AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 219, 5 December 1927, Page 14

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

GAMES AT HONOLULU MR. S. S. DEAN’S IMPRESSIONS

Mr. S. S. Dean, chairman of the Management Committee of the New Zealand Rugby Union, who returned from a trip to Honolulu last evening on the Aorangi, said that the enthusiasm for the game is immense. “What delights the crowd most of all,” he said, “is when the players get injured. I saw one match between two schools, which drew a crowd of 15,000. Each school had its own stand. “Two girls, each dressed in the schools’ colours, led ditties which were sung heartily, and two men led the rival cries.” Mr. Dean said that at another match he witnessed, five men were carried off to hospital and there were continual stoppages because of minor injuries. Although the teams played 11 aside, 28 members of one team arrived on the ground and 32 for the other. REVOLVER FOR WHISTLE There were four officials for each team on the field and two checkjudges on the touch-line. The timekeeper used a revolver instead of a whistle. Mr. Dean says the object of the game is for a player to get a touchdown. When a member of one side makes a run, a fellow team-mate falls in the way of the members of the opposing team. During his stay in Honolulu Mr. Dean got into touch with the Waratahs and if it can be arranged the New South Wales team will play a match at Honolulu on the way home. He is most enthusiastic about Hawaii and the joys of holiday-making there.