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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1907)
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN &he IPEAL COLLEGE GAME By DR. T. L. BOLTON f r pJwW - t My thesis Is going to bo that foot ball Is tho best of all known, .gamea; It is best for tho ' players and best for tho crowdsthat look on. First of all, football Is an amateur sport. While professionalism has crept into it at tlmea, the game has never boon successfully professionalized. It will not thrive except upon the spontane ous impulses of growing and develop ing young men. It is, therefore, an outward manifestation of tho pro cesses of growth itself. There Is something lnhorent in youth which makes it take to this form of bodily exercise and for this reason adults glvo it up while, their Interest In sports in general 'and in. some sports in particular remain undiminished. Tiuo Bports belong o youth for they require just thoo qualities of body and mind tlmt characterize the young spontaneity. , Tho bodily powers that are called Into requisition in good games are strength or sheer brute force, endur anco, agility, skill and nerve. Tho game that brings out these in tho beat proportion and tests them to their fullest limits is entitled to be called tho best of truo sports. Players in good games must match bruto forco with brute force and tho player who, when strained to the top moBt limit of his power BurpasBCB his antagonist who Is also at tho limit of his strength, Ib ontitled to bo called tho victor. Mere displays of bruto forco do not mako good exhi bitions and are not entitled to be called games; they mus,t combine other features Buch as endurance, ncilitv and skill. However, the con tinued popularity of tho mall machlno with the country bumpkins at tho county fair attests tho Interest that people take in exhibitions of strength alone. Endurance contests are much more attractive and furnish a higher degree of interest than displays of bruto forco. Long distance running, rowing and Bimilar Bports have a wide popularity that Is well deserved and the winner is looked upon bb possessing a more enviable endow ment than tho man of strength. Stlir a cross country run is a protty tamo affair for a crowd to watch and be cause of its highly specialized char actor it attracts relatively lew par ticipants. Tho whole 'history of sport shows most clearly that tho participants have takon parts both for tho benefit of themselves and of tho people who have watched; that is, they havo put up tho exhibition in part that they might bo observed by their fellows and, hence where the exhibitions havo proved unattractive to tho "hoi pollol," the number of participants havo been small. Tho object of a Bport is to reach tho limit ' of strength or power in one man and to show that this limit is greater than tho limit of another. Endurance games serve this end bettor than games of strength and hence their greater popularity. Agility meanB tho quickness with which movement can bo executed and skill covers tho variety of combina tions into" which movements may fall. It is not easy to Boparato the qual ities of agility and skill. Tho single offort contests of track athletics, such as jumping, vaulting, hammer throw ing, etc., combino agility and skill with strength and .brute forco. Tennis, basketball, baseball, cricket polo, etc., require skill and endurance in good measure or proportions with a rela tively small admixture of generalship. In fact it is tho small amount of generalship required in most of these games that places them in a class below tho highest. Cricket and polo are, perhaps the besjt of tho group. These games aTe pre-eminently games of Bkill. A consistent display of skill In the ,movomonts required is the prime requisite for wlnnng tho con test. Thebest example of a pure game of skill with no admixture of agility or endurance is billiards, "ft will bo easily seen how football sur passes any of these games, in all the respects which havo boen pointed out It calls for tho greatest amount of bruto force and endurance. "While these are important factors, tho game makes use of as much natural agility as any of tho customary track events and combines in tho highest practlco efficiency almost all forms of Bkill brought out in track sports. The forms of activity which are made use of are those that have been de veloped In primitive industry and social life. It employs only those movements that are fairly common to all men and that have now or have had some commercial or racial im portance. It, therefore, plays into tho hnndB of people as being of practical usefulness. Most plays that are and havo boon popular havo some element of rough ness; there Is in them Bome danger Of bodily injury. Wherever that Is brute- forco Is present, there are likely to bo scratches, bruises, the flow of blood and perhaps broken bones. Wherever a contest is carried to the limits of endurance and the exhaustion of one contestant Is the termination of tho bout, there Is bound to bo mental pain and suffering. Tho player who can forgot his scratches ond bruises, who can look with, com placency upon the flow of blood, who """"H H and so are dull generally to watch. It is in' the co-oporatlvo sports that intorest, both of tho contestants and tho onlookora rise most high. Tho ideal hero is always to bring tho greatest number of playqrs 'togothor at any or overy moment of tho tlmo and to havo soveraf "doing different parts and so supporting tho rost in one- conqorted action. Tho first con dition of simple united action is at tained best in rowing. Horo, how ovor, there is no variety of movomont and no chanco for displays of indi vidual prowess in view of tho sup porting action of tho group. Every .man plays his part and his part is the samo as overy other man's. All good games present situations wherein thero is a call for spontaneity of ac tion, where tho contest Booms to bo lost, and would be, if it wero not for the opportune appearance of a flayer who makes an exhibition of excep tional skill and hoad work. Thero must be somo chanco or some show of tho unexpected. A truo sport can not bo reduced down to tho level where each movomont on account of its exactness calls for a given amount of energy and so tho .contest is de cided in favor of tho side from which tho modicum of energy can bo tolled COACH "KING" COLE. EARL O. EAGER. Manager of Athletics. can bear up under his .suffering and stay in tho game in spite of the feel ings of approaching exhaustion, has a better chance of winning than ho who cannot. ThlB 1b where nerve plays a part It is not necessary that one player shall inflict intentional bodily injury To mako a game a good one, but all games that call for Btren uous endeavor and displays of energy and valor aro Bubject to accident wherein players fall 'down or strike one another and so do bodily injury. Such situations lend interest to the game by impressing tho onlooker with its genuine seriousness and in view of Buch a consideration tho player feels that he may have an occasion for displaying ono of tho most service able of primitive human traits, which U to bear pain without complaining or without leaving the gamo on that account. Games and sports are individual or co-operative. Ono individual may alone make a display of his strength, endurance, agility or skill. Ho may do this against an antagonist or sev eral Individuals may enter tho lists along any of these lines to discover which ono of them shall excel. This is the situation in most of the track events. Those events movo slowly a greater number of times. It la team work with opportunitlesfor the dis play of individual valor, agility and skill that counts for interest in games. Allthe players must bo able to get Into jpractically every play and a con-J siueraoie numoer muse nnu opportunity to distinguish themselves in their several manners. Polo, cricket and lacrosse, which aro very good games taken as a whole, are weak in popular interest 'for tho reason that the ad vance of tho ball and. the defense, of the goal so often falls upon ono or two players at a tlmo. Baseball has developed so far in tho direction of relying upon ono or two men that many games are now played in which seven pf, the men on tho. defense take only occasional parts and only one man on tho offense is most of the time in action. Somo sports, tennis and basketball for example, require too few players so that there Is not ac tion enough upon tho field. Of the debrutallzed games these must be. giyon a high rank, Now football dls-' tinguishes Itself in being the 'most highly co-operative by employing a considerable number of players;' most of the plays, both on offense and de fense, are made by all tho players and none of the plays require less than nine on oithor sido. Thoro is ovory- opportunity for displays of In dividual prowess momonts when tho gamo is anybody's , until somoono shows alortnosB onough to soizo upon tho situation and tufn "If 'b tho ad vantage of his Bldo. DosldCB all this it is a non-profosslonal gamo In all its oesontlals and it cannot bo mado anything olso oxcopt in n sporadic way. This 1b duo to throe circum stances, that aro especially promlnont In it; it requires n -dogroo of bruto forco and physical strength with their nttondant dangors and narrow oacapos from Injury which no othor sporta require oxcopt prizo fighting, bull baiting and tho hunting of wild ani mals In fordst Junglos. Bruto forco and physical strongth carried to tho limits of onduranco in tho highest practlco efficiency cannot bo ofes-. Bioiiallzed. Only Spontaneous youth backod by public intorost can ylold thom. It is a group gamo played by our boys or somebody's else boys In whom thoro Is personal Intorost and prldo and who represent loyalty to homo, stato and its institutions. And lastly it permits greater opportunity than any othor gamo for tho exalta tion of individuals who possess un usual merits in tho way of agility and skill or in tho way of their alortnosB to solzo upon opportunities or chances to aavo the day or win an apparently loBt cause. Under this last nolnt it may bo remarked furthor that tho public is interested in those who show resourcofulnoBB and aro quick to. dis cern and act Tho public is seeking thoso who display qualities that mark them for leadership. Not only do men like to mako kings of them selves but tho public Is on tho lookout for king timber. A good football team presents several rivals for tho throno. Thoro Is another point about foot ball 'It Is a ball gamo. Well, what about ball games? Why aro thoy hotter than othor games or moro truly sportllko? Horo wo shall havo to go back to history for an answor. Be fore doing so It may bo remarked that games whiclT-mako use of a ball or aro constructed around tho nriti. clplo represented by tho ball appeal more strongly to tho deopor lmpulsos of human nature than othor games. All games aro simply survivals of former useful custom that wore os--sontlal parts of tho social .order among our ancestors. Wo do for fun what our ancestors did In dead earn est and our moBt sacred institutions" will becomo tho sports of tomorrow. Somo of tho ancestral customs which survive In our games' aro tho indi vidual fights, which man waged with man over tho possession of booty or females, others aro tho horde and tribal fights among primitive Boclal groups and still others suggest tho chase wherein primitive man secured his food, clothing, etc. Tho last was a pivotal point in tho development of many of his Individual and social in tlncts. The ball is essentially tho v quarry which is the stake. As it passes from one player to another or goes from ono Bldo to tho oppo site side it symbolizes tho hare or deer that is started from ono corner, takes refuge in another, is again dls- lodged and sot racing in tho open It may bo that It is caught, or wounded, or winded; escapes and Ib rocaptured. But thoro is not only tho haro, thoro is tho wily onomy in the form of -a fellowman who eludes Ids captors. Then thero, arises tho shouts, screams and calls for help ' for the assembling of tho tribesmen to join again in tho chase. Those are situations that because of their Inti-. mate necessity havo stamped thom solves so indelibly upon the organisms and emotional lives of men that they are continually cropping .out although their usefulness is entirely departed. Men must invent situations which' will .. .arouse to active feeling these latent, emotions, Only in that way do our bodies get tho stimulations that will awaken their powers arid allay their obscuro cravings. Many of tho im pulses , that manifest themselves - -v