Page 162 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote and Some Stuff I Didn't (2011) H. Morris Williams

Football at Florida Agriculture College» 1903

A Dangerous Game

(From the Lake City, Florida, Florida Agricultural College
yearbookl903)

The history of football is very young in connection with the F A.C.

Several times in the history of the institution teams have been organized

and games played among the student body, but never yet has there been
a game between our boys and a team from any other college.

In fact, never until the past season has a team been organized with the
expectation of meeting an adversary on the gridiron.

The past season the Board of Trustees, for the first time in the history of
the college, consented to the playing of some intercollegiate games.

Heretofore here, as in many other institutions and in a great number
o f communities, football has been regarded as a kind o f legalized form

o f fighting, in which the men o f the opposing teams each tried to
maim, cripple, blind or kill as many o f his combatants as possible.

But in this latter day of enlightenment it has come to be recognized that

“all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” and the general public is
coming to see that for the best development of the intellect a certain

amount of physical training is indispensable.

Among the vast number of sports which are cultivated among the

students of the most renowned colleges of today football occupies a
place that will never be occupied by any other game.

It is true that many men were injured in the early history of the game,
and this is what gave the game that bad reputation it bears in some

localities. But advancement has been made in this line just as it has in
everything else during the last few years.

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