FOOTBALL. For many years, the game of football has been the favorite amusement at some of the American colleges, during certain seasons of the year. At Harvard and Yale, it is customary for the Sophomore Class to challenge the Freshmen to a trial game, soon after their entrance into College. The interest excited on this occasion is always very great, the Seniors usually siding with the former, and the Juniors with the latter class. The result is generally in favor of the Sophomores. College poets and prose-writers have often chosen the game of football as a topic on which to exercise their descriptive powers. One invokes his muse, in imitation of a great poet, as follows:-- "The Freshmen's wrath, to Sophs the direful spring Of shins unnumbered bruised, great goddess, sing!" Another, speaking of the size of the ball in ancient times compared with what it is at present, says:-- "A ball like this, so monstrous and so hard, Six eager Freshmen scarce could kick a yard!" Further compositions on this subject are to be found in the Harvard Register, Harvardiana, Yale Banger, &c. See WRESTLING-MATCH. FORENSIC. A written argument, maintaining either the affirmative or the negative side of a question. In Harvard College, the two senior classes are required to write _forensics_ once in every four weeks, on a subject assigned by the Professor of Moral Philosophy; these they read before him and the division of the class to which they belong, on appointed days. It was formerly customary for the teacher to name those who were to write on the affirmative and those on the negative, but it is now left optional with the student which side he will take. This word was originally used as an adjective, and it was usual to speak of a forensic dispute, which has now been shortened into _forensic_. For every unexcused omission of a _forensic_, or of reading a _forensic_, a deduction shall be made of the highest number of marks to which that exercise is entitled. Seventy-two is the highest mark for _forensics_.--_Laws of Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848. What with themes, _forensics_, letters, memoranda, notes on lectures, verses, and articles, I find myself considerably hurried.--_Collegian_, 1830, p. 241. When I call to mind _Forensics_ numberless, With arguments so grave and erudite, I never understood their force myself, But trusted that my sage instructor would. _Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 403. FORK ON. At Hamilton College, _to fork on_, to appropriate to one's self. FORTS. At Jefferson and at Washington Colleges in Pennsylvania, the boarding-houses for the students are called _forts_. FOUNDATION. A donation or legacy appropriated to support an institution, and constituting a permanent fund, usually for a charitable purpose.--_Webster_. In America it is also applied to a donation or legacy appropriated especially to maintain poor and deserving, or other students, at a college.