REID QUESTIONS FOOTBALL

The following letter has been sent by W. T. Reid, Jr., '01, head football coach, to J. D. Merrill '89, secretary of the Graduates Athletic Association: November 8, 1905.

Mr. John D. Merrill, Sec'y, Harvard Graduates Athletic Assn., Cambridge, Mass.

DEAR SIR:--

After several years of experience with Intercollegiate football, after careful consideration of the criticisms which have been made of the game, and after the many honest but fruitless efforts to change it so that these criticisms could be avoided, I have become convinced that the game as it is played today has fundamental faults which cannot be removed by any mere technical revision of the rules.

Although I am willing to admit that the necessary roughness of the game may be objectionable to some people, that appears to me to be much less serious than the fact that there is a distinct advantage to be gained from brutality and the evasion of the rules--offenses which, in many instances, the officials cannot detect because they are committed when the players and the ball also are bidden from the eyes of the umpire. For these reasons I have come to believe that the game ought to be radically changed.

I therefore respectfully request your Association, which represents the Alumni of the University, immediately to appoint a Committee whose duty it shall be to make a careful investigation of the subject, and to report such thorough-going alterations in the game as will remove the unfair advantage now obtained from violation of the rules, will put a higher premium on skill, make mere weight and strength of less value, and will produce a more scientific and interesting sport.   Very truly yours,   W.T. REID, JR.