Evening star. [volume], September 25, 1937, Page B-1, Image 15

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1937. PAGE B—1
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FIRST GAMES RECALLED AS NEW FOOT BALL SEASON BEGINS
——___—_ _ __
(1) Hank Hardwick, new Navy coach (left) and Capt. R. F.
Du Bois. who plays guard, pictured during early practice at
the Naval Academy (Wide World Photo). (2) Air view of the
famous Rose Bowl during a foot ball classic <A P. Photo). (3)
Capt. Jim Isbell (left) of the 1937 Army foot ball team gets a
word of advice from Coach Gar Davidson as the Cadet practice
gets under iro.y at West Point (A. P. Photo). (4) Jim Schwenk,
veteran fullback, drives through a wide hole during Army
practice (A. P. Photo). (5) Exciting bits of action like this,
caught by the camera when a Stanford player took to the air,
arc high lights that make past season plays memorable (A.
P. Photo).
►
The Rutgers-Princeton Game on November 6,1869, Is Considered
the First Intersectional Game Played in This Country.
Twenty Million Will Watch Fall Contests.
BBy Mary Machin
Gardner.
ALL means foot ball! Twenty
million people will watch the
games played during the sea
son by some 4,000 teams from
high schools, colleges and universi
t'es throughout the country in amphi
theaters with seating capacities from
8 few hundred to a hundred thousand
persons. Less than 70 years ago the
first intercollegiate foot ball game in
this country was played between Rut
gers and Princeton, with 25 men on
e side, although foot ball had been a
.popular sport since early Colonial
"'days.
Foot ball, a game of very ancient
origin, was really ‘‘foot” ball until a
little over a hundred years ago. The
ball was always kicked, never carried,
until in 1823 William Webb Ellis, dis
regarding the rules of association foot
ball, caught the ball and carried it.
Thus originated ‘‘carrying the ball,”
the distinctive feature of rugby—the
Immediate forerunner of American
foot ball.
A memorial tablet has been erected
at Rugby in honor of this occasion
and of the player who, “with a fine
disregard of the rules of foot ball as
flayed in his time, first took the ball
in his arms and ran with it, thus j
originating the distinctive feature of .
the Rugby game."
How or when foot ball started is
i not known. A game of "kicking the
ball back and forth between players,”
although called by various names, was
played by ancient Polynesians. Eski
mos, Greeks and Romans. The me
dieval Italian game was called "calico”
and the Colonial Virginia game was
known as "camp ball.”
Foot ball was always popular in
England, and according to one writer
it was a favorite "after-dinner sport"
in the latter part of tHe twelfth cen
tury. Its popularity continued to in
crease until in 1314 the King forbade
the playing of foot ball "on pain of
imprisonment” because it was in
terfering with the warlike game of
archery.
'J'WO HUNDRED years ago foot ball
was “a useful and charming”
Winter exercise in England, and one
author describes the game as played
with "a leather ball about as big as
one's head, filled with wind. This is
kicked about from one to t'other in
the streets, by him that can get it,
and that is all the art of it." A w'riter
in the early nineteenth century adds
that "there are two goals 80 to 100
yards apart, and the object of each
party Is to drive the ball, a bladder
rased with leather, through the goal
of its antagonist." This writer closes
his explanation of the game by say
ing that "sometimes the players kick
each others' shins without the least
ceremony.”
Foot ball in seventeenth century
Virginia, according to old accounts
of Colonial sports, might be classi
fied as the “charming” sport of early
English days which “women and
young men doe play at. They make
their gooles like ours (the English)
only they never fighte nor pull an
other doone. The men play with a
littel ball, lettinge it fall out of their
hands and striketh with the top of
their foote. He that can strike the
ball fartherest winnes that which
they play for.”
Foot ball was an interclass sport
in many schools of the country for
several decades before the first inter
collegiate game, in 1869. Evidently it
was not a "charming” sport at Har
vard in the 1820s, for "the first Mon
day of the Fall term was known as
•bloody Monday,’ because of the cus
tomary game between the two low’er
classes on that day." The game was
played at West Point as early as the
1840s, and in 1850 the name of Cadet
Philip H. Sheridan w-as on tha d«
in vicinity of barracks.”
At Harvard and Yale foot ball was a
recognized interclass sport during the
1840s and '50s. The game was abol
ished at both schools in I860, but was
reinstated in 1872. Despite this action j
of Harvard and Yale, foot ball berame a ;
recognized intercollegiate sport in the ,
late 1860s.
rJ"RADITION maintaias that the Uni
versity of Virginia played intercol- j
legiate games under the old English
rules long before Rutgers, incensed by j
an overwhelming defeat at base ball.!
challenged Princeton to a foot ball
game. The Rutgers-Princeton game,
on November 6. 1869, however, is con
sidered the first intercollegiate game
in this country. Bcrause each side had
its own rules, special rules had to be
drawn up just before the game.
One of the many intriguing tales
about this first intercollegiate contest
maintains that as the first game was
played at New Brunswick, the rules fa
vored Rutgers, and that team won.
A few days later, in a return game at
Princeton, the rules again favored the
home team, and Princeton won. The
might-have-been result of a third
meeting of these teams is left to con
jecture, for “a decisive game was pre
vented by the two faculties, as it was
felt that it would tend to take the
students’ minds from their studies."
By 1875 Princeton. Columbia, Har
vard and Yale, as well as a number of
smaller Eastern schools, were regularly
scheduling games with each other.
The rules were usually a modified form
of those of the London Foot Ball As
sociation game, which was known then,
as now, as “association” or “soccer.”
McGill University of Montreal seems
to have introduced Rugby rules to the
United States at a game with Harvard
in 1874. Eager to continue playing
under Rugby rules. Harvard challenged
Tufts in the Spring of 1875 and Tufts
accepted, “to the joy of future genera
tions, as the mighty Crimson was low
ered in that game.” The Crimson rec
ords indicate that the Tufts team ap
peared on the field in uniform—the
I I 1 ' ' - j.
moi unuwi im u i/nii l/v uim in mv
country.
An example of the difficulties en
countered in early intercollegiate con
tests is found in the game between j
Harvard and Yale in the Fall of 1875 |
"Considerable diplomatic negotiations" |
were required to formulate rules for
this game, as Harvard played with
15 men on a team and strongly favored
Rugby rules, while Yale played 20 men
on a team and followed association
rules.
gY THE Fall of 1876 the need for
uniform rules was evident to all
the schools engaging in intercollegiate
games. Under the leadership of Prince
ton a meeting was called in Novem
ber of that year which resulted in the
formation of the Intercollegiate Foot
Ball Association. Although not rep
resented at the meeting. Yale adopted ,
the rules drawn up by Princeton.
Harvard and Columbia. Thereafter
each side had 15 players on a field
140 by 70 feet, with a referee and two
judges as officials.
Probably the mast radical depar
ture from the English game was in
determining the winner of a game.
Under association rules the victory :
was determined by the number of ;
goals and the touchdown was only an
incident in the play which entitled a
team to try for a goal. Under the ;
i new rules the game was decided by :
I the majority of touchdowns. One
I writer suggests that this basic change
in rules started a movement in the
American game that became one of
the features of the sport—the annual
changing of rules. This feature of
the annual meeting in 1880 reduced
the number of players to 11 men on
a side.
The Chicago Foot Ball Club is us
ually credited with having introduced
foot ball in the Middle West during
the early 1870's. Michigan organized
a team in 1878 and during the next
three years generally defeated the
nearby teams with which it played.
Probably the first Intersectional
games were played in 1881, when
Michigan made a trip East and played
With Variations Foot Ball Fias Been Played Since Ancient Times
by Many Peoples, Polynesians, Eskimos and Romans.
Medieval Game in Italy Called "Calico.”
Yale, Harvard and Prinreton. The
report of the three games, played
within a few days of each other, in
dicates that although beaten the
Michigan players gave a good account
of themselves.
The following year another East
West game was played when the Uni
versity of Iowa, represented by its
senior class foot ball team, played Cor
nell and won.
Other innovations in the foot ball
world besides intersectional games,
which continued to be played inter
mittently. were introduced during the
last two decades of last century.
rJ'HE first set of signals ever used
was devised for Yale by Walter
Camp in 1882. A dozen years later,
in 1894. a sequence of plays that were
run off without any signals were
worked out by Calvin Coolidge, then
student assistant coach at Amherst
Nearly three decades later the huddle
system of giving signals was introduced
at the University of Illinois by Coach
Zuppke.
In view of recent events one of the
most surprising bits in foot ball his
tory is that in 1884 Minnesota dropped
the sport for several seasons. The
1880s also saw the introduction of th<
"crouching method of starting th(
' backfield,” which was devised by
Coach Warner of Carlisle. Inter
collegiate foot ball games had become
' sufficiently outstanding events In the
; Eastern sports’ season by 1889 for
; Walter Camp to select his first All
i American team. In that year the
j members of the champion Princeton
I team "wore long hair, setting a fashion
I which prevailed among foot ball play
1 ers for many years.
By 1890 foot ball became recognized
as a major sport throughout the
country with the playing of the first
University of Washington and Wash
ington State College game. The year
1890 also saw the inauguration of the
Army-Navy games, which were abol
ished four years later by the Fed
eral Government on account of pub
lic sentiment against "the bloody
American pastime,” as it was called in
foreign newspapers. This opposition
probably resulted from the many
seemingly brutal plays worked out
on the flying principle of mass move
ment before the ball was put into mo
tion. The Government permitted the
resumption of the games between the
academies a few years later.
A game between Yale and Cornel
played on Thanksgiving day in 189:
was the first of these famous classics
| which now in some parts of the coun
t try are superseded by the New Year
' games.
| rj”HE disbanding of the Interoollegi
! ate Association in the early 90s
! left no official body with authority to
! make and inforce rules. Numerous
committees were appointed to consider
means for the preservation of the
game, but no satisfactory solution was
found. Criticism of the game con
tinued until after the 1905 season,
when the old game of "push and pull”
was so fiercely opposed in all sections
of the country that foot ball was
abolished at a number of colleges.
Realizing the gravity of the situa
tion confronting this sport. President
Theodore Roosevelt called a White
House conference of representatives
of Yale, Princeton, Harvard and Penn
sylvania and demanded that reforms
be inaugurated to save the game
which he so greatly admired. This
conference and a later New York
conference of representatives of 28
colleges resulted in the organization
of the National Intercollegiate Foot
Ball Conference, which later, upon
enlargement of the sphere of its ac
tivities, became the Intercollegiate
Athletic Association of America.
DISTRICT BAR EXAMS STIFF
"Flunks” on More Than Two Papers Require That Whole Test Be
Taken Again—Less Than Half of Candidates Pass
First Trial.
4 ________
By Miriam de Haas.
IT WAS not "Washington heat" that
made some 800 District hearts
beat with such anxious rapidity
toward the latter part of Au
gust. It was at approximately that
period that the lust of successful can
didates for the bar was due to appear
- In the daily papers, informing the
would-be lawyers for the first time
whether they had passed the Dis
trict bar examinations over which
they had agonized for three swelter
ing June days in the class rooms and
library of Georgetown University Law
School.
Those three days, however, were only
the climax of years of hard study,
of nightly delving into hffrd-earned
law-books after hours in the class
.* room and frequently, also, after a day's
hard work at the mere business of
earning a living and law- school tui
tion. For many, the securing of an
LL. B. degree had meant not only
three or four years in law school, but,
if they had attended the law schools
of George Washington, Georgetown
l or Catholic Universities, four years
i preliminary work in obtaining the
A. B. degree necessary to fulfill en
trance requirements for law school
Already, only at the beginning ol
their careers, these embryo lawyer;
had been for years painfully learning
the truth of the statement by the fa
mous jurist. Lord Eldon, that “tc
ncceed as a lawyer, a man must wort
like a horse and live like a hermit.”
The committee of District bar ex
emlners (now known as the Commit
tee on Admission and Grievances:
came into existence in 1863, shortly;
after the establishment of the Su
preme Court of the District, or the
District Court of the United States
for the District of Columbia, as it is
now designated. The committee orig
inally consisted of three members.
Later the number was increased to
five, then to seven and lately to nine.
John Paul Earnest, chairman of
the committee, has been a member
of the bar since 1889. Until recently
professor of • criminal law at George
Washington University Law School,
known and loved by thousands of his
“boys,” Mr. Earnest has been a par
ticularly loyal and active alumnus
of the university where he taught and
from which he received his LL. B.
and LL. M. degrees.
Lieut. Col. Walter C. Clephane has
also been a member of the commit
tee for many years. Obtaining his
LL. B. and LL. M. from George Wash
ington University Law School (or, as
it was formerly known, Columbian
College), Col. Clephane until 1935
taught pleading and procedure at
his alma mater, presided as a strict
but fair "judge” over moot court
sessions and the “cases” pleaded before
him by stammering young law students
and impressed his influence lastingly
on his admiring classes by his lec
tures in legal ethics.
The third member of the commit
tee to have served for a number of
1 years is John E. Laskey, who received
his LL. B. and LL. M. from Columbian
College and is now a professor of law
■ at Georgetown Law School.
. , Edward Stafford, also one of thi
senior members, has taught In local
N
law schools, and obtained his LL. B. in
1914 from George Washington Uni
versity.
More recent members of the com
mittee are Bolitha J. Laws, Vernon E
West, Charles F. Wilson. Edmund L
Jones and Andrew B. Duvall, all ap
pointed shortly before the December
1936, bar examinations.
CANDIDATES originally were exam
ined in one of the court rooms a
the court house. Later, from abou
1897 to 1900. examinations were hell
in the old "Rathskeller” in the base
ment of the then Civil Service office
at Eighth and E streets, where La ns
burgh’s store now stands. About 190
the commodious class rooms and li
brary of Georgetown University La?
School were made available, and th*
examinations have been conducts
there since.
Originally graduates of certain col
leges (Georgetown, Columbian Colleg
of Law, and later National Univer
sity and Howard Law School) wer
admitted upon diploma without beini
required to take an examinatioi
From about 1887 this practice wa
discontinued and all applicants re
qulred to submit to examination.
The extraordinary growth in th
number of law students and lawyers i
the District, as elsewhere, is indicate*
by the fact that in 1898 there wer
50 candidates for admission, as con
trasted with figures ranging from 60
to 850, approximately, at each of th
semi-annual examinations, given i
December and June, of the past se’
eral years. The proportion of wome
applicants has increased in eve
k
'r The yacht Sunshine, floating home of Walter Blount.
I
l greater ratio. As late as 1920, when
325 took the examination, only four
. applicants, or slightly over 1 per cent,
e were women, but in recent years the
percentage frequently runs from 8 to
. 10, or from about 50 to 70 women
j entrants at an examination.
1. The difficulty of the examinations
s and the high standard they set is at
- tested to by the fact that only 42 per
cent of the candidates were success
s ful in last June's ordeal, and of these,
i a number had taken previous examina
1 tions and failed. In 1920 about 70 per
s cent were successful.
Those who take the examination
l find that the examiners are exacting
e but fair. Two papers are given each
n day, covering several subjects in each,
■. and the questions are sufficiently com
n prehensive to allow little time for
n lengthy cogitation or mental excursions
I
V
back Into law school lectures, the
words of which more than one woebe
gone wight, chewing frantically at the
top of his fountain pen, wishes he had
treasured more carefully. At the pre
liminary statement made to the ner
vous gathering of applicants before
the examination, Mr. Earnest stresse*
the fact that time should be watched
and distributed carefully over the ques
tions, as one of the purposes of the
examination is to test not merely the
already-acquired knowledge of the ap
plicant, but his ability to reason and
formulate his statements under pres
sure. Those who desire to save them
selves the physical strain of writinj
in pen and ink for three solid dayi
have typewriters sent over for theii
use, but less hardy concentrators ar<
(See BAB EXAMS, Page B-3.)
HOME COMFORTS ON YACHTS
Two Washington Men of Affairs Live Afloat in All Seasons With
Conveniences Which Would Be Expected in Homes
of Conventional Type.
By Agnes E. Crivella.
HOW much more romantic and
exciting to go calling on such
nautical-spirited families as
the Allens or the Blounts,
who reside in yachts on the Potomac
River, than to visit with our close-to
the-earth neighbors whose lives are
apt to be less glamorous! Though
the life is a simple one, early to bed
and early to rise, these supposedly
seafaring folks find the surroundings
alluring enough to live there the
whole year round. Perfectly con
tented, they abide anchored, except
for the infrequent cruises that are
taken in company with friends and
relatives up and down the river, en
joying to the fullest extent their mov
ing abodes, which bring to them
those ever-present historical sites,
along with the enchanting river
scenery, beautiful, yet paradoxically
calm.
David P. Allen, distribution en
gineer of the Washington Gas Light
Co., and family make their perma
nent home aboard the Chicago, s
brown-colored trunk cruiser which
was originally intended for survey
work in 1916, thus built to accom
modate the Chicago district United
States Engineers, a branch of the
United States Army. It was trans
ported to the District of Columbia in
1922, for survey purposes in the
Chesapeake Bay, up until the time
of a competitive sealed bid in 1933,
when Mr. Allen purchased the vessel
He and family chose the following
Summer to move aboard and have
been there ever since.
Displacing 46 tons, the dimension!
. > V
are 83 feet 6 Inches, with 15-foot
beams, 6 feet 8 inches draft. It is
operated by a Wolverine engine, slow
speed, that weighs approximately
eight and one-half tons. There is a
gasoline radius of 500 miles, signify
ing that a long voyage would be out
of the question.
rpHE family crew consists of Mr. and
Mrs. Allen, daughter, Mary, a
senior music student at the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania this year, and
son. David, who recently matriculated
at Purdue University. The yacht is
moored directly in front of the Wash
ington Oftnoe Club, midway the width
of "Ole Man River.” There they stay
from May to September, when they
return to the Wilson Line dock for
the remaining few months of the year.
Deprived of no common luxuries, the
Allens have acceas to telephone, three
radios, city lights, running water, and
even a bathtub, all of this comfort
made possible through the medium
of submarine lines that extend from
the shore.
In case of such an emergency that
the city lights cannot be used or
while cruising, simply by a childlike
maneuvering of a switch electricity
becomes available instantaneously by
means of the installed electrical plant
in the engine room, the only failing
feature being the distracting noise
made from the process of generating
the batteries. This happens on an
average of once a week.
The private living quarters belov
deck are equivalent to a seven-roorr
apartment, and. Incidentally, thi
housekeeping routine there Is pretty
ft*
much the same as anywhere else, aays
Mrs. Allen, amiable and soft spoken.
Keeping In mind one of the chief char
acteristics of a yacht, that of the
optical illusion one invariably receives
at a comparatively short distance
away from the vessel, in relation to
its actual size, let us peek through
the portholes of the Chicago, so to
speak, for a sketchy view of its layout.
rPHE acme of simplicity! Peaceful
A oomfort, restful to ragged city
nerves. No startling modernism.
Beginning aft are two diminutive
cabins or sleeping quarters occupied
by the junior members of the family.
Each resembles the other in size, with
its built-in bunks against the wall,
and in the few practical accessories.
Next In order is the dining room,
moderate size, compact in every detail,
and bunks again on either side to put
up visiting guests.
From this room a ladder leads to
the deck. Since the motion of a boat
and intelligent utilization of space are
both prevailing factors that must be
taken into consideration, it is essential
to have built-in chests of drawers for
the silverware, linens and dishes, not
to mention the rimmed table, and
shelves for glassware. The galley,
small but complete, is equipped with
a combination coal and gasoline stove,
of benefit in both Summer and Winter;
a furnace that heats the entire boat
and a vast electrical refrigerator.
Most unpretentious and unassuming,
an alligator. “Albert,” a tiny facetious
looking reptile, floats and wiggle*
around in a small square pan here ia
(See FLOATING HOMES, Page 8-3.)
3