Parker, Former Dartmouth Cap tain, Compares Rugger and American Football--Wants to Combine Features of Both

The following excerpts are reprinted from an article appearing in the official program of the Dartmouth-Yale game and are written by N.K. Parker, a former Dartmouth football captain and a student at Oxford.

Behind the actual playing of the games and the differences in rules and technique lie the chief reasons for the distinctions between English rugger and American football. It is here that the essential difference between English and American sport becomes manifest. First there is the matter of coaching. The English universities do not have the paid coaches that the American system demands. Incidental to this is the question of training and practice. There, training is more or less a personal matter with no supervision, while the latter consists of games. It is in the playing of two or three games a week that the teams get all of their practice in preparation for the final Oxford-Cambridge match. The "varsity" team is selected by trials in games, of men invited to participate by the captain or secretary after observing them in contests between teams of the colleges composing the university. The contrast is rather striking here, for training, practice, and coaching are vital to the success of a football team. Four or five days of good practice are necessary for a satisfactory game once a week. These distinctions are traceable to the differences in the temperament of the Englishman and the American. The easy going methods of the former are exhibited in their type of game and are brought out in strong relief when placed side by side with those of the systematized American game, a product of the American mind and American spirit.

A consideration of some of the rules, technique and background of the English game has seemed necessary to appreciate what it has in common with our own popular game and how the two may be studied with a view to their mutual improvement. The adoption of the lateral pass with all now eligible to receive it is one illustration of the American ability to perceive the good points of a related game. It is an example of willingness to experiment with a view to improvement. Rugby has about it, more of a spirit of play than our college football which under modern coaching has taken on a more or less serious aspect.

Like any two institutions these games have their weak points and compensating good ones, and the problem is to discover the best of both and incorporate them in the one or the other. It is only by a spirit of willingness to recognize that neither is completely satisfactory, and by a fair consideration of both, that the advantages of each may be utilized.