Cleveland High School - Beacon Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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o FOOTBALL AS I SEE IT OOTBALL to the uninitiated, presents the amazing spectacle of a multitude of capering lunatics cheering a free-for-all m the mud. This of course, is inaccurate. It may be only a trifle in- accurate, but it is inaccurate. The game of football is much . more complicated than that, or so they tell me. I can well believe it when I read articles in the papers about the changing and rechanging of rules that nobody knew anything about, an ' vay. Also football. I am told, is a very scientiflc sport. The science consists in introducing dark and devious maneuvers into the game, which are ' tended to DU le the opponents and the spectators so that in the confusion the ball can be taken across the goal hne. Sometimes the maneuvers succeed and sometimes they do not. but invariably the man with the ball gets the worst of it. There is a great deal of excitement attendant upon a college or high- school football game. The spectators all bring brightly colored thingama,igs and wave them franticallv whether their side is winning or losing. If their side is winning thev cheer triumphantly. If it is losing they cheer anyu-ay. Each side has several young men who are known as cheer-leaders. These young men have very powerful lungs, and are apparently double-,ointed. 1 hey are interesting to watch but quite painful to listen to. Before the game each side parades around the field to a musical accompaniment. I do not get the exact idea of this demonstration, but I presume that it is intended to frighten the other team and make it wish that it had gone to a movie instead. However. this theorv is not substantiated by the authorities. As seen from the stands the game itself appears very simple. The teams line up. one at each end of the field, and. at a giv-en signal rush fo rd the individual plavers proceed to do things to each other that would get them Irrested if it were an vhere else but on a football field. Occasionally new players will be sent in ' and the wounded carried out. not with lamentations but amid loud encouragement from the stands. I have tried to figure out why football is so popular. Tiddly vinks or sohtaire require so much less time and effort, but the majority of people prefer football. This is a great puzzle to me. and the only explanation that 1 can offer is that perhaps people Hke football better than tiddlywinks or sohtaire. William Reiley. ) Page Eighteen .

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ICE HOCKEY I » I ' I ' HE origin of the game of hockey is obscure. The fighting M -■- Romans enjoyed a pecuhar game that was most hkely the pre- J j cursor of hockey. The old original Scotch shinty was played • .. — on hard sandy beaches with two to three hundred players on — each side. I ' heir equipment for the game consisted of heavy war-like clubs used as shinty sticks and a small rock served their purpose for a puck. The players would try to send the puck past a certain line or boundary. The side succeeding in doing so was winner of the game. You probably can imagine the number of casualties in a game of this kind with so many players on each side. The first developments of modern hockey probably were in Canada about 1880. To a few colleges in Canada the game of hockey owes its present state, on this side of the Atlantic. These colleges organized teams and played against each other. The game played then was very simple with very few rules. Equipment at this time was that which the players saw fit. Hockey was soon introduced in the United States. Colleges and schools throughout the country organized teams and schedules were made up for each year. Artificial rinks are now found in most of the large cities of this country. Teams are outfitted with complete uniforms according to regulations. The puck and hockey sticks are made to a certain standard. According to present rules each team has si.x players: center, left wing, right wing, left defense, right defense, and goal keeper. The rink is one hundred and twelve feet long by fifty-eight feet wide with a goal placed at each end. The goal posts are six feet apart and four feet high, covered with a net. The puck, a piece of solid rubber, is one inch thick and three inches in diameter. The game is played for three fifteen-minute periods with short intermissions. At the beginning of the game the puck is placed between the opposing centers. At the call to play! on the part of the referee, both teams endeavor to drive the puck down to the opponent ' s goal. The puck is passed from player to player of the team in control until either side succeeds in passing it between the goal posts. Each goal counts for one point. Hockey is a scientific game. The secret of a team ' s success is combination play, in other words co-operation and unselfishness. Hockey is known as the fastest game on earth. For real excitement and shrill, it is worth while to see a flashy hockey game. Louis Schmidt Page Sei ' enteen d PPl h s 1 1

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AMERICAN INDIAN SPORTS HE American Indian, besides being a great fighter, was also a great sportsman. Perhaps you may think that this is absurd. However, the Indians were a very jolly people when they were not warring with anyone. The young braves played ball with a deerskin ball. The limb of an oak or hickory tree served as a bat. These games would sometimes last for whole days. The squaws and those men who were not able to play stood on the side lines and cheered for their favorites. The smaller children flew their kites, which they made out of fish blad- ders. They would also spin their teetotums in competition with one another to see which one could keep his spinning the longest. A teetotum is a toy which is used in games of chance. Games such as tag, hide and seek, and blindman ' s buff were played with great excitement. The girls enjoyed play- ing with their dolls in such leisure hours as they had. The boys and girls were equally fond of making mud pies, each one trying to make a bigger and better pie than the others. When the boys became old enough they were taught to shoot with the bow and arrow. Contests were held in which the braves attempted to split a willow wand in two from amazing distances. Contests were also held in which each brave tried to show his skill in throwing the tomahawk. Endur- ance races were held for the fighting braves to keep them fit. The Indians are universally known for their great endurance. The Indians played a game on the ice which is very similar to our modern hockey. They held canoeing races and practiced shooting with the bow and arrow from the moving canoe. They had contests in fire making and in the making of arrow heads. From all of this, we see that the Indians enjoyed many sports which were well adapted to the conditions under which they lived. William Thomsen. Page Nineteen