent Cooley will frame his recommendation to the board. Head Coach Lewis Omer, a former University of Illinois player, states that there was no fault with Wise’s condition. “I felt him over after he was hurt and he was hard as a board,” said Omer. “It was just the game of foot ball. I have argued for the game in the way all enthusiasts do, but when I saw that boy killed I made up my mind that the game was not worth the price.”