Fielding Yost

“ He should be able at all times to set an example which his comrades must exert themselves to the utmost to follow. His spirit and enthusiasm must be contagious, for the team will play in exactly the fashion in which it is led, and carelessness or indifference in a leader will be mirrored in every movement of his team. The captain must be a perfect judge of human nature and must be able to meet each crisis as it comes with a fearlessness and aggressiveness which will communicate themselves to every member of his team. ”

“ The proper use of the stiff arm by a runner in the open field is an acquisition which will be found well nigh invaluable to a back who is carrying the ball in a dash down the field. As the runner sees that he is about to be tackled he can suddenly shoot out his free arm, palm open, meeting the charge of the tackler with the arm stiff and rigid, often turning him aside to such an extent that he either entirely misses the tackle or is sufficiently foiled in his purpose to allow the runner to free himself without stopping and to continue on his way toward the opponents' goal. ”

“ If you are ambitious to succeed in football do not be a machine player, but sum up every new situation and adapt yourself to it. Do not play your individual position the same way all the time. Vary your style and go at your man differently in each scrimmage. Out of the thousands and thousands of games that have been played there are never two exactly alike. ”

“ From the opening of college in September, in all sections of the country, to its close in June, football is the most potent factor in the moulding of spirit, in the making of men, and in the bringing them together in the democracy of a common cause in the collegiate life. In the autumn, when the candidates for the team are being tried out and selected according to their worth, thousands of healthy young men take their places on the athletic field every afternoon. ”

“ Football is a game of strength, but of strength properly controlled by the mind. Many games are won by the mental superiority of one team over another. This is a phase of football with which the average spectator is entirely unfamiliar. He can easily see the push and scramble on the field but he cannot comprehend the workings of the minds that direct the efforts of both sides. However, any spectator ought to be able to appreciate the severe mental drill given to the player when, in order to be successful, he must learn a mass of rules and be able to understand them all and act accordingly ”

“ After all a football team is but a small army and the discipline must be just as rigid as if something even more important than the mere winning or losing of a game were at stake. Orders must be obeyed unquestioningly after the team is on the field. The soldier who refuses to follow the mandates of his commanding officer is court-martialed, and the quicker the team gets rid of a member who willfully refuses to obey instructions, the better it is for the team. Rules for training, practice and play must be strictly adhered to if the team is to be a successful one. ”

“ The evolution of football from the crude form in which the game began to the present stage of perfection it has attained rests almost entirely on the development of team play. Where originally one man, relying almost entirely on his own efforts, bore the brunt of his own particular play, whether offensive or defensive, now the efforts of ten others are also exerted to the same end for which he is working. ”

“ It originated in a simple, Anglo-Saxon desire for clean, energetic sport and the participants in the game were the only spectators. It lives now through the same desire, but the interest in the game has so developed that hundreds of thousands throughout the country annually witness its play, not as mere spectators but as ardent votaries. From Maine to California, from Minnesota to Texas, wherever there are schools or colleges, football, during the crisp, autumn days, is the magnet which draws people from every walk of life from offices and shops for a few hours in the open air. ”

“ The ease with which the general principle of the game is comprehended by the spectator, the facility afforded for every individual of the thousands assembled to see every play, the contagious enthusiasm that sweeps the most blasé into the fever of excitement that is prevalent on every side--all combine to make the struggle on the gridiron one of absorbing interest. ”

“ Rules are nothing but football laws which must be obeyed. The practitioner in court who can quickly interpret a law bearing on the case that is being tried has an instant advantage over his slower opponent who is, for the moment, mystified. Correspondingly, no man can be a great football player unless he is an adept at the rules of the game. ”

“ The same is true of a football team and its campaign, for the captain is the commander of the eleven and on his ability and on the influence of his personality depends largely whether his team is to emerge from its game in glorious victory or in disappointing defeat.
No player should be selected to act as captain who is not a leader in every sense of the word. He should be a player of the very highest individual ability in the first place, for, if he lacks ability to perform his own part in the play, scant will be the confidence which his men will place in him and his commands. ”

“ A Kick-out is a drop-kick, place-kick or punt made by a player of the side which has made a safety or a touchback.
Suggestion.--When kicking out from the ten or twenty-five-yard line on a kick-out, everyone is on-side and can go and get the ball or interfere with a fair catch. The side kicking out can kick from any point behind the ten or twenty-five-yard line. They should do this and take advantage of any wind or field conditions, being careful not to kick the ball so the opponents can make a fair catch and have a good position to kick a goal from the field. ”