FOOTBALL, 1902. By HARRY BEECHER. At the close of the football season of 1902 Yale had regained her supremacy by defeating both Princeton and Harvard-the former 12 to 5 and the latter 22 to 0-she earned an indisputable right to claim the championship of the gridiron. During the season no eleven beat the blue, and only one, West Point, succeeded in playing Yale a tie game. In general the season was marked by the same style of play as had been used by all the big colleges for the two previous years. Mass formations and tandem plays were used almost exclusively as groundgainers, runs around the end being employed only occasionally. As played by all the leading exponents it was a close and not an open game. A feature of the Fall was the development of De Witt, the giant guard of the Princeton team, as a kicker. Showing but little proficiency in that direction when practice began, he was rapidly brought forward and at the close of the football year was one of the greatest punters and drop-kickers ever seen on the gridiron. He could boot the pigskin for 60 and even 70 yards, and could drop a field goal from anywhere inside the 50-yard line. Princeton scored against Yale only by De Witt kicking a goal from the 45-yard line, a feat that had hitherto been regarded as almost impossible. Another prominent factor in the football world last year was the remarkable strength displayed by many of the smaller colleges. By engaging coaches from the big universities, some of the smaller elevens learned the game so well that in the early part of the practice season they were nearly as strong as the big teams. Notably was this the case with Brown and West Point. Brown gave both Yale and Harvard a hard tussle, and West Point scored against the Crimson in a close game and tied the Blue at 6. Dartmouth came to the Yale's Tandem Buck Through Harvard's Left Tackle. front very strongly toward the season's end. The New Hampshire boys, in their game with Harvard, had the Crimson beaten up to the last few minutes of play, and later they defeated the Brown eleven. Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania were great disappointments to their admirers. Columbia opened the season well, but soon fell off and was defeated by nearly every team she met. Had it not been for Captain Weeke's brilliant individual playing, the Blue and White would have fared worse even than it did. The Quakers sank from one of the "Big Four" to a second-rate eleven, and a poor one at that. They showed none of their old-time snap and strength, and went down in the majority of important games they played. The Annapolis Cadets also fell off considerably in the season. A peculiar feature of the year was that nearly all the games were played in weather more suited to baseball than football. In the Yale-Princeton game, for instance, the weather was so warm that the Yale giants lost an average of ten pounds per man. And the remarkable part of it was that in a week, under Yale's system of training, they recovered their weight and strength, and in the game with Harvard played even faster than they did against the Tigers. So snappy and aggressive was Yale's work in the big games that her eleven was by common consent put down as one of the fastest and greatest teams ever seen on the gridiron. For training the big colleges employed principles very much alike. The professional trainers brought the teams along easily, abandoning temporarily all hard work at any sign of overtraining, and working with the sole object of having the men on edge for the big games. In this all the trainers were unusually successful. Yale, Harvard and Princeton went into the final contests as fit as an eleven could be. Remarkably free from accident was the past season. In none of the big games was any man injured seriously, and throughout the Fall but few casualties were reported. Following is the summary of the season's work of the most prominent clubs, 1902: Won. 1881-Yale, 0; Princeton, 0. 1883-Yale, 1 goal; Princeton, 0. touchdown. 1885-Princeton, 6; Yale, 5. GAMES OF FORMER YEARS. Harvard-Yale. 1884-Yale, 6 goals, Harvard, 0. 1885-No game. touchdowns;|| 1892-Yale, 1 goal; Harvard, 0. 1893-Yale, 1 goal: Harvard, 0. 1894-Yale, 12; Harvard, 4. 1 1897-Yale, 0; Harvard, 0. 1886-Yale, 5 goals; Harvard, 1888-No game. Princeton-Yale. 1887-Yale, 2 goals; Princeton, 0. 11890-Yale, 32; Princeton, 0. 1886-Yale, 1 touchdown; Prince 1892-Yale, 2 goals; Princeton, 0. ton, 0. 1893-Princeton, 1 goal; Yale, 0. 1895-No game. 1896-No game. 1898-Harvard, 17; Yale, 0. 1894-Yale, 24; Princeton, 0. A touchdown is made when a player of one team carries the ball over the goal line of the opposing team. A touchdown counts five points and allows a free kick for goal, which, if successful, counts one additional point. A safety is made when a player is downed with the ball in his possession behind his own goal line. A safety counts two points for the opponent. A goal from the field is made when a player drops the ball to the ground, and, at the instant it rises therefrom, kicks it over the crossbar of the opponent's goal. A goal made in this way counts five points. A punt is made by kicking the ball after it has dropped from the hands and before it touches the ground. A kick-off is made with the ball upon the ground in the centre of the field. A goal cannot be scored from a kick-off. A punt-out is made by a player of the side which has made a touchdown to another of the same side. The latter is allowed to catch the ball without interference. The ball is down when the player having the ball is brought to a standstill or when he cries "down." A down is indicated by the blowing of the referee's whistle. Five yards must be made in three downs or the ball passes to the opponent team. A forward pass is made when the ball is thrown, passed or batted toward the opponent's goal. The penalty for a forward pass is five yards. A player is off-side when any part of his body is ahead of the ball when it is put in play. A football eleven is composed of a centre rush, right and left guards. right and left tackles, right and left ends, right and left half backs, quarter back and full back. A gridiron is a rectangular field, 330 feet in length and 160 feet in width. RUNNING THE BASES, ETC. Running the Bases-15 3-4s., C. Fulforth, Racine, Wis., May 22, 1879. Throwing Lacrosse Ball-497 ft. 7 1-2 in., B. Quinn, Ottawa, Ont., September 10, 1892. Kicking Football, place kick-200 ft. 8 in., W. P. Chadwick, Exeter, N. H.. November 29, 1887. Fence Vaulting-7 ft. 3 3-4 in., C. H. Atkinson, Cambridge, Mass., March 22, 1884. One-hand Fence Vaulting-5 ft. 6 1-2 in., I. D. Webster, Philadelphia, Pa., April 6, 1886. Bar Vaulting-7 ft. 4 in., T. C. Page, Gambier, O., May - 1881. Pulling the body up by the little finger of one hand-6 times, A. Cutter, Louisville, Ky.. September 18, 1878. Pulling the body up by one arm-12 times, A. Cutter. Louisville, Ky., September 18, 1878. Pulling the body up by both arms-39 times, N. W. Mumford, Cambridge, Mass.. April 2, 1888. THE AMERICAN TURF. In every By FRANK J. BRYAN, Associate Steward Crescent City Jockey Club. The year for the thoroughbreds has been one of the best in the history of American racing. part of the country where the sport flourishes, success has been attained in all departments. All records in the way of attendance have been broken, and the support has been of the class that means a development of the sentimental interest. As to the champions of the year opinions differ, and there are reasons that they should, for the question of supremacy has not been settled with the degree of satisfaction that we usually find. Among the two-year-olds the variation of opinion is especially marked. All Summer long the youngsters were repeatedly beating one another, which is proof positive of the lack of one that can be pointed to as a champion. It was hoped that the Fall meetings would bring the much sought for answer, but the hoped for failed to develop. The wonder of to-day was beaten when he next ran, and the wind-up of the season left the question far from settled. Among those best entitled to rate at the top of the list are Acefull, Irish Lad, Grey Friar, Meltonian and Eugenia Burch. With the three-year-olds the season's campaign came closer to bringing a champion. Hermis's great record during the Fall, and some of the Summer meetings, stamps him not alone the colt of the year, but one of the speediest and gamest that we have seen in recent years. Of his supremacy over those of the East there is no question, and the only doubts to Hermis. his claim to the title come with the prowess of the Western colt McChesney. The two never met, despite repeated efforts to bring them together, but practical horsemen, fair judges, that have seen them both at their best, are positive in their opinion that Hermis is the better stayer of the two. Major Daingerfield, owing to the great number of rich stakes he won, is certainly entitled to rank among the leading three-year-olds. Gold Heels was beyond all question the star of the handicap division. He met and beat the best, and under conditions that stamped him a colt far above the ordinary. season ended, and this will dull the lustre of his record some. and Brighton Handicaps, both of which he won. Unfortunately he broke down before the His best showings were in the Suburban Among the stayers' division Advance Guard stands out all alone. This horse has been kept hard at it since he was a two-year-old, and is to-day as sound as any horse in training. At all sorts of distances and under all sorts of imposts he has proved his prowess in a manner that leaves his claim to supremacy undisputed. With the sprinters the claims of Chuctanunda are equally convincing. He did not appear until the Saratoga meeting, but his record is a brilliant succession of great victories, and under the most trying conditions. Some have the idea that he is not alone a sprinter, but a stayer of merit, and there is no reason to dispute this claim. The fact that he was not asked to go a route does not prove that he cannot, for he did all that was asked of him in the most decisive style. Among the riders there has been a great scarcity of desirable material. Odom, Redfern and Lyne stand out in a class by themselves. Buins, Bullman, Shaw, O'Connor, Turner, Wonderly and several more have shown brilliant work times, only to drop back into an at ordinary rut that more than wiped out their credits. The only consolation for this lack of material is the great showing that has been made by the apprentice division both East and West. Their work bespeaks several clever horsemen for the coming season. Racing officials during the past season have also demonstrated, more than ever, that they are no respecters of persons in their rulings and punishment of jockeys where they have been satisfied a punishment should be inflicted. Riders for wealthy owners, and in many cases for members of the Jockey Club, have been treated with the same severity as that visited upon lesser lights. There has been no time in the history of the American turf when the compensation for good riders equalled that of the present. The earnings of several star jockeys are estimated at from $25,000 to $40,000 a year. The increase in the value of purses and amount of added money in minor stakes has proven a wise act on the part of the racing associations. The increase in crowds on off days, when good contests between some of the best horses in training can be witnessed, is in sharp contrast to those of other years, when only the cheapest kind of selling platers were, as a rule, the contenders. This has also proved a great boon to small owners, who have in the past found it very hard to maintain a stable upon the purses and stakes their horses might win, and which forced them to try and make up their deficit in the betting ring. The adoption of the no-recall system of starting by the Jockey Club at all tracks under its jurisdiction has proved, on the whole, a very wise innovation. While there have been many harsh criticisms at times upon this system, the wind-up of the season found very few horsemen and racegoers who would want the old recall system reestablished. The inevitable end of Morris Park as a race course, owing to the demands of Greater New York for more homes for its grow. ing population, has led to many conjectures as to what location would be selected to take its place. The Westchester Racing Association recently announced its plans for building a track in Queens, L. I. If the plans submitted to the State Racing Commission are carried out this will prove to be one of the most complete and elaborate race courses in the world. Chuctanunda. American horsemen have signified their intentions of improving upon their stables on the other side of the Atlantic. During the past two years Americans have had much to discourage them in sending over horses which, in many cases, were the pick of their stables. Mr. W. C. Whitney's Nasturtium and Mr. James R. Keene's Tommy Atkins are examples of noted horses that could not stand the hardships entailed by an ocean voyage. But the coming season will see several American owners represented by horses bred in their own country. Another and a very pleasing development of the year has been the new blood that has been brought into the list of owners. Rich men in all parts of the country have started to collect racing establishments on a high scale without the idea of profit. They are patronizing the game solely through sentimental motives, which means the best sort of support. Society women have been induced to race under their own colors, and this particular feature bids fair to develop greatly. All considered, the year furnishes many bright prospects for the future. The turf powers of the entire country are fast attaining the end so much desired, the lifting of the sport to a basis where it can be pointed to as an institution that all can be proud to support. The following are tables of the stake winners of 1902, stake winners of the past, and of famous or important racing events: PRINCIPAL STAKE EVENTS OF 1902. Second place. Maj Daingerfield. Blue Ribbon. Corrigan. Colonial Girl. Vassal Dance. Golden Maxim. Lord of the Vale.. Artvis. Mizzen.. Aladdin. Savable. Lord of the Vale.. Scarlet Lily. Third Sir Voorhies. Doreen. Prowl. Maj. Daingerfield. Prediction. Mexican.. Stolen Moments. Flora Pomona. |