OCR Text |
Show RUGBY CUES IKE MEW YORK HI! New Zealanders May Have Started Reform In Football Foot-ball Among Colleges. Tribune Special Sporting Service. NEW YORK, Feb. 17. Such an impression im-pression was made upon the followers of football at Columbia university by the exhibition of Rugby given by the New Zealanders at Washington park, that it is considered very probable that the American game, which has grown Into disfavor at Manhattan's big institutions insti-tutions of learning, will be supplanted by the one the antlpodeans know so well how to play. One of those most enthusiastic in his advocacy of the foreign for-eign style of football is Dr. George K Meylan, the director of the Columbia university, who made It a point to attend at-tend Thursday's game. He likens Rugby to American basketball basket-ball with tackling added, and recommends recom-mends It because all the players are allowed al-lowed to carry' the ball. Danger, he says Is minimized by the absence of the American style of scrimmage. Dr. Meylan feels very confident that, once introduced, Rugby will prove acceptable and even more popular with the public at large, as, with the ball constantly in sight, every spectator can follow the plays. In fact, he believes that if Co- ' lumbla were to take it up. which he deems not at all Improbable, as well as several other of the dissatisfied universities, uni-versities, the regular college football would have a most dangerous rival. Dr. Meylan thus sums up the situation situa-tion from his viewpoint. "The game the New Zealanders showed us eliminates all dirty play and the opportunities for It as well. There is no brutality in it. either. I feel that If Is a real sport, such as Americans of the proper constitutions consti-tutions can enjoy, and undoubtedly would. There is a smaller tendency to specialization and to professionalism involved in-volved in the playing of the Rugby game, too." |