San Diego State University - Del Sudoeste Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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12 WHITEANDGOLD inent factor in the local activities. Owing to the lack of ma- terial and grounds we had very few athletic activities during the year 1904-5. Basket ball was the only one worth mentioning. The first basketball league was then formed by the Y. M. C. A., Commercial College, Russ and Normal. Fair interest and enthusiasm was shown although the season was short. We hope to make the athletic events of 1905-6 more numerous and interesting than those of last year. Among these will be found foot- ball, basket-ball, hand-ball, base-ball, captain-ball, tennis and track work taking prominent places. This year we have an athletic field which, when linished, will be one of the best in the State. This field is 400 X 400 feet, located just north of the Normal building with the car line running along the east side. It is as level as a table. These facts make it a most desirable field on which to hold athletic meets. The field will be equipped for the following outdoor sports:--foot ball, base ball, basket ball, hand ball, tether ball, tennis and track. At the present time we have one basket ball and two tennis courts and foot ball gridiron completed. When the graders left the field it was covered with hard lumps and rocks. The boys objected to playing on a field in such condition so the girls, all unknown to them, decided to have a stone throwing pic- nic, if throwng stones may be called a pic-nic. On Friday evening before the first game with Y. M. C. A. they turned out and in a com- paratively short space of time Cleared the field. After stone throwing had proceeded for a time the girls continued their pic-nic by giving the boys a lunch. During the time the lunch was in progress several speeches were made by members of the faculty and team. The girls, of course, had something to say and said it. The affair ended with three rousing cheers for the girls. So far this year foot ball has claimed all the attention of the boys and as there were so few of them we experienced great diiTiculty in getting material for a team. The iirst line up of the season was as followsz-C., Lusk; l. g., Warriner; r. g., Clark; 1. t. Butler tcaptj; g THLETICS have been revived again at Norm al and form a prom-

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XVHITEANDGOLD n abroad. Football rallies were the pastime 0f the hour, and enthusiastic songs and yells were handed in by the dozen. But this epidemic is on the wane and the active little microbe has turned its energies toward the school paper. As an evidence of this, the editor has received nearly twice as much copy as can be used in this edition of the paper. Certainly this is proof positive of the severity of the new attack and the popularity of the White and Gold. What, then, is this little microbe? What is the function of this spirit? Simply this, it means life and action. It breeds affection and tender respect for the school of one's choice. There can be no earnest, whole-souled, successful school work without it. FOOT-BALL. Foot-ball has reached a crisis in its history. For more than a decade it has been held supreme as king of all athletics. Baseball is our national game and it is a. popular sport but nine men out of ten will forsake it for a football contest. It is a wonderful game in many res spects. There is absolutely no education that can compare with it, when it comes to the study of alertness; the Will to do, and the ability to know what to do, in case of an emergency. A good football player cannot be surprised, and he learns the secret of fortitude as only the 01d Spartan once knew it. But the other side of the football question is a grave one. Year by year the rules of the game have been changed. It is losing its sportsmanlike nature and becoming more and more brutal until today it is said that it claims far more victims than does prize fighting! And we say of the latter, It is bar- barous, inhuman, disgusting? But football has to answer for a still more grievous fault. It develops special ization to a dangerous point. Too often the football hero is a great muscular giant, devoting six months of the year to the game, the other six to anything that comes up. As played at present. the game is restricted to a limited number of men. The expenditure of money, time and effort is disproportionate to the few who receive any phys- ical benefit. The commercial side of the question is becoming a serious one. Thous- ands of dollars are spent yearly in salaries to coaches and the buying of all kinds of equipment and in gambling on results. As a consequence the admis- sion to the games is so high that many people are not able to afford it. In the majority of schools: and colleges its moral influence is positively bad. Get the ball by fair means or foul, is the doctrine, and by all means ring in a profes sional or two if you can do so without being caught. But a change is about to be effected. The rules of the game will be changed or football will be abolished from our schools. Several prominent cities have prohibited the game from being played within their limits. Even our strenuous President is opposed to it,as it is now played. The President of New York State University has called for a national council of college preSI- dents to model a new system for playing the game. We sincerely hope that this may be accomplished. It would surely be unfortunate to abolish uncon- ditionally such a noble game as football from the list of our athletic sports. IIIIIIlIIIIIIlIIIlIIIlIIIIIIII. WANTED. Somebody to sign a contract to clean the lockers. Wanted: A new version oftlThe Old Oaken Bucket? ;

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WHITEANDGOLD 13 r. t., Sharp; 1. e., Lane; r. e., Tarwater; 1. h., Duffy; r. h., C. Smith; q. b., O. Smith; f. b., Gurwell. BefOre we had played any schedule game our quarter-back, Smith, found that he could not play so the team had to be rearranged 1n the following manner. -c., Barker; 1. g., Lusk; r. g., Sharp; 1. t., Butler tcapt l; r.t.Clark;1.e.,La11e and Watkiris; r. e., Tarwater; 1. hi, Duffy and Wight; r. h., C. Smith; q. b., Bigham and f.b.,Gi1rwell. Mr. West acted as manager after Mr. Bigham was put on the team. Another dihiculty was the inexperience of the men. Only three had ever participated in a game before this year. Another dithculty was the lack of a second team to buck up against and all the defensive work was necessarily theoretical and not the real thing. Our method of defensive work was obtained through the coach using explanatory diagrams on the black board. By means of these the squad learned how to meet and stop offensive play. After school the boys would don their suits and proceed to carry out these methods as far as was possible. The showing made was far more satisfactory than was at hrst expected. Situated as we are in the extreme southern part of California it was difficult for us to get games with any northern teams and although Escondido, Hollywood and Redlands negotiated for games, they could not be arranged so that, as a result, only four contests were had dur- ing the season. The first of these was a practice game with the Russ eleven, played on the Russ campns, Sept. 30. This served to show us our weak points and demonstrated the need of hard work if we were to make a satisfactory showing in foot ball. The second contest was a match game with the Y. M. C. A. team on Normal campus Oct. 21. In this game the main thing noticed was the development of defensive work. The offensive work, through fumblirrg, was weak, due to lack of practice in scrimmage. The score 5-0 in Y. M. C. A.,s favor was made in the first half. The third game played was on Normal campus with Y. M. C. A. on Nov. II. In this game the Y. M. C. A. greatly outplayed the Nor- mal in the first half but owing to an improvement in Normalls defen- sive play they were prevented from scoring although they were within the ten yard line once. The Normals in the second half outplayed the Y. M. C. A., but on account of fumbles were not able to score. The final score was 0-0. The game with the Russ on Thanksgiving day was the principal game of the season and both teams worked hard for this event. This game was played on Russ campus. The two teams were evenly matched. The game was won by Russ kicking a goal. The laurels in the first half were about even, while in the second half the Normals kept the ball in Russ territory all but three minutes of play and they