In an affair of this kind there can be no half-way conditions. If you allow such men as these on school football teams, what is to prevent University students from taking one hour a week at the High-School in order that they may play football on the High-School team? The latter would be just as much a student of the High-School as the two men who have caused Madison's athletics to suffer charges of unsportsmanship.
I feel sure that a little thought on this subject will convince the captain of the Madison High-School football team, and all the members of his school, that what I say is perfectly just. He has asked me to correct the statement made in the same issue that "the Madison High-School football team has never been defeated." I do so at once. It has been defeated. I ought to have known at the time, from experience, better than to write any such sentence as that.
J. S. BUSH,
HARTFORD HIGH-SCHOOL.
Half-back.
K. A. STRONG,
HARTFORD HIGH-SCHOOL.
Half-back.
The New Britain High-School football team, which has made such a good record so far this year, is going to make a strong bid for the championship of the Connecticut League. I am writing this just before the important game with Hartford, which will have been played by the time this week's Round Table is published; but even if New Britain suffers defeat at the hands of Hartford, I feel sure that it will not be without putting up a strong fight.
Towers, at centre, is aggressive on the attack, but weak in defensive work, and does not get into the interference. Corbin, right guard, on the other hand, gets into the interference well, but is a weak tackler. Alling, on the other side of centre, is a sharp, aggressive player. Flannery and McDonough are both old players, and are the best two men in the line, invariably making their distance when the ball is given to them. Porter, at end, is one of the best players in that position in the Connecticut High-School League. He is very fast in getting down the field, and breaks through the interference cleverly. Griswold, at the other end, is a good tackler, but in other respects his playing is only fair.
Captain Meehan, quarter-back, runs his men with good judgment, is a good tackler, passes well as a rule, but occasionally makes costly fumbles. Brinley, at half-back, is a green player, but a fast runner, and will do very much better as soon as he learns to follow his interference. Fitch, the other half-back, has this same fault, and is not much of a tackler, but he seems to have the knack of making gains around the end. O'Donnell, at full-back, is a fair punter, a good line-backer, and a good tackler. He is beyond doubt the best player on the team, and plays as well as many a college man in the same position. Take it all in all, the New Britain team has a strong heavy line, but the half-backs run too high, and do not pay enough attention to following their interference, and the whole aggregation is too careless at tackling.
The star player among the Chicago High-Schools is beyond any doubt Teetzel, of the Englewood High-School, whose portrait we published in this Department last week. It is deeply to be deplored that any charges of professionalism should have been brought against him, and it seems that these should either be proved at once or entirely withdrawn and hushed. In the recent game between Englewood and Lake View, Teetzel proved himself a giant. At the outset it looked for a time as if Lake View were going to have the best of the argument; they forced the ball rapidly down the field and scored. But Englewood took a sharp brace at this point, and had everything their own way for the rest of the afternoon, winning, 28-6.