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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
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