722 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sational writers, who inveigh against it either because they know 

 nothing of it, or because they have determined to know nothing 

 of it, since it does not square with their " historic and traditional 

 idea " of things suitable to a college. Lastly, I wish to suggest 

 lines along which measures for the improvement of the game 

 should be taken, and also to advocate some measures for the 

 better supervision of the sport. 



It will surprise many good people, who have been accustomed 

 to hear such an epithet as " brutal " applied to the game of foot- 

 ball, that I should claim for it as the first point of superiority 

 over other college athletic sports that it is eminently an intel- 

 lectual game. A game of football between contestants evenly 

 matched in other respects is won by the superior mental work 

 of the winning team as embodied in the generalship of the cap- 

 tain and the thoughtful work of his men. The game is not simply 

 a struggle for mastery of one body of strong men over another, 

 but it is a contest for supremacy, in which supremacy is gained 

 not by physical strength alone, but by this strength rightly 

 directed by mind. 



In the first place, the rules of the game must be observed by 

 every player. He must conform his play to them. He must have 

 them thoroughly in mind, in order to know what he can do, as 

 well as to avoid what he is not permitted to do. These rules are 

 very numerous more numerous, I believe, than the rules of any 

 other college sport, and cover a '^vider sphere of action. The 

 interpretation and application of them in every moment of play 

 call for no ordinary quickness of mind in a successful player. 



Though each man has a special line of play belonging to his 

 position on a team, yet his play is so related to the plays of the 

 rest of the team that he can not act without regard to the other 

 players. It is eminently a game of combinations. Individual 

 play is important, but team play is more important. The signals 

 of the captain must be heeded by all the players, even if they 

 seem to be given for only two or three men. Through weeks of 

 preparation these signals have to be studied, to be memorized, to 

 be practiced as thoroughly and faithfully by the men as the laws 

 of any science by successful scholars. 



The only other college game which is to be compared with it 

 in respect of team play is the game of baseball. Yet in this game 

 the players have fixed positions. Though the men in these posi- 

 tions play in combination with each other, they are remote from 

 one another, and do not at any time join together to make a par- 

 ticular play effective, as the players of a football team move to a 

 common goal. Though team play is important, it is not as im- 

 portant as in football, while individual play, as, for instance, that 

 of pitcher or catcher, is more important. In rowing, the work. 



