43 J 



RECREATION 



of the men who have reported thus far for 

 practice, there is nothing to indicate par- 

 ticular strength or possibilities even equal to 

 those shown last year. The New Yorkers 

 are further handicapped by the fact that they 

 have by far the hardest schedule of any of 

 the elevens playing, and certainly the poorest 

 arranged of any. It will tax the Columbia 

 eleven quite a bit to defeat in succession the 

 three New England teams she plays in Octo- 

 ber without having Yale, Princeton, Cornell, 

 and Pennsylvania follow on 

 without a respite. None but 

 the very best team could hope 

 to succeed in the face of 

 such a schedule, and Colum- 

 bia will not have the very 

 best team by a long shot. 



When it comes to the 

 smaller colleges, it looks as 

 though West Point and the 

 Carlisle Indians would be 

 unusually strong. The army 

 boys have nearly all their old 

 men back and many new 

 ones who look like strong 

 candidates for the vacancies. 

 They play three of the big 

 teams and should worry every 

 one of the three. But this is 

 nothing new for West Point. 

 If they fail to score victory 

 in one of the three games it 

 will be a matter of surprise 

 to those who have watched 

 the army boys at practice. 



Harvard is the first of the 

 big elevens to tackle them. 

 Harvard should by that time 

 have their eleven in such 

 shape that they will be able 

 to save defeat in all proba- 

 bility, but if they fancy they 

 will have an easy time in do- 

 ing it, they will find them- 

 selves grossly mistaken. The 

 others follow two weeks 

 later, and both Yale and 

 Princeton will have to work 

 to the limit of their possibility to win. 



The Carlisle Indians are more uncertain. 

 Thev have the material to make any team 

 hustle to win. They are coached by the 

 brightest inventive mind in football today. 

 There is no man who can develop more : "- 

 genius plays than George Woodruff, and, 

 uninterfered with, he would have his team 

 capable of putting them into effect. The one 

 weakness he has as a coach is a tendency 

 to neglect elementary training, and this is in 

 a measure discounted by the natural aptitude 

 of the Indian for the elements of play. On 

 the other hand, the Low mentality of his 



HURLEY, H. U. HALF-BACK 



with his success. Then, too, the teams in- 

 variably show a tendency to rattle, and a 

 tendency to let up in their play. These are 

 traits that spell defeat whenever practiced, 

 so that the team can be counted on with no 

 certainty. In other words, the Indians are 

 likely to prove dangerous opponents to both 

 Harvard and Pennsylvania, and if they dcn't 

 win, will give a good account of themselves 

 in both games. 



The Dartmouth team is another that w:'ll 

 prove no easy mark. It plays 

 Harvard in November, and is 

 likely to push the Crimson to 

 the limit for the third con- 

 secutive year. It is likely to 

 win its games against its 

 other opponents and to make 

 a record that it will be well 

 proud of at the end of the 

 year. 



So much for the East. In 

 the West, the Michigan learn 

 looks to be weaker than last 

 year, but still strong enough 

 to win in all its games. Chi- 

 cago ought to again give 

 them a hard tussle, and Wis- 

 consin to have a better chance 

 against them than last year. 

 Most critics look to Chicago 

 to win from Wisconsin. 

 Illinois, Northwestern and 

 Minnesota look to have the 

 nucleus of good elevens. 



The season East and West 

 will be an unusually active 

 one. Football has taken a 

 hold on the American public 

 that even baseball does not 

 supersede. With the ad- 

 vances made steadily in the 

 science of the game at the 

 smaller colleges, they are 

 giving the larger teams 

 harder and harder battles 

 for supremacy. They can 

 never reach the high stand- 

 ard that the big four main- 

 tain, for they have not the men, but every 

 year some new candidate appears with an 

 exceptional lot of players to give trouble to 

 the best. These teams are liable to spring 

 up anywhere. Where will they appear in 

 1905? 



But after all, it is the very uncertainty of 

 the game that attracts. When there happens 

 to be an exceptionally strong ream pitted 

 against a lot of weak ones, interest is almost 

 at the vanishing point. The present season 

 promises well. Even the seventh son of a 

 seventh son would hardly venture to name 

 the winner, and any team in the field has 



subjects is against him and this may interfere grounds for confidence and hope. 



