American football . al-tend, but with the increase of the ag-gressive system of defence his dutieshave become more those of a third half-back. Other things being equal, it is 112 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. eminently proper to select as a full-backan exceptionally strong tackier; but asfor placing tackling ability above that ofkicking, that is a mistake which mighthave been made six years ago, but ofwhich no coach or captain would to-daybe guilty. The importance of the position is rap-idly growing, and there is no doubt thatthe time will come in another year, if itbe not already here, when the selectio
American football . al-tend, but with the increase of the ag-gressive system of defence his dutieshave become more those of a third half-back. Other things being equal, it is 112 AMERICAN FOOTBALL. eminently proper to select as a full-backan exceptionally strong tackier; but asfor placing tackling ability above that ofkicking, that is a mistake which mighthave been made six years ago, but ofwhich no coach or captain would to-daybe guilty. The importance of the position is rap-idly growing, and there is no doubt thatthe time will come in another year, if itbe not already here, when the selectionof the three men behind the line will beafter this fashion—namely, picking outthe three best half-backs, all things con-sidered, then selecting that one of thethree whose kicking is the best, andmaking him the third half or full the man has been in this waychosen there will devolve upon himcertain duties which do not commonlyfall to the lot of the other two half-backs. Chiefest among these is the S^^*^. W. C. RHODES. Yale. THE HALF-BACK AND BACK. II3 duty of making a running return of akick. The opponents have sent a puntdown towards him, which he secureswhile the opponents are still some yardsaway from him, although they are com-ing down rapidly. In this case, a thor-oughly finished player will not only gaina few steps before he takes his kick, buthe will take that kick on the run, some-times dodging the first man before tak-ing the kick. A full-back who can dothis and never lose his kick is the great-est kind of a treasure for any team, andit is worth a captains while to devote agood bit of attention to the full-backsperfecting this special feature of his will also be likely to have the longplace-kicking to do. In fact, it is prop-er to practise him at this, because, if hebe the best punter among the men be-hind the line, he can be made the long-est place-kicker, and few realize the great 114 AMERICAN FOOTBALL, advantage of these long place-kicks toa tea
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Keywords: ., bookauthorcampwalt, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookyear1894
