NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1891 Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers . All rights reserved....

The progress of the sport of football in this country, and a corresponding growth of inquiry as to the methods adopted by experienced teams, have prompted the publication of this book. Should any of the suggestions herein contained conduce to the further popularity of the game, the object of the writer will be attained....

[P. stands for Princeton, Y. for Yale, and H. for Harvard.]...

Rugby football—for it is from the Rugby Union Rules that our American Intercollegiate game was derived—dates its present era of popularity from the formation in England, in 1871, of a union of some score of clubs. Nearly ten years before this there had been an attempt made to unite the various diverging football factions under a common set of laws; but this proved a failure, and the styles of play became farther and farther apart. Of the Association game one can say but little as regards its Ame

The end rusher must get into condition early. Unless he does, he cannot handle the work that must fall to his share, and the effect of a poor performance by the end is to produce disorder at once in the proportion of work as well as the quality of the work of the tackles and half-backs. This is not well understood by captains and coaches, but it is easy to see if one follows the play. A tired end rusher, even one who has experience and a good idea of his place, will lope down the field under a k

Those teams upon which the work of end and tackle has been best developed have, for the last few years, been markedly superior in the opposition offered to plays of their opponents. This fact in itself is an excellent guide to the style of play one ought to expect from these two positions. The four men occupying them are the ones to meet nine tenths of the aggressive work of the opponents. The position of end has already been dwelt upon at length. That of tackle, a position much later to reach t

The position of guard, while it requires less agility than that of tackle, can never be satisfactorily filled by a man who is slow. Many a coach makes this mistake and fails to see his error until too late to correct it. I remember once seeing upon a minor team a guard who weighed at least 190 pounds replaced by a man of 155, and the latter actually filled the position—greatly to my astonishment, I confess—in excellent fashion. This does not at all go to prove that weight is of no value in a gua

The man who may be selected to fill the important position of centre-rush must be a man of sense and strength. Brain and brawn are here at their highest premium. But there is another element of character without which both will be overthrown, and that is patience. Practical experience has taught football coaches that none but a thoroughly self-controlled man can make a success in football in any position, while in this particular one his disposition should be of the most equable nature. He will

The quarter is, under the captain, the director of the game. With the exception of one or two uncommon and rare plays, there is not one of any kind, his side having the ball, in which it does not pass through his hands. The importance of his work it is therefore impossible to overrate. He must be, above all the qualifications of brains and agility usually attributed to that position, of a hopeful or sanguine disposition. He must have confidence in his centre himself, and, most of all, in the man

As the game is at present played, the back is more of a third half-back than a goal-tend, and so should be trained to half-back work. It has been well said that all that one can ask of the best rush line is to hold the ground their half-backs gain; and when one follows carefully the progress of the play, he sees that this is the proper division of the work. The half-backs, then, must be the ground-gainers of the team. Such work calls for dash and fire—that ability to suddenly concentrate all the

When Rugby football was first adopted in this country, it was against a strong feeling that it would never make progress against what had been known as the American game. This old-fashioned game was much more like the British Association in a rather demoralized state. Not only was there no such thing as off-side, but one of the chief features consisted in batting the ball with the fist, at which many became sufficiently expert to drive the ball almost as far as the ordinary punter now kicks it.

[A] As has been stated elsewhere, improvements have been made in diet since this table was compiled. This will also apply to the Cambridge System, page 143....

N.B.—It is added "that the above rules are of course open to alteration according to circumstances, and the diet varied successfully by the introduction of fowls, either roast or boiled—the latter preferred;" and "it must never be lost sight of that sharp work, regularity, and cleanliness are the chief if not the only rules to be followed to produce thorough good condition."...

Breakfast. —Stale or whole-meal bread, or toast, a little butter, plenty of marmalade if you like, but not jam. Bacon and eggs, or chops or steaks, with watercress if obtainable. To those who like it, a basin of oatmeal porridge, properly made , taken with pure milk about an hour before breakfast, is an excellent thing, and has a very beneficial effect upon the stomach, but it should not be taken every day. It is better to miss it every third day, or to take it regularly for a fortnight and then

One author says: "Rise at six; bathe; take about two ounces (a small cup) of coffee with milk: this is really a stimulating soup. Then light exercise, chiefly devoted to lungs; a little rest; the breakfast of meat, bread, or oatmeal, vegetables, with no coffee; an hour's rest. Then the heaviest exercise of the day. This is contrary to rule; but I believe the heaviest exercise should be taken before the heaviest meal; a rest before dinner. This meal, if breakfast be taken at seven or eight, shoul

Seven o'clock is a good time for an athlete in training to rise. He ought to get a good dry-rubbing, and then sponge his body with cold water, or have a shower-bath, with a thorough rubbing afterwards. He will then go out to exercise before breakfast, not to run hard, as is commonly taught, but to walk briskly for an hour, while exercising his lungs in deep-breathing. Before this walk, an egg in a cup of tea, or something of the kind, should be taken. The breakfast need not always consist of a b

To come to the third agent of health enumerated some pages back, Sleep. As a rule, it is not a difficult matter to see that members of a football team take the requisite amount of sleep. There are occasions, as in college, when some society event of unusual importance tempts the men to sit up late, but with such exceptions as these there is no great difficulty experienced in making the majority of the men keep good hours. And this is growing more and more simple as athletics become more general,

How to Get Strong, and How to Stay So. By William Blaikie . Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. Mr. Blaikie has treated his theme in a practical common-sense way that appeals at once to the judgment and the understanding. A complete and healthful system of exercise is given for boys and girls; instructions are set down for the development of every individual class of muscles, and there is sound advice for daily exercise for children, young men and women, business men and consumptives. There are ins

Sound Bodies for our Boys and Girls. By William Blaikie . With Illustrations. 16mo, Cloth, 40 cents. A manual of safe and simple exercises for developing the physical system. Mr. William Blaikie's new manual cannot fail to receive a warm welcome from parents and teachers, and should be introduced as a working text-book into thousands of schools throughout the country.— Boston Herald. A book which ought to be placed at the elbow of every school-teacher.— Springfield Union. The directions are so s

Fly-Rods and Fly-Tackle. Suggestions as to their Manufacture and Use. By Henry P. Wells . Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. The book is one of great value, and will take its place as a standard authority, and we cannot commend it too highly.— Forest and Stream , New York. An illustrated volume, elegantly presented, that will make all anglers jealous of possession until upon their shelf or centre-table.— Boston Commonwealth. Mr. Wells's competence to expound the somewhat intricate principles

Upland and Meadow. A Poaetquissings Chronicle. By Charles C. Abbott , M.D. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. Delightful reading for students and lovers of outdoor nature.... Here the author discourses with the greatest charm of style about wood and stream, marsh-wrens, the spade-foot toad, summer, winter, trumpet-creepers and ruby throats, September sunshine, a colony of grakles, the queer little dwellers in the water, and countless other things that the ordinary eye passes without notice.... The book may be