FOOTBALL MATCH ON PRIZEFIGHT LINES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 442, 28 November 1908, Page 3

FOOTBALL MATCH ON PRIZEFIGHT LINES.

Seventeen Players Rendered Unconscious. The most brutal exhibition of ferocity ever seen at a football match in America took place at Schenectady, near New York, on Saturday, October rolh, at a match between the Wesleyan University and the Union College. A keen rivalry had long existed between the football enthusiasts of the two institutions, and the reresult was that the match became a prize-fight from start to finish. Seventeen players were rendered unconscious, and had to be removed from the field. In five cases the injuries were so serious that the men had to be taken in ambulances to the hospital. These included Captain Brown, of the Union College, whose collarbone was broken, and Captain Hammond, of the Wesleyaus, who was suffering from concussion of the brain. One doctor attended the match in his official capacity, but ten minutes after the beginning affairs had become so strenuous that three other doctors had to be called in, and for the remainder of the game the four medical men were kept as busy as on a battlefield. Many women who had relatives among the players fainted and cried, but all efforts to moderate the fierceness of the combatants failed. Every scrimmage was the scene of indiscriminate kicking and punching against which the stout leather armour worn by American footballers was powerless.

When the game ended all the substitutes available to both elevens had been called in. The result was a draw. Neither side had kicked a goal, so busy had they been in kicking each other. Both teams issued challenges for another match, but it was unlikely that the authorities would allow