It is not right to expect the players to do everything. They deserve
some encouragement from their elders; and it certainly is discouraging
for two teams to appear on the field, and find that there are no
officials to conduct the play. It is not advisable to have officers of
the N.Y.I.S.F.B.A., or other students or tutors of the schools, act as
officials, because disputes are more liable to occur under these
circumstances. And yet if there is no one else at hand or available, it
is better to take such men for officials than to call the game off. But
I believe that by using forethought and energy enough college men can be
found to act as umpires and referees for the remaining games this
season. Students of the schools are perfectly competent to serve as
linesmen.
An example of the undesirability of student officials was the recent
game between Cheshire and the Hopkins Grammar School. The reports of
that contest as given by the newspapers are something appalling to
contemplate. If we could believe them we should almost feel like giving
up our faith in the sportsmanship of that region. Aside from other
misdeeds, which have nothing to do with sport, credited to them, the
Hopkins Grammar lads are accused of having played one or more Yale
medical students on their team. On the other hand, the New Haven players
accuse their opponents of playing several teachers. (If this be true I
commend last week's Interscholastic Sport columns to the Cheshire
scholars.) But whatever the rights and the wrongs of the case may be, it
is a disgraceful state of affairs, and one that we can well afford to
pass over in silence as far as the details are concerned.
The point I was leading up to is that the disabled Captain of the
Hopkins team is reported to have acted as umpire, his place on the field
being taken by a player named Jewett. The report of the game as printed
in a New Haven paper goes on to say: "Neither side scored until just
before the whistle was blown for the end of the first half, when Acting
Captain Jewett of Hopkins secured the ball and rushed over the line.
Cheshire claimed time was up, and, according to their version, they were
supported by the Hopkins Captain as umpire. Acting Captain Jewett,
however, decided to quit, and the game stopped. Then followed trouble."
There it is in a nutshell. Jewett decided to quit, because he was not
satisfied with the umpire's decision. And the umpire was the actual
Captain of the team which Jewett had charge of and which proved a
"quitter." If there is anything a sportsman justly despises it is a
"quitter."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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