Newspaper Page Text
I ,
1 me Mar
1 roof ball
BY BILLY MURPHY.
The football world Is roughly di
vided Into two parts and there- Is a
great deal of discussion nowadays
about the comparative strength of
Eastern football teams and those In
the West.
I I do not think there Is much dif-
I ference in these two sections of the
i country.
f Football has grown greatly in the
J West in recent years and the fre-
I quent chances In the rules have dc-
I prlved the Eastern football teams of
I much of the advantago which it
I might have had through a full use
I of the traditional methods.
1 Every discussion of the enhance-
J ment of the class of football in the
J Went leads backward to the vear
. J 1906.
jj It TPas during that season that
j1 there flashed across the Western
gridiron horizon the greatest half-
I I back the game has ever known.
j They can talk about their Hejtons
r ; Weekes. Thorpe. Chadwlcks. Poes,
H McCormlcks, Starbucks, Morleys,
Butterwortha. Browns. Hinckeys!
I Hudsons, Cooneys, Pishons, Snows
Cutts, Eckersalls, Hares, Dalys,
I I Spracklings, Thorpes. Coys and
I j Bulls, but Backer was greater ln-
. .. r,nltely greater than the best of
these.
I H M1e Murphy, the world's famous
H 'I trainer, now dead, for years tiled to
H v Induce Acker to enter Harvard, Pcnn
I ' ' or Yale, but the doughty star would
; 'r. not.
I ' J Acker was a member of that great
j St. Louis University team of 1Q06-
i H 7"s which ran through tho West
. like a modern Juggernaut.
J.; An Idea of the worth of that team,
thf! ereatrst ever assembled on a
football gridiron, may be gleaned
y some of the scores.
; Holla was beaten 12 to 0, Cape
'..'.sVi Girardeau 58 to 0. Arkansas 42 to
I ''.() Crclghton. 40 to 0, Washington
78 t( 0, Kansj IT to 0, and the
.j great Nebraska team, which was
!' v.I considered the best In the country
f-ilfal ot ,ts J'cars. 34 to 0.
:' r. J That St. Louis U. eleven was com-
: posed of intellectual giants, as well
' vil as physical prodigies.
' 'Vlvi Edward B. Cochoms. A. B., a
j graduate of the University of Wls-
' V.J consln and now director of Theo-
'M dore Roosevelt's Progressive Speak
I r .' rs' Bureau, was coach of the team.
i'VI Bradley Robinson, who threw the
Si ' J forward pass farther than anv man
'-"Wffl Wh CVr lived' wa" a hulfback on
I tnc team and a marvel. He is now
rJt&Bt ne oi tho most cmincnt physicians
ln the State of Missouri.
W$m Famous Physicians
SgEs Played on Team.
Dlcke Roche is another medico
agOi note, as one H. P. Depcw. Char-
wSj 'JT Orr'and Francis Eddie Murphy,
aTxlM lfte strategic quartcrba. k
Frank Acker Is head of one of
IgjjHQ the big hospitals in Denver; John
sS Schneider, the great halfback and
&ftSK hurler. Is another physician and
gwS surgeon; so Is Dr. Clarence Kenny.
SfjnB On the football field Acker was
BSK fupreme
BfflBl Talking of his potency and pow-
SHjfB; Arthur Zachrltz, the great St.
EMJgM Louis U. halfback said the other
Huh da f
ISB "To me there is no doubt what-
ev er that Acker was the Eddie Col
lins of football.
"His success on the gridiron was
due to his natural ability to out
guess the opposition.
"How many times have I seen a
tackier leave his feet, thinking sure
that he had Frank. hen the dust
cleared awa; Acker was down the
field, outdistancing all his pursuers.
"There never wis a player that
had all the football assets of Acker.
"He was chockful of what the
football coaches call " pep," with a
large "P" and was continually
doing the sensational.
"He was .really the star of that
greatest of all teams, the St. Louis
University eleven and Its wonder
ful backfleld. which composed Ack
er, Kenney, Sc hneider and Mur
ph. He was as essential to that
powerful combination as an en
gineer is to a locomotive.
Jp his time his offensive ability
was feared and his defensive abil
ity made him the marvel of the
gridiron
"Against Nebraska. Kansas and
Carlisle he particularly starred.
Acker was a 5 2-5 man in the
fifty. He welshed 185 pounds.. Ho
possessed arms that would have
done credit to a pugilist, or rather,
a wrestler. Acker had the use of
the stiff arm down to perfection
1 would rather have been hit by
Jack Johnson than Acker. Ho
owned a stiff arm in both his
right and left that Jolted like a
200-pound weight. Mind ou, that
'Is truth, not ono whit of exagger
ation. "Ask Billy Connett, who ha?
seen them all and who is tho
greaten authority In the West on
football. Ho will tell you the same
thing I do. Connett knows, and
beyond his opinion there is no ap
peal," concluded Zachritz.
Acker was born In Colorado.
His father was a French-Canadian
and his mother Irish, Just like
that other champion of the world,
Francis Ouiniet.
Acker stud:ed one year at the
Colorado School of Mines and
played football.
Bean His Playing
in Prep School.
He attended school two years at
St. Vincent's Acaemdy )n Los Ange
les, Cal , and plaed prep school
football while there.
From St. Vincent's ho went to
Wisconsin University for one year,
hut did not play the college game
there
The great Cochems. who revolu
tionized football that season,
brought Acker to St. Louis In M0b.
Acker played with St. Louis In
1906-7-8 and 9. In 1908. he was
badly Injured In a game with 'The
Little Giants of Wabash" and played
only one more game.
He left St. Louis In 1908 and went
to Denver University, where he act
ed as assistant coach.
Acker was a great student, always
making 90 per cent at St. Louis U
Scholarship always was first at the
blue and white school and athletics
second. 1
In 1910, Acker was chief surgeon
and physician at the Idaho Springs'
Sanitarium, and for two years made
Frank Acker and a group photo of tho champion 1007 St. Louis
University football team.
a great success at that Institution.
Acker's father and mother are ln
the frult-ralslng business and own
many orchards In Colorado. His
father also has a farm in Portis,
Kan
Acker three different times ln his
career with St Louis U. scored
touchdowns from kick-off. On. c in
the Roila game, once with Crelgh
ton and once iriih Washington.
Where can you beat that record?
In a game with Washington Uni
versity in 1907, Acker tallied eight
touchdowns and kicked twelve goals
after touchdowns.
Acker still holds the world's rec
ords for touchdown.
In his three years at the Blue and
White school. hi missed only two
goals after touchdowns, a record
that far exceeds that of the famous
Walter EcUersall.
Acker improved his natural abil
ity by his eagerness to study the
straiegy of the football Held.
Ho was built like Sanduw and was
a much better built and more pow
erful nian than the famous Helton.
Then, too, Reston never had ne-tr
the speed of Acker.
Those football critics who have
seen the two men In football clashes
pick Acker as infinitely the greater
player of the two.
Acker never In his career on the
r
' 1 9lC;o7 By
Victor C.Dry
Frank Acker, Terror of the Gridiron, Who
Played With Famous St. Louis University
Champions, Paved the Way By His Un- !
paralleled Ferocity tor Change in Rules,
gridiron was downed by less than
two men.
His method ln breaking tacklers
was entirely original and has never
been duplicated. He used Just a
short Jolt with his forearm and Im
mediately the tacklers would ie sent
sprawling over the turf. It was what
ln pugilistic parlance nuld be railed
a short corkscrew punch and noth
ing at all like the usual straight
arm, so much in voguc In football.
Acker's unoanns ability to get out
of a host of t.icklers was never bet
ter exemplified than in the game
with the wonderful Nebraska :na
. bine
Injun to Knee
Stopped His Play.
Acker started from behind his
own goal line, on a fake kick, and
ran through the visitors for a 75
yard gain.
Acker was hurt in the Waba-sh
game of 190S
He resorted to an on-side kick,
whli h 1 l.-mlgrave. thr great little
ciuarterback of Cayou's eleven,
missed.
Acker, whoa near the ball dove
for It. His foot slipped on the wet
Held, and he landed full weight on
ill? I ifiiu Miei,
He never regained its full
Strength, and tliat wia practically
the iast game of the greatest half
hack who ever stalked across a
gridiron.
Yes, there was only one Acker
and his fame will llvo forever. Ho
was a credit to St. Louis Univer
sity and its educators, for Acker
was as great in the schoolroom as
he was on the Held. His success in
medicine, Is a great tribute to his
tutors.
But more than all. Acker brought
fame by his athletic ability and
learning to that aggregation of foot
ball star, gentlemen and scholars
his comrades on tho CocheiXUl'
machine.
Wi iiidcrful athletes even one,
they have attained unusual heights
In their chosen professions.
All of which Is a great tribute
to football and to the Blue and
White school, for there never was
a finer set of fellows than tho men
who composed that wonder of all
gridiron wonder- the SI Louis
University team of five years ago.
It hos been proven tunc and
again by comparative p'.ores. that
the Blue and White eleven of that
years would have beaten Harvard.
Vale, Princeton ot any of the big
Eastern teams In the Orient, they
had not then attained, nor have
since attained, the ability of heav
ing the forward pass as was ex
ploited by Boblson and Schneider.
So preat was the ability of Acker
and so futile did bo render tho ef
forts of the opposition In his day.
that efforts were made to change
the football rules on his behalf.
Then those who wanted to see
him given greater scope for his
wonderful ability, r.UKgestcd that
tho gridiron be widened
Many were the sinuous runs made
by him that would have resulted
ln touchdowns or material gains
that were cut short by the side
lines.
The hlstdT) of legislation in mod
ern football really begun when the
whole country became acquainted
With the work of Acker and the
st. Louis University team.
In the Bast they were hurling
the football 25 and 30 yards.
At St. Louis University Bradley
Bobison was hurling the projectile
TO yards
Ho you wonder that the Bide and
White eleven was running away
from tho best teams In the West
and would have beaten the cham
pions of the East?
Tho remarkable development of
football ln tho West can be direct
ly attributed to the showing of that
great St. Louis University ma
chine. For many years the great East
ern universities held the center of
the stage and the Karnes at Har
vard, Yale, West Point, Princeton,
Pennsylvania and Dartmouth occu
pied pretty much the whole of the
llmc-llght.
Football had depended Inrprlv
upon the activities of the so-called
Big Four. Harvard, Yale, Prlncoton
and the University of Pennsylvania
Then came the St Louis Univer
sity team.
Footballs have been bounding
over gridirons for many weeks now
this early season.
But etmuarh his been shown to
prove that there will be no teams
this vear that can compare In
Strength with the great machine of
the Blue and White of the old days.
And there never will be another,
that will be able to compare with
It.
It was the greatest of the great.
We now have the kicking game;
tho passing game, the solid,
straight-playing game, the open,
daring, running game, and games
combining all these features.
Each of these systems dependi
largely upon the material at hand.
The open, fast running, daring
game, of course, demands fast
backs and ends; the kicking game,
a good "boot:" on the squad and
fast ends.
The passing game, the modern
forward pass artist, the combina
tion game demands natural cun
nlng and strategy both on tho part : j
of the players and the coach.
AM these essentials and attributes ,
were present, part and parcel of
the aggregation Acker, Schneider,
Bobison and .Murphy shone on.
Individuality and teamwork wera
there.
And forward passing and brain
and a lot of brains at that
made tho team unbeatable.
You football fanatics who crowd
the side lines today were born too
late
Modern football enthusiasts will
never see the equal ot the 3L
Louis University eleven of 190.
STENOGRAPHER OF ANTIQUITY I
One of the drawbacks attending
the effort wf desultory readers to
form an lmpresion of the mode at
life In antiquity is the disposition of
writers who attempt thulr enlight
enment to unduly emphasize par
ticular Instances, a practice which
leads to exaggeration Another
equally serious is that which under
lies the assumption that the ab
sence of evidence concerning meth
ods of doinsc things should be
taken to imply that they were not
adopted. This latter propensity is
responsible lor a great deal of mis
apprehension regarding the ancients
and has caused their accomplish
ments to bo greatly underrated.
An anomaly presented by the
modern judgment of the peoples of
antiquity Is the disposition to con
cede superiority to them in what
might be termed the superior at
tainments of man, while denying to
them the ability to do common
place things except ln the crudest
manner. We concede without
luc-stion thot their artistic genius
has not been approached by 'mod
erns, and that their great thinkers
and writers have not boon rivaled
in our own tlmejSj 'ut are prone to
k.. i i. . i .
duced great sculptors and archi
tects, and philosophers whose ide.i
We arc contcut to work over, were
mere children when it came to
practical matters.
There is perhaps np more signal
misconception concerning antique
peoples than that Involved In the
assumption that they were inca
pable of perfecting a tachygraphlc
svhtcm We ure told that short
hand was known to the Greeks a.i
early as 400 B. C, and that li the
early centuries ( the Christian era
and in the Middle Ages systems
were devised wheieoy words could
be expressed in Shorthand, but
those who have discussed tho mat
ter learnedly have left it to bo Im
plied that even the sorcalled notes
Of 11 Tulllns Tiro, the frccdman of
li sro, while they were undoubt
edly alphabetic In their origin,
lacked something, the Implication
being that they could not have been
employed as effectively as the; mod
ern systems-
And yet the olasslCS arc full of
allusions which suggest that no
matter what may have been the de
fects of shorthand, regarded from
a modern standpoint, the stenog
raph' rs of antiquity must huvc been
Vry expert Tn one of Horace's
satires he takes a fling at tt orother
poet who would often, as a great
feat, dictate 200 verses in one hour
standing In the same position.
Horace .says LucIHus of whom he
spoke, was verbose and too laiy to
endure the fatigue of wrltin?. He
may have been a sorry poet, bat
tho stenographer evidently knew
his business.
In considering the subject It II j
easy to fall Into the error of aim
ing that an approach to perfection
was only reached in tho clays of
Cicero, but there Is no other proof
than the lack of evidence thil
shorthand was not w Idely practiced ji
long before Cicero and Cac-ar came ,.1 B
on the scene. The critical his
tor lend have taken the liberty of ssf
sumin? that the speeches of gca-
. r.i h ii'l ri . I i..i I in a i rr,:...- .md i
the talks made by Ambassador!,
which are Invariably prcsenteJ M"
Llvy as if he were quoting v'r
batlm. were simply put into thelf
mouths by the Roman annalist, hut
there is no reafon whatever fr'r t,
such an assump' Ion . evep' the 13
trlnslc evlden ' slmllsrlty of
style. There certainly were short
hands capable of taking down
sneei h. und the sameness my
attributed to Llvy having tho same Mb
sort of liberty as a modern stenof- jjH
tapher who. if he Is an expert. In
stinctively edits the man he report
But whether Llvy wrote ,
speeches with which his history it
liberally supplied or not. It Is toler J Sj
iiblj ortaln that at a very arir
period speeches were reported am
that the uso of shorthand was very
common In Borne for several bun
dled years, so common, Indeed, t "1
ii became ne es-ary to regulate the g
price for teaching It to tbc i" Pf
number who took up stenograph
as a profession. Just how estcn
alvely the stenographer was ! "
ths ancient business world it wo"13
be difficult to say; perhaps not so
freely as at present. But In tfl
publishing of books be wan a
factor, for the practice waa iu
prevalent of dividing up a manu
script among many copyists ln 0 I !
der to insure expedition, and s
success an. niled this method IMJ
books In Home at- the beginning
our era were as cheap ns tin '
at present. W.thont the in'erp '
tlon of the shorthand man tn
hardly could have happened, unlf
Indeed, the Romans had found i
mechanical waj of multiply
copies, which certain fdi iw
may have been the case. j
