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