NEWSPAPER FOOTBALL 263 



1 hour 1 



1 day 2 



2 days 4 



3 days 1 



1 week 5 



1 to 2 weeks 2 



The remaining seven report a longer time averaging about a month, 

 though three say ' am staying out until Christmas.' 



Fourth, of the 60 college players reporting, twelve stated that at 

 the time of answering my letter they had not wholly recovered from the 

 injury. When we consider that in some instances the reply was made 

 within a week or two of the time of injury and in no instance more 

 than two months after, this number does not seem excessive. With 

 the exception of the persons noted under fifth, the answers seem to 

 indicate the later stages of convalescence. Some of them read : 

 ' muscles still weak/ ' leg still in plaster cast but will be out in a few 

 days/ ' still a little lame/ * three teeth not yet recovered, but dentist 

 doing his best/ 'ankle a little stiff yet ' and ' have not fully recovered 

 but was able to play the Nebraska, Wisconsin and Chicago games ' 

 (this from a Michigan man). 



Fifth, on the part of five players it could not be said with cer- 

 tainty that the injury would not prove permanent. Michigan, Co- 

 lumbia, Harvard, Chicago and Illinois each has one in this class. For 

 these men the particular injury and the reply to the question as to, 

 permanence are as follows : 



(1) Ligament of knee ruptured. 'Can't say definitely. Think 

 not.' 



(2) Spine wrenched. 'Physicians say I shall ultimately recover.' 



(3) Blow on head. 'My orders from the doctors are: If you re- 

 main quiet and take good care of yourself you will entirely recover.' 



(4) Partial detachment of retina. ' It is not unlikely that a part 

 of this area will remain permanently detached from choroid.' (Signed 

 by physician). 



(5) Knee injured, floating cartilage. ' Very serious and, unless an 

 operation could eliminate it, the danger of a very unreliable knee.' 



This completes the record of the college men, except for the fact 

 that all but five assert that they were in good training. This, how- 

 ever, means nothing in itself, since we have no means of knowing 

 what proportion of the whole number of men playing football were 

 unseasoned. 



With the high school players, the facts seem to coincide more nearly 

 with the printed reports. Of these, twenty-two in all, but two denied 

 the report in toto, although eight others stated that no time was lost 

 from classes. The rest on the whole lost a considerably larger average 



