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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1899)
it. MiiiMIMMMWhWrfliMIWIM THE NEBR ASK AN -HESPERIAN Vol. 8-29, No. 12. LINCOLN, DECEMBER 5. 1890. Five Cents. LOSE TO G1UNNELL. Muddy Field Largely Responsible for Thanksgiving Day Detent- Small Crowd. Nebraska finished the foot ball sea son Saturday in Omaha with a defeat at the hands of Grlnnell colloge to the tune of 12 to 0. The day was one that will long be remembered by the lovers of the sport in this state. Dark, cloudy and damp in the early morning, rain and snow throughout the forenoon, mud ankle deep and a wind bleak and cold in the afternoon, tells the story of the weather situation. And it was all because Director Loveland of the weather department insisted upon ac companying the team and then desert ing them at the wrong time. From the standpoint of interesting sport, foot ball was out of the question. The men with the smallest feet sank the deepest and found the most trouble in getting started. This is one of the causes of the defeat. Nebraska wants a dry field and a dry ball. Had these conditions been obtainable "Saturday it is safe to say that the result would have been vastly different. But whatever the relative strength of two .teams may be under favorable con ditions, there is little doubt but what brlnnell had the most effective team yesterday in both attack and defense. The lowaus proved all through the first half that they would advance the ball consistently by running through and around the ends, even in a mortar box. During the first half the ball was push ed along almost wholly by running, but during tne latter half when the fight was almost entirely on their ter ritory they invariably punted the ball a.'ter receiving it from their opponents. The crowd was small and no one is to blame for this except the weather man. Everybody that came tried to make all the no'se possible, and was successful in the attempt. A few root ers for the scarlet and cream were in the grand stand with a variety of yells at their disposal that would fill an or di.ary book. Had the day been like its immediate predecessors equally as many thousands as there "were hun dreds -would have witnessed the con test. The coin was tossed at 3:30 and fell Grlnnell side up. Captain Burd took west goal and two minutes later Bene dict, sent the oval to Lindsay, who brought it up the field for seventy yardB. Then Grlnnell started a series of plays that gained yards on every down, and if Nebraska counted on her superior weight holding the Hawk eyes she cerla'nly began to realize that she reckoned without her host. Tane after time did LindBuy, Lyman and Burd skirt Nebraska's endH and force their way through her line. It began to look as if Grlnnell were going straight for a touchdown without Ne braska's consent or permission, when Branch's men took a decided stand and secured the ball on downs. Benedict made a nice ga'n of four yards, and then through a fumble Grlnnoll once more recovered poBsesBion of the cov eted ball. Lindsay, Lyman, Douglas and Taft each carried the ball for sub stantial gaiiiB, and then Burd kicked to Nebraska's ten-yard lino. Benedict hero kicked to Flsk, who returned the ball to Nebraska's twenty yard line, and after a series of plunges Lyman carried the ball over Nebraska's goal for the flrBt touchdown. Things looked decidedly Grlnnell at this time, as twelve minutes of time had hardly elapsed. Benedict kicked to Lyman. Hunter tackled and once more the game was on. Then came another series of j bucks, losses and downs and kicks. Grlnnell lost the ball on Nebraska's ten-yard line. Benedict kicked to Fiske, who circled Nebraska's left end for thirty-five yards and a touchdown. Wheeler kicked goal, making the score 12 to 0 for Grlnnell. A half minute be fore time was called for the first half Benedict made an unsuccessful attempt for goal from field. Wheeler started the second half by kicking to Nebraska's ten-yard line. Benedict got the ball and started up the field toward Grinnell's goal, when he met Theil and stopped. Here Ne braska showed the stuff that was in her. She took a stubborn stand, and when the lowans had secured the ball on downs they were unable to repeat j the feat of the first half, and found many difficulties in trying to circle Nebraska's ends or get through her line. Time after time did Nebraska buck Grinnell for gains, and it began to look as if Nebraska would surely score, but Grinnell took a stand and Burd punted out of danger. Grinnell was never able to take full control of the field again, and after thirty-five minutes of the hardest kind of playing, under the worst conditions, the Thanksgiving game for 1899 at Omaha closed, with the state team of Nebraska humbled by .U? opponents from across the hills. The line-up: Nebraska. Grinnell. Drain left end Lyman Pearse left tackle .. Fellows Brew left guard! .'. . . Cap'ron Koehler center Wheeler Ringer right guard .... Thiol estover right tackle. ...... Taft Wallace. Crandall ....quarterback. ... Fiske Benedict nght half..'..'. Lindsay Hunter lert half Burd Kingsbury ....fullback Knapp Superintendent C. G. Pearse, who is one of the most enthusiastic devotees of the gridiron, says of the game: "Nebraska adds one more to her string of defeats for the year. Only one victory -against Drake university at Des Molne3 has broken the succes sion. The team was nearly all made up of raw men and the season lias not been long enough to shape them up to meet successfully the neighboring teams, all composed mostly and some nearly all of veteran material. Grin nell's team today, with five or six men who are playing a fourth year and three or more playing the third year, was stronger in all-round play, though Nebraska should have made one touch down against Grinnell's two. "'Shorty' Wheeler, center, was the bright, particular star for Grinnell. In a morass of mud spherical men have the advantage, and Wheeler and his neighbor at guard nearly answer this deser'ption. His passing was sure; he broke through and blocked kicks and waB down the field on punts almost aB soon as the ends. He kicked two not very difficult goals. The team had no other stars. AJ1 played good, hard foot ball, clean, except a tendency to hold Nebraska's ends. u "For Nebraska Benedict's play was handicapped by the soft mud. He made ! good gains on line bucks and end runs, but kicked no goals. One place klok I wad true, but the ball war, heavy and I fell short one was blocked one went i wrong. I'earse played a great game in tackling and interference and made frequent three, five and eight-yard 1 gainB through the line. Kingsbury and Hunter made good gains through the I l'.ne. Crandall tackled finely and got into all the playB. Brew made several 1 groat tackles, several t.lmeB getting the ! man with the ball for a Joss. Cortel- lyou got down well under punts and I tackled hard. Both tetima put up a plucky, lively game on a very bad field." STATE THEIIt POSITION. Athletic Hoard Explains a Few Facts Concerning the Management of Sports. The following statement has been Issued by, a committee of the athletic board appointed to defend certain stops of the board: "At various times during the foot ball season just closed articles have appeared in the public press in which grave charges have been made against the athletic board. The evident pur pose of these articles has been to preju dice the student body und the public against control or supervision of col lege athletics. The board therefore feels that it is due to the students and friends of the university that a state ment of its policy and of sucn results as have been attained be made public". "It is well known that until within a comparatively recent period ath letics, not only at the University of Nebraska, but throughout the west, had been managed, or mismanaged, in such way as to bring us into general disrepute. As to the University of Nebraska, under the old management, affairs were conducted in such extrav agant and unbusinesslike manner that the business houses, both in Lincoln and abroad, lost confidence in the man agement and in the institution and it became impossible to secure credit At that time there was no system or con tinuity in the management of the se" eral athletic teams. Each team wa3 managed without regard to any othrr, and each season was conducted with out regard to the debts incurred in past seasons and with no thought or those to come. To give but one in stance, if is said that at a time when other departments of athletics we-c staggering under heavy deficits, a Hiir plus unexpectedly accruing to one team was divided among those in charge of the season. No accounts were kept, or if kept, were submitted o do auditing cr supervising authority and when tills incurred in one reason were pre sented for payment in subsequent sea sonfa there were often no means of as certaining their correctness or valid ity. There was no check upon ex travagance and waste until in later years Impossibility of obtaining credit operated in that direction. Again pio fess.'onalism was rife. Not only were paid coaches allowed to play on the teams in many cases, but players came to the Institution aftei acquiring a reputation in smaller colleges and se cured places on our teams, though in no strict sense members of the uni versity. In th!s manner genuine stu dents who had served an apprentice ship upon the scrub team, in the hope of some day securing a place, were discouraged and retired in disgust as they discovered that the management had no intention of giving them a chance. It was very rare in those days to have a scrub team after the first three weeks of the season. . This condit'on, to be deplored on all grounds, had two especially unfor tunate results. In the first place, whenever better Inducements were of fered elsewhere these players, being attached to no particular institution, not Infrequently migrated, and as no players had been trained in the insti-J tutlon to take their places, the open ing of the foot ball season too often saw a most unseemly scramble among managers to procure coted players. We need only mention the well known Baker university team of 1893, which another year appeared substantially as a whole under the name of another institution. In the second place, the encouragement even indirectly of such floating players was rapidly giving rise to a class of semi-professionals with their several coteries of admirers, giv ing us on a small scale the state of af fairs which obtains among professional base ball players and prize fighters. "The disrepute into which western athletic teams was coming by reason of these circumstances led the board of regents to establish an athletic board under its authority, and to com mit to it the absolute control of all public athletics at the university. Al though something had been done pre viously to mitigate the evils above mentioned, they still confronted the athletic board when, one year ago, it determined upon a firmer policy, which it has endeavored with more or less success to carry out consistently. The policy outlined at that time was, flrftt, to put athletics on a sound financial basis; and, second, to purify them by a closer attention to the personnel of the various teams. The first has been successfully accomplished. The strict est account is kept of all receipts and expenditures, and it is impossible for money to be devoted to any improper end or for waste or extravagance to be indulged in. A year ago at the close of the foot ball season the board found itself owing a coach some four or five hundred dollars and with unpaid bills of one or more past seasons, for which it felt morally obligated, confronting it sufficient to make the total indebted ness about double that sum. By adopt ing the business-like course of requir ing this sum to be raised or pledged by friends and students of the univer sity before entering upon the liase ball season, and by careful and economical management during that season and the foot ball season just closed, for al most the first time in the history of athletics in the university, every de partment of athletics was made free from debt. The merchants of Lincoln appreciate, though others may not, the results of this new policy in financial management. "The second object of the existence of the board, that of purifying ath letics, from the nature of the case and by reason of the opposition it excited, has not been so successfully carried out It is difficult for many to under stand that the transition from a school of four or five hundred students to a university of approximately two thou sand has made it impossible to pur sue the lax methods of the past, found ed on the fact that everyone knew the status and standing of every student It is no longer possible for the student body at largo nor for members of the faculty to know merely from seeing him about the university whether a given person Is a regular and bona fide student or not. One player, for Instance, hung about the institution for two years without succeeding In obtaining credit for one-fourth of a semester's woric and without any in tention of being a student in the proper Bense of the term, and when ho pre sented himself as a candidate for the team at the beginning of the third year there were few who were aware that he was not in ordinary standing. The board has been criticised tnoBt se verely in this particular instance by many persons, some of whom have Btatcd, when their attention was called 4