King Football

The barking of coaches and quarterbacks, the thudding of balls and bodies, the grinding, milling rush of the scrimmage line was heard on college practice fields throughout the land. King Football, a popular monarch, entered his 62nd year.*

Lest fogs of obscurity should arise from the changes in the rules of the game for 1924, coaches and officials put their heads together in Manhattan at a meeting under the joint auspices of the Intercollegiate Rules Committee and the Central Board of Officials. Chief among these changes:

P: Elimination of the dirt tee at kickoff. A player may hold the ball for the kicker. A heel print may be used.

P: The kick-off moved to centre of field (from 40-yd. line), or, on wet grounds, "to a point directly behind" --in which case the receiving team may lie in wait no less than ten yards away.

P: Substitution of a 3-yd. line for the 5-yd. line on try-for-point after touchdown.

P: On shift formations, players must come to an obvious halt in their new positions before ball is snapped.

P: On forward passes, ineligible men of the offense must not intervene or "screen" the pass; receiver must not go out of bounds and return to take the throw; thrower must, not intentionally ground the ball, failing a free receiver. (For this offense, the last 10-yd. penalty in the rule-book was increased to 15 yds.)

P: The referee alone shall have a whistle; for the timekeeper, a pistol is recommended.

*U. S. or "college" football is said to have been "founded" by one Gerrit Smith Miller, who organized the Oneida Club, at Boston, in 1862. Rugby football, prototype of the U. S. game, was "founded" by one William Webb Ellis, a Rugby School student, in 1823. Reads a tablet on the playing field at Rugby, England: "This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis who, with a fine disregard for the rules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game. A. D. 1823."