Football player

“ A player must be dedicated to the game to the extent he is willing to work, sacrifice, cooperate and do what he possibly can to aid the team in victory. It is our duty as coaches to explain and show our boys the advantages of being winners, and to impress upon them the absolute necessity of it so they will put forth the much needed effort to accomplish the objective. It is important for the players to understand that football is not an easy game; nor is achieving fame an easy task. ”

“ All football players do not come out of the great game unscathed physically or morally, yet the great majority who do achieve benefit from it, and marked benefit too, amply demonstrate the value of the game as a source of all-round development.
Football is undoubtedly the best American game, not only from the average spectator's point of view, but from that of the player as well. ”

“ He must carry his whole heart into every play of the game and must never lose his temper. These same rules, properly carried out, bring success in after life.
The same vital points, continually drummed into a player in his training, are sure to influence the spectators who daily gather on the field to witness the practice. These attributes, personified in the ideal football player, dominate the entire student body and create a spirit which reaches out from the athletic field through the campus and into the very recitation room. ”

“ The man who cannot start, catch, pass, tackle, block and interfere is not a real football player. There is no telling at what moment he may be called upon to use his versatility to save or to win the game. A championship contest may easily depend on whether one individual can catch a punt, tackle a runner, block an opposing player or interfere properly for his own team mate. ”

“ It is very evident that a dullard can never play football properly. Hence it is by no means detrimental to the game to require high standings for all football men in their classroom work, as is the case in most colleges. Almost all the football players who have attained any recognized degree of success are good students. Football not only requires keen-minded men to play it but it makes its players still keener of mind. The regular exercise helps the player and makes his head clearer for study. ”

“ When a player has the ball in his possession and fumbles it, he has committed the unpardonable sin in my estimation. The ball carrier should remember to have one point of the football in the palm of his hand with the fingers around the end of the ball, and gripping it tightly. The other end should be in the crook of his arm, which should force the football up close to his body. ”

“ Before the prospective college man has finished his preparatory course necessary to an entrance into the higher scholastic field, the college athlete, the football player, the nearest approach to the all-round man, is the central figure in his ambitious dreams. ”

“ From the other entrance to the gridiron the visitors enter and they seem every bit as strong and fit to maintain the undefeated record which they also boast this year. Footballs are produced, the two teams form in large circles in different parts of the field and begin to toss the ovals about in rapid succession, while the enthusiasts in stands and bleachers cheer their heroes till it seems as if their throats would be insufficient for the strain which one or the other side, if not both, will have to bear through the game that is not yet begun. ”

“ A safety is made when a team is forced to touch the ball down behind its own goal line.
The ball used in American football is a long oval case made of leather and inflated by means of a rubber bag or envelope. The football player’s uniform consists of a heavily padded pair of trousers made of canvas, moleskin, khaki or other material, a jacket made of the same material, a tight-fitting jersey with elbow and shoulder pads, heavy stockings, and cleated shoes. Players will often use other pads, braces and guards to protect them from injury. ”

“ A thorough canvass was made of the veteran football players of Harvard, Yale and Princeton and a mass of testimony was secured from team captains, college authorities, preparatory school masters, and the result was a most complete array of data, proving beyond a doubt that football is a game in which the beneficent effects far outnumber the possible drawbacks. ”

“ Let us also look into the faces of some of the football heroes of years ago, and recall the achievements that made them famous. And let us recall, too, the men of the years just past who have so nobly upheld the traditions of the American game of football, and helped to place it on its present high plane.
William H. Edwards.
MY CORNER
"Fond memory sheds the light of other days around me." PROLOGUE
They say that no man ever made a successful football player who was lacking in any quality of imagination. ”

“ No one dull or timid is ever a good football player. One fit to lead a football team in a sharp match, has in him the making of a leader of men in almost any calling. Weed out low tackling and mass-play, and we have no game in America which will make us a keener, tougher, braver race ”

“ There is no feature of football more beautiful than a long run in circumstances like these. The rush of the attacking phalanx against the rampart of bone and brawn; the melting away of the interference as it disposes of the men in the path of the runner; the emerging of the man with the ball into the open field and the judgment which he exercises, combined with his own strength and speed, call for the very highest ability. ”

“ Falling on the ball is one of the fundamentals in football. It is the ground work that every player must learn. Frank Hinkey, that great Yale Captain and player, was an artist in performing this fundamental. ”

“ How true it is that in one play, or in a practice game, or in a contest against an opposing college, a player has found himself. Do you players of football remember the day you made the team, the day your chance came and you took [Pg 36] advantage of it? At such a time a player shows great possibilities. He is told by the captain to report at the training house for the Varsity signals. ”

“ Since our whole lives are made up of physical risks, any game which has no element whatever of roughness or risk is hardly worthy of young and vigorous men.
However, the roughness of football should be eliminated as much as possible and this is done to a great extent among our great teams today. These teams are trained by skilled men whose sole duty it is to see that each player is fit to do his part in the game. ”

“ We want him to fight off blockers and make [48] certain the ball carrier does not score should our defense break down and the opposition move downfield toward the goal line with a long run or a completed pass. When the ball is thrown, we want every man on the team to go for the ball except our deepest man, our best defensive football player. He remains 10 yards behind the ball at all times in case there is a tip and the opponent might catch it and score. His sole responsibility is to keep the opposition from scoring when we are using our Victory Defense. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The oblong shape of the ball and the fact that it is inflated with air makes its flight uncertain to some extent, yet with practice a player can learn to judge just where the ball will fall and to be there in the proper place to receive it. Until the members of a team become reliable and steady in handling punts and passes the eleven will be uncertain in all its play. Football is a game that is full of passes and punts and each time the ball is passed or punted it must be handled accurately or the play will fail. ”

“ He kicks with either foot with great power, and is a clean player. He follows the ball rather than the man. He is an excellent example of the man who, taking to football, has found it possible to stick to his trade as well. ”

“ Such persons are not really well acquainted with football as it is played today for the game is first in the many forms of athletic competition in the development of the player physically, mentally and morally.
Although to the layman football is primarily a physical game, the bodily benefits afforded the player are by no means the only ones he receives. True, it does afford the player better opportunities for physical development than any other sport. In most other branches of competitive athletics only parts of the body are brought into exercise. ”

“ It is extremely bad form to talk, whisper or shuffle about while a player is putting, and those who do so are revealing their lack of courtesy and of the knowledge of the correct etiquette of sport.
FOOTBALL
We feel that a word about football is necessary, not only because it is one of the most popular American sports, but because men and women alike enjoy watching the game. At the Yale Bowl, where some of the most spectacular football games are played—and won—thousands of men and women from all over the United States gather every year. ”

“ Every five yards that was gained was earned by straight, hard-played football. Every time four downs were called it was because of superior defence. The football that was played in this game would be a credit to any college team, and many a 'varsity player could learn a lesson of sand from these boys.
Whittemore of the English High-School, and Maguire of the Latin, were stars even in this group. Each one played football every minute of the game. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These men have carried into their new positions a knowledge of the game which has been eagerly received wherever they have gone. Every preparatory school now has one or more instructors, a regular portion of whose labors is the instruction of the pupils of the school, in football, and the development of a team which shall properly represent the school on the gridiron. By this method the game has gained myriads of friends and adherents who in their college and university courses keep up their devotion to football. ”

“ Showing fine interference - team play. To strengthen the impression in the mind of each of his ten comrades that he himself may be relied on to do his part should form the foremost endeavor of every member of the team. He must show the others that, when the emergency comes, as it does come in every play, he is doing his duty. With such zeal firmly instilled in the mind of each man, football reaches its highest state of perfection. ”

“ Anyone who can be present as a spectator at one of the big football games of the year and can look on without enthusiasm as the game progresses is lacking in red blood and can expect no pleasure in outdoor sport. Football has earned for itself a unique place in the life of this country and deserves the position it has acquired. ”

“ The young ones, and even the seniors themselves, had many a collision with mother earth ere they could rely on keeping their pins with any degree of accuracy, and it was rare fun to see a bearded man turning a somersault as he missed the ball in trying{21} to make a big kick. Football is easily acquired in so far as the rudimentary part is concerned, but a great deal of probation is required to convert one into a crack player. Among those who now practice football, and their name is legion, the superior players can be numbered in (to give it a wide scope) hundreds. ”

“ The first duty of the forwards of a football eleven is to learn thoroughly and be able to put into practice sure methods of blocking their opponents, in order that the latter may not be able to break through the line and tackle runners before plays can be fairly set in motion. ”

“ Eleven men make up a football team now, as in the early days of the game, but modern requirements make it necessary that these eleven men play constantly to one end. If one of them lags, errs or is inefficient, it is almost impossible for the others to get results, no matter how well directed may be their efforts. ”

“ Hurry up and be the first man to line up. Hurry all the time; football is not a slow or lazy man's game. Hurry up; football is a game of hurry, hurry, hurry. Hurry up if you are behind in any play. Then is the time you need most to hurry. Hurry up and get into every play. Football is played by eleven men. Spectators are not wanted on the field; their place is in the grand stand. Hurry up and be the first man down the field on a punt or kick-off. ”

“ The necessity which impelled the English schoolboy at Rugby a century ago to inaugurate some healthful, clean and interesting outdoor sport and the felicitous choice of this form of recreation are the factors which have caused the growth of football until now it is the leading college game of America. ”