It is proper to call it our game,for the rea­son that Foot-ball, as you will see it played to-day, is pecu­liarly an insti­tu­tion of Amer­i­can Col­leges. From the time, how­ever, that man’s con­struc­tive genius evolved a large but airly light sphere, he has delighted to kick and chase it about in rivalry with his fel­lows. There­fore, Foot-ball, as a game, is not ours either in the sense of Amer­i­can or mod­ern. We read of games in the Mid­dle Ages, in which hun­dreds of men par­tic­i­pated, and the bounds of which were miles apart. Who has not laughed at the descrip­tion, in “Tom Brown’s School-days,” of the game into which the silk-hatted, gold spec­ta­cled grad­u­ates rushed-forgetful of dig­nity and clothing-remembering only the glory of their school and the intox­i­cat­ing delight of the game. Show me the boy or man even — indeed I will add old woman — who can see a foot-ball rolling tempt­ingly near the foot and yet feel no desire to kick it, and I would advise the con­sult­ing of some sen­si­ble physi­cian. But it would be well to speak only of our game. Among the spec­ta­tors there is undoubt­edly a large minor­ity who know actu­ally noth­ing about the tech­nique of “Inter-Collegiate” Foot-ball. Prob­a­bly half of the remain­der know just enough to arouse their curios­ity, and many of the other half feel that they do not know it all. Hence it does not seem untimely to describe the game in such a way that any, so desir­ing, may, by care­ful read­ing, know and enjoy Foot-Ball better.

THE GROUNDS
You will see, spread out before you, a field enclosed by white bouandry lines. Its length is 330 feet — its breadth 160 feet. Width-wise across this field you will see other white lines, drawn par­al­let and exactly five yards apart. Three of these “five-yard” lines are marked more heav­ily than the oth­ers. These are twenty-five yards from each end and the one in the cen­tre of the field. The end lines are called the “goal-lines.” In the cen­tre fo the lines you will see two posts twenty feet high, eigh­teen feet and six inches apart and con­nected ten feet from the ground by a straight bar. This-H like struc­ture is called the goal.

THE TEAMS
If you are prop­erly enthused, you will expe­ri­ence con­sid­er­able excite­ment when the teams come on the field about two-fifteen. Until the game is called there will be about twenty men at each end of the field, warm­ing up by pass­ing the ball, falling on it and kick­ing it. When it is time to play, how­ever, eleven only of each side strip off their sweaters and assem­ble at the mid­dle of the field. The con­ven­tional method for these men to line up on ordi­nary plays is as fol­lows: Seven of them, called “Rush­ers,” stand in line to pro­tect he “Backs,” who are the other four men. Of the Rush­ers, the man in the mid­dle is known as the Cen­tre Rush, and is the man to put the ball in play. On each side of him are the Guards — the one on his right being known as Right Guard, the other as Left Guard. The next man on each side is known as a Tackle, and the end men are known respec­tively as Right and Left End Rush. Of the Backs, the man who plays directly behind the Cen­tre Rush and takes the ball from him when he snaps it back is know as the Quar­ter Back. The other three backs stand in a line about five yards from the Rush­ers and are know respec­tively as Right and Left Half Backs and Full Back.

THE OFFICIALS
Con­sist of a Ref­eree and an Umpire. The prin­ci­pal duty of the for­mer is to watch the ball — tell to which side it belongs, how many downs it is, how far to gain, and whether the ball has been prop­erly put into play. The Umpire must watch the play­ers — keep them on side, pre­vent unfair hold­ing, decide with regard to the fair­ness of inter­fer­ence and pre­vent bru­tal­ity by send­ing from the field all men who strike, kick, throt­tle or are unnec­es­sar­ily rough.

THE GAME
When it is nearly time for the game to begin, the Ref­eree calls the two Cap­tains together and, by flip­ping a coin, deter­mine which team shall have the ball at the kick-off. The Cap­tain who does not get the ball always has a choice of the goals, and usu­ally chooses to defend the one from which the wind is blow­ing, so that the kick­ing may be more effec­tive. The Ref­eree now placed the ball in the exact cen­tre of the field, and the team hav­ing the kick-off forms itself into the shape of a V, with the apex over the ball and a man stand­ing in the angle to run with it behind the pro­tec­tion of his V. The Ref­eree asks each Cap­tain if he is ready and then shouts, “Play!” The game is now begun and con­tin­ues an hour and a half, with a rest of ten min­utes in the middle.

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