Harper's Round Table, December 15, 1896

by Various

Although athletics have not yet reached that stage of development in Cleveland to which they have attained in many other cities of equal size, yet there is a lively interest in schoolboys' sport there, and for the past two years a football league has been in operation. In 1895 it was composed of the Central High-School, the University School, the West High-School, the South High-School, and the Freshman teams of the Western Reserve University and of the Case School of Applied Science.

This year, however, some wise sportsman must have informed the schoolboys of the absurdity and inadvisability of having such a mongrel combination of schools and colleges, for during the football season the association consisted only of the Central High and University Schools. The former has the advantage in numbers, there being about eight hundred scholars enrolled; but the University School, with about two hundred boys, has the advantage of being a private school with greater resources at its command.

The championship game of football was played this year on a very muddy field, but both teams had had good coaching and put up good sport. A feature of the game was a goal from the field by Ammon of the University School, the first performance of the kind ever witnessed in the City of Cleveland. The final score was 12-9 in favor of the Central High-School, but it is said that this score does not show how close the game actually was, the University School having missed winning by the failure of a foot for a second goal from the field. Most of C.H.-S.'s gains were made through right tackle, and the High-School players resorted almost entirely to a rushing game. The University School players, on the other hand, kicked a great deal, and as Ammon is probably one of the cleverest punters and drop-kickers of any of the schools of the West, this style of play proved most effective for that side.

The senior interscholastic football season in Boston was brought to a close last week in a manner that was somewhat unlooked for. The unexpected was due to the action of the Executive Committee of the Association at its last meeting. At the opening of the football season, early in the fall, it was announced that all the teams must strictly obey not only the letter, but the spirit of the Constitution, and they were warned that they must take the consequences if the rules were not thoroughly lived up to.

As a result, however, of the game played on November 14, between Hopkinsons and Cambridge Manual-Training School, a protest was entered against C.M.-T.S., and charges were made that their team had violated one of the Articles of the Constitution. When the protest came up for decision before the committee, to which all such matters are referred, the committee decided that while the intention of C.M.-T.S. was not of a malicious nature, the situation, nevertheless, was too grave to admit of any alternative but that of depriving Cambridge of the game and of awarding it to Hopkinsons.

This decision would give the championship, then, to Hopkinsons. But the captain of the Hopkinson football team refused to accept an honor gained on a technicality of the Constitution, and declined to take advantage of the committee's decision. The committee, therefore, voted that no championship should be awarded for the season of 1896.

In the past few years the rules of the Constitution have not always been rigidly enforced or stringently lived up to, and the sudden change of affairs has rather surprised the League members who supposed the lines would not be drawn so closely. At the present time, when some of the teams seem to be not satisfied to settle disputes on the gridiron, but seek rather to fall back on the Executive Committee, it has become necessary to strictly enforce the most insignificant clause of the Constitution.

The Cambridge Manual episode has attracted considerable attention in the Boston Interscholastic League, and while the result is a most severe lesson to that school, and possibly out of proportion to the offence alleged to have been committed, the result will be that in future years there will be less unnecessary action for the Executive Board, and the schools will learn to adhere to the clauses as set down in their Constitution.

In spite of Cambridge Manual's misfortune at the close of the season, her record of play has been rather exceptional during the playing weeks. One noticeable feature has been that C.M.-T.S. has scored the first goal from the field since 1891, when Moore, C.M.-T.S., kicked one, as he did also the previous year. Considerable attention has been given by the Cambridge team this fall to the development of a kicking game, and good results have followed. It is asserted that they have never had a kick blocked, and there seems to be little doubt that Sawin, the captain of the eleven, is the best kicker in the League.

Another feature of Manual-Training's game has been their system of interference, which proved particularly effective, and the backs have been drilled to hurdle the pile after the interference had been broken, and thus frequently to gain an extra couple of yards. The C.M.-T.S. manner of defence was likewise a strong one, and although outweighed man for man by a number of the teams against which they played, the Cambridge eleven proved themselves capable of forcing their opponents to kick or to surrender the ball time and time again.