It all began as ‘kicking the Dane’s head’ .

U.S. imported Canuck —
footbail rules in.’74

Football, legend has it, was first known as “‘kicking the Dane’s head’’ and orig-
inated Ee 900 ae ago in England when workers dug up the skull of a Dane (the
Danes had occupied the country for 25 years or son the early part of the 11th Century)
and began booting it back and forth.

The legend may or may not be,
Correct. History does record that
by the 12th Century the game was
being played extensively, with an
Inflated cow’s bladdder and teams
Tanging in size from a score to
hundreds of players.

Centuries passed, and the game’s
Offspring were called “soccer” and
“‘Tugby.” Both were exported to
Canada a couple of hundred years
480, while soccer had become well
known in the United States.

It was the Canadians who taught
ericans “rugby” and paved the

Way for the evolution of football
as played today in the States.

Tank G. Menke’s authoritative
“Encyclopedia of Sports” says:
“American football exists today
because of McGill University of
Montreal, Canada, and the courtesy
of Harvard, the host team at two
football games in Cambridge,
Mass., May 14 and 15, 1874.”

What happened was that the
first game was played under U.S.
Soccer rules and the second under
Canadian rugby rules. The Am-
ericans liked rugby so much they
adopted its rules soon after. Yale
and Princeton followed suit, and
as the years passed it became a
National game, with many dis-
tinctly U.S. innovations. In Can-
ada, too, English rugby went
through a process of change and
€volved into a national game.

This year TV has introduced
Canadian football to huge U.S.
audiences, which have shown ‘a
Tising interest in football happen-
ings north of the 49th parallel ever
Since Canadian teams began hiring
top U.S. college and professional
Stars several years ago.

Are there many basic differences
between the Canadian and U.S.
Styles of play? Actually, no. Most
Americans watching Canadian
football telecasts have little diffi-
culty understanding what’s going
©n. Chief differences can be sum-
Marized as follows:
® Canadian teams field 12 play-
€rs instead of 11 as in the US. j
®@ The playing field in Canada is
larger: 110 yards long, 65 yards
Wide, with an end zone 25 yards
deep. :
® Canadians play three downs,
Which makes for a faster game.
®@ A touchdown in U.S. football
is good for six points; in Canada
it is worth only five, but a “rouge”
is worth one point — and often
Prevents tie games. 2
@ In Canada, blocking is limited
to one yard beyond the line of
Scrimmage for backs, and 10 yards
for linesmen.
® Receiving punts and kickoffs,
Opponents must allow the receiver
five-yard protection. '
_’ Is Canadian football bush or big
league? That question was asked
by a U.S. magazine recently, and
answered both in the affirmative
and negative by two US. stars
With Canadian experience.

Tex Coulter, who left the New
York Giants to play for the Mon-
treal Alouettes, found the Cana
dian game “a good deal for the
Players and a real treat for the
fans .. . big league football operat-
ing the way it should.’ He liked
the pay, the training and playing
Schedule, the method of travel
(Alouettes usually fly) and the
Manner in which the club owners
Went out of their way to find
apartments and side jobs for
Players,

Bob Snyder, who was imported
from the U.S. to manage the Cal-
Sary Stampeders last year and was

‘pall played in Canada.

fired after losing 13 games, return-

By BERT WHYTE

Byron Bailey scored Lions’ first touchdown in ‘54, but since
that game touchdowns have been few and far between.

ed home to denounce Canadian
football as strictly “bush,” the
schedules “brutal” (teams usually
play twice a week) and the injury
rate “very high.”

One point stressed by Snyder
was that it is futile for Americans
to play in Canada in order to “get
a reputation” with which to return

to the States and land a good coach-

ing job.

pe many U.S. football fans,”
he asked, “know that _Oklahoma’s
great Billy Vessels, besides beating
my Calgary team SIx times, won
$1,000 as the most valuable Player
in Canada last year? Wouldn’t
that indicate that whatever pro
reputation he hopes to attain in
the States will have to be built up
from the time he first plays in the
TSS

Later on in his article Snyder
admits that Canadian football of
fers a good future for U.S. college
stars who want to become Cana-
dians, play and possibly coach in
Canada, or go into business.

As a matter of fact, these are
the type of players Canada most
desires to secure. At present each
Canadian team is allowed 10 US.
imports, and there is no doubt
whatever that eee oe rey

im: e the bra ~
helped improv figs es

i will come when adequate
Na at public, high school and
college levels will do’ away with
the need to import so many US.
stars — for Canada will then be
developing football players equal
in ability to our hockey stars.
And when that time comes the
flow of imports will dwindle to a
ne Canadians welcome
those U.S. players who come north
for the purpose of settling perman-
ently here — but view with a
jaundiced eye the hard-boiled pro-
fessionals whose only aim is to
collect the fast buck. :

There are two major grid loops
in Canada: the Big Four (Montreal
Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts, Ot-
tawa Rough Riders and Hamilton

Tiger-Cats), and the Western In-
terprovincial Football Union (Ed-
monton Eskimos, Winnipeg Blue
Bombers, Regina Roughriders, Cal-
gary Stampeders and Vancouver
Lions).

At season’s end there are no
“bowl” games, but East meets
West in a sudden death battle for
the Grey Cup, symbolic of the
Canadian championship.

Newest football-mad city in
Canada is Vancouver. In their
first year in the WIFU the Van-
couver Lions, coached by Annis
Stukus (the only coach in the
league who isn’t a U.S. import)
have managed to ‘lose consistently
yet ring up new Western attend-
ance records and win the fanatical
support of Pacific Coast fans. When
the lowly Lions recently managed
to win one game against Calgary
some 22,000 fans poured onto the
field and tore down the goal posts.
You'd have thought the home team
had won the Grey Cup.

Canadian football crowds don’t
compare in size to those in the
U.S., but the Lions have been at-
tracting about 19,000 fans, per
game to their new Empire Stadium
in Vancouver, built this year for
the staging of the British Empire
Games.

Seattle football filberts, after
watching telecasts of Big Four
games, have fallen in love with
the Canadian game and now drive
north by the hundreds to see the
Lions in action under the -flood-
lights on Saturday nights. General
opinion is that Canadian football
is a faster version of the US.
game. :

Whether Vancouver will remain
a football town without. a winning
team remains to be seen. Right
now many fans are confident that
in a year or so Stukus will get his
Lions into the playoffs. Not the

who says: “We're the biggest city
in the WIFU league and in a year

least confident is Stukus himself, |’

Bert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

iB the Vancouver Lions didn’t

exactly roar in ’54, they’ll come
alive in ’55, and get in their licks
in °56. _That’s what we’re’ being
told these days. a

Certain old unbelievers; of
course, hold the opinion that un-
less Stuke’s boys learn how to

for kicks in ’56.

The Lions now have a bankroll
and Stuke announces, in his cus-
tomary few thousand words, that
he’s going to bring up a flock of
Yankee grid stars next year.

It wasn’t so long ago that Stuke
warmed the cockles of my heart
by declaring that he stood for the
rapid devlopment of Canadian
talent, a development which
would be speeded up by import-
ing a few good players from
south of the border.

This column has gone on re-
cord as not being opposed to the
importing of some USS. talent,
with the view to developing
young Canadian players.

But I’m damned if I want to
see 20 or 25 U.S. players brought
up next year to fight it out for
the 10 allowed import positions,
while our Canadian lads spend
most of their time on the side-
lines.

My advice to the Lions: hire 10
good American players, because
we want a winning team if pos-
sible; but.don’t neglect the basic
job of teaching willing young
Canadians how to play big league
football.

x Kets sks

Followers of the bangtails must
have read with mixed emotions
the names‘of those 159 tired
beetles whose racing days have
ended by order of Vancouver
Thoroughbred Association.

‘In this newspaper business we
use a lot of glue, and I, for one,
hate to think that the next paste-
pot we order at the office may
contain the remains of such hon-
est old plugs as Brunshot, King‘s
Honor or Muchkin.

The only consolation for most
of us is that we’ll have 159 less
chances of losing our money next
year.

* * *

A real good kid, that Marilyn

the day after the hurricane struck
Toronto, she was out in the Etobi-
coke disaster area helping friends
do Red Cross work, and deliver-
ing donations of food and cloth-
ing to flood victims.

A fine, generous way for Can-

or two we'll have the best ball
club.”

jive by °55, Stuke won’t be around °

Bell. 1 see by the papers that:

ada‘s young heroine to spend her
seventeenth birthday.
x * *

An average of 18 young men
die every year “in the United
States as a result of football in-
‘juries; more than half of them
are teen-agers.

How to reduce such injuries is
a problem being tackled by the
American Football Coaches As-
sociation, the Security Life and
Accident Insurance Company of
Denver (which insures some 800,-
000 U.S. high school athletes an-
nually) and the National Athletic
Trainers Association.

Investigation proved that the
plastic helmets. in common use
are deadly weapons; not only
dangerous to the opposition, but
also to the wearer.

A new helmet has been invent-
ed, made of Fiberglas and padded
outside. It can withstand a heavy
blow and the padding protects
the opponent. ¢

* * *

Erwin Swangard in the Van-
couver Sun recalls Conn Smythe’s
prediction that some day the
National Hockey League would
become an all-Canadian setup
again. :

It could come true in the next
few years, if attendance figures
continue to drop in New York,
Boston and Chicago.

Hockey is one sport that de-
pends on Canadian players. |
haven't any statistics handy, but
| don’t think there are a dozen
NHL players who were born in
the United States.

Swangard suggests that we may
soon see two NHL sections in
Canada, “one in the East and the
other in the West, with an all-
Canadian Stanley Cup final, an
athletic spectacle akin to the Grey
Cup final in football.”

* * *

Following the London-Moscow
athletic meet, more than 76 Rus-
sian athletes were given a civic
welcome by the London County
Council.

Victor Mischon, chairman of
the council, told the Moscow
sportsmen:

“We are full of admiration for
your athletic prowess, and con-
gratulate you on your victory.

“Bomb-scarred London will al-
ways be a reminder of the years
during which our peoples stood
together. Now, in time of peace,
let us try and ‘create a situation
in which the only battles of the
future will be those of sport.”

he

“Rough stuff” killed lacrosse as a national pastime, and brawls
like the one above are hurting National Hockey Leaque attendance.
The day may come when the NHL will be an all-Canadian league,

and speed and skill will replace mayhem.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 29, 1954 — PAGE 11