Rules

The Football Rules Committee, regulators of the great gridiron game, assembled in Manhattan to legislate for the season which opens next fall. There were many of the great of the football world--Amos Alonzo Stagg, coach of Chicago; W. W. Roper of Princeton; Walter Camp, health expert acting as Secretary; E. K. Hall of Dartmouth, presiding; Walter R. Okeson of Lehigh; John J. McEwan of West Point; D. X. Bible of Texas; H. J. Stegeman of Georgia; G. M. Varnell of Spokane; M. F. Ahearn of Kansas. And they wrote new rules:

P: That a kick blocked behind the line of scrimmage, the ball not going over the line of scrimmage, goes to whichever side recovers, regardless of whether it was blocked by the offensive or defensive team; but if the kicking side recovers, it suffers the loss of a down. If a partially blocked kick crosses the scrimmage line, it is not considered blocked.

P: That the kick-off shall be made from the offensive team's 40-yard line, without use of a tee.

P: That on an offside by the defensive team, the offensive team receives 5 yards, but the down remains the same.

P: That a doctor or trainer seeing an injured player may go upon the field and, after reporting to an official, attend the player.

P: That the captain of the team winning the toss may elect to receive the kick-off (or to kick off, or defend either goal).

P: That the penalty for clipping (throwing a player down by falling on his legs from behind) be 25 yards instead of 15.

P: That shoulder pads must be well padded on the outside.

P: That the penalty for flying tackles (tackles in which the tackler is completely off the ground) and tackling below the knees, be abolished.

All one evening the committee legislated. Then they retired to their rooms and rest. The next morning Walter Camp, the far-famed advocate of physical training and patron of sport, did not attend the meeting. After a time, Coach Roper went to get him. He telephoned to the committee that Camp had been found dead in his hotel room. The committee promptly adjourned in his memory. At 65, he had died of heart failure. His history was the history of the development of football. He, in 1880, had become Yale's first "all-around athlete"--football, baseball and track. He had been the adviser of athletics at Yale for many years, in finance* as well as in play. He had served as a physical director in the Air Service during the War. He had developed the famous "daily dozen," spread by phonograph and radio. He had chosen the foremost All-American football team every year since 1889. Now the veteran of sport is dead.

*His own money was made largely in the clock business (New Haven Clock Co.) and by writing articles and books. He married the sister of Professor "Billy" Stunner, famed economist.