THE FOOTBALL SITUATION: 723 



thoiigh reqiiiring skill and severe training, is largely mechanical. 

 In track athletics the individual is everything. 



That the game has had attractions for intellectual men in the 

 past is shown by the fact that the average scholarship of men on 

 the football teams has of late years been higher than that of men 

 in the other athletic organizations. In the years 1879 to 1888 the 

 average standing of men not on athletic organizations was on a 

 scale of 4, 3'69 ; for members of the university boat crew the 

 average was 2'52 ; for members of the baseball nine it was 3'41 ; 

 for members of the football team it was 2"G8. Track athletics 

 were not in existence as an organization through the whole 

 decade, but for the few years when there was a university team 

 the average was 2*66. In the previous decade, 1869 to 1878, it is only 

 fair to add that the average of the football men was slightly 

 below that of the other athletes, it being 2"51 to their 2'56. I can 

 only account for the fact of the rise of the average in the second 

 decade by the change in the numbers of the team from twenty to 

 eleven a change giving opportunity for more skill, thus render- 

 ing the play more attractive to men of mind. Notwithstanding 

 the present style of mass play, which puts a premium on physical 

 strength and weight, it was a surprise to me to find that the 

 average scholarship of the sixteen men from the academic depart- 

 ment, including players and substitutes, was higher than the 

 average of any class which ever graduated. I can not believe, 

 however, that the high scholarship of football players will always 

 prevail, unless the style of the game be changed to one which 

 admits of more open play.* 



Another advantage of the game is that the practice of it en- 

 gages a large number of players. A regular team has two more 

 men than the baseball nine, and three more than the crew of 

 eight men. The substitutes, having a systematic training, are 

 more numerous than the substitutes for either baseball or for the 

 crew. Track athletics only can be compared with it in the num- 

 bers brought into it. For a short period of the year this latter 

 sport may exercise more men, but taking into consideration the 

 various class teams of football, and especially the team of the 

 freshmen class with substitutes, it is doubtful if even the numbers 

 of those engaging in track athletics exceed the numbers engaging 

 in football. 



Of the benefits accruing to the players the physical benefits 

 are the least noteworthy. Yet the play brings into activity al- 

 most every muscle of the body. The legs, the arms, and the trunk 

 are all used. No part of the muscular system is developed abnor- 



* The style of the game will be changed by the adoption of the new rules, lately rec- 

 ommended by the committee of graduates. 



