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Show FRESHMEN ROLE MAY BECHANCED Change in Ruling Must Come Through Practically a Unanimous Vote. FRESHMEN RULE I DENVER, Dec. 17. There will be no one-year rule in force in the Rocky mountain intercollegiate athletic conference con-ference during the season of 1918, colleges propose but war disposes, and the restriction which has held good for a decade and more in the west will ,be forced to give way in the year ahead to the grim necessity of war. The first inkling of the new order Ib contained in blanks which have Just been received by the coaches of the state from tho war department of the United States, which requests complete com-plete information about every player on every football Equad. These men are wanted for the aviation department, depart-ment, and any prospect which the coaches may have had of holding veteran vet-eran teams together against the fall of 1918 is almost certainly shot to. pieces by this cannonade. Many Plan to Enlist. Already numerous of the 1918 athletes ath-letes have signified their intention of joining one department or another, while still others, although in the mi- nnritv 11-711 rrmr utirloi" Vi i-.T..tINno . v..v. bill. A-LV-T lOlWll of the draft The direct word fr6m the aviation department, however, is expected to prove more alluring to these athletes than any other form of communication, and a large percentage percent-age of enlistment in this branch is already al-ready forecast The result will leave the college officials of-ficials facing a situation with but one 1 alternative. If they attempt to adhere 1 to the one-year rule, it will be virtually virtual-ly impossible for them to place football, foot-ball, squads in the field in 1918. President Presi-dent Wilson and other prominent officials of-ficials have already requested that athletics be maintained wherever possible, pos-sible, hence the alternative presents itself of using freshmen. Only In this way can the collegiate sport be successfully suc-cessfully maintained on a competitive i basis, and the decision to retain these sports may be considered as good as made right now. Rule Just Temporarily. A change in the present ruling is one that can only be made by a practically prac-tically unanimous vote, as the restric-18 restric-18 a constitutional one. Under the bv-laws bv-laws of the conference two negative votes defeat any proposed constitutional constitu-tional change, and it was by just that margin that a proposal to eliminate the freshmen rule in 1917 was lost, as while there were three votes against the proposal, one of these was cast by a college which was prepared to vote the other way if the measure could have been passed. Probably any changes which will bo made will not involve an actual cancellation can-cellation of tho freshmen clause, but simply a suspension of its operation during the period of the war. Further safeguards which will probably hedge the suspension will include a resolution resolu-tion to play no now men save those who are bona fide freshmen from high school ranks, not football players of college -experience. |