FOOTBALL IN U.S.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18906, 22 January 1927, Page 10

FOOTBALL IN U.S.

DISPLACING BASEBALL.

BIG SERVICE MATCH. OCS 07TS COSSZSPOSDEXT.) SAX FEANCISCO, December 13. Football is fast displacing baseball as the chief sport of the United States, to the utter discomfiture of the ardent enthusiasts of Babe Ruth's favourite pastime, and this was shown when in the most tremendous spectacle in the historv of American sport, the Army and Navy completed a deadlock at 21-21 as the two teams, like ghostly shadows deep in the darkness of a wintry night, fought to the final play with all the skill and courage of the Army-Navy breed. Something like 130,000 looked down upon the most spectacular struggle iu the-long history of service football as the two great elevens fought with a desperation unparalleled in the history of Yankeo sport. Over 100,000 of the immense gathering was seated within the confines of Soldiers' Field in Chicago, and there were thousands of others either massed in the field s museum back of tho stadruui or perched upon the top of overlooking skyscrapers like human icicles lined against tho gray drabness of a winter sky. ■ It was the greatest crowd that ever saw a competition on this side of tho Atlantic, dating back to the day that Mr Columbus or Signor Vespucci set hoof upon American soil. And this crowd looked down upon one of the most desperate and one of the greatest football games ever played since longhaired ancients went, into action through the medium of the flying wedge. Each team scored three touchdowns through a savage, headlong that no defence could hold in check, and at the end of each touchdown lionhearted Tom Hamilton and "Light Horse" Harry Wilson kicked the goal. It was an "afternoon of attack, fast, powerful,.unstoppable, with the defence of both teams hammered and shattered cut and beaten down or thrown aside by charging lines and charging backs that saw only a rival goal waiting to be crossed. A Great Spectacle. The fighting courage of both teams proved to the West that tho future defence of the United States is in safo hands, legs, shoulders, and feet; As a spectacle, it lay over the Dcmp-sey-Tunney fight as a garden in tho tropics might lay over a field of ashcans and garbage, as one critic put it As a"competition it lay over the Deinp sey-Tunney fight, and- the last recordbreaker in the way of crowds, as a war might lay over a skirmish of two squads. In the first place,, the 130,000 or more who journeyed to witness the game either rode out in 25,000 motorcars or taxis or else trekked along over a foot of, snow and ice more treacherous than the descent of Chilkoot Pass. a * The approach to tW field was one of frozen footing where only the surefooted could make any headway, it •was a day for huskies and sleds and pemmican, but tho endless lines picked Soldiers' "Field for the finishing point against all handicaps of footing and weather. •' '.. ' ~ - •When the-- record-breaking crowd-, was rtnailv massed around the field, Navy eot the jump with two touchdowns, and it appeared, half-way through the second quarter as if the Blue ahd Gold might win by 30 points. The Army defence had-been-cut-to threads. But within a few minutes of the second Navy touchdown, the Army started an offensive that carried them twice over the Navy line,, and at half-time, the same, was deadlocked at 14 to 14. At the end of the third period, the cadets had taken the lead with another touchdown, and they held their margin until half-way through the last quarter. With darkness -falling quickly, it appeared as the scoring had ended, but a long forward pass, successfully executed, .gave the.Navy possession on the Army's seven-yard line. On a double pass, which faked at the tone, Shapey circled Army's left end for the.touchdown, and the exciting encounter terminated at 21 to 21. Rugby Popular. Nathan K. Parker, of Pittsburgh, •Pennsylvania, and Rhodes scholar from Dartmouth College, says that after six weeks in- Oxford, he has .become an ardent convert to the-English game of Eugby football, and decla/es that he prefers it to the United States game. -.Parker was captain of last years Dartmouth- football team, which came through the season undefeated, and was conceded the United, States championship. Nevertheless, in an article writ-ten-by him for the current issue of the Oxford Magazine, he asserts that ne considers Rugby- to be a real sport while United States football has been reduced to a business "with much of ;the sporting side removed for the players." ~ ■ • * *i,„ After touching upon the size of tne 'crowds at American football games,the salaries of the.coaches, and the space allotted to the sport in, the newspapers, Parker, saidt "The game assumes far too great an importance in .the. minds of *oth public, and participants for the good of either—particularly the latter. Is it any- wonder, then,, that Americans who have played football and liked it, gradually come t»> appreciate . that Rugby is ■ essentially, a. game, and as euc-hj - provides pleasure and exercise sufficient for all-" ' , ■■- Football, with, a toll of eight deaths and-200 serious injuries in the United States, proved less fatal during the season just closed than in 1920, when 20 youths died of hurts received on tne gridiron. The badly injured numbered only 50 in 1925, however. The average age of youths who d ie d from football.injuries is again 19 years, as in the previous season. ■ ■ While formerly at ieast one man has died £ ach year on the gridiron, each death occurred in a hospital m l9<-b. A broken neck, once certain to cause death, was less fatal this year, three persons recovering from the injury. One youth, in upper New York, competed this season after suffering a broken neck a year ago. The bulk of major injunesthat forced players from contests for-three weeks or more consisted of broken shoulders, arms, legs, ankles, wrists, and ribs. Eegular physical examinations tended to "reduce the number of deaths resulting from physical defects.