Jamestown Evening Journal

Moving Goal Posts May Wreck Football Says Parke H. Davis

National Football Recorder is Stunned by Change and Points Out What Effect Will be on Goal Kickers
Annual Grist of Field Goals Will Disappear, He Predicts

 

The Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee, at its recent session in New York, made a profoundly radical change in the rules by setting the goal posts ten yards behind the present goal line.

This change fairly stuns one who has before him the data of the goals from the field, kicked last fall, and thus specifically can observe what such a rule would have wrought in 1926 and thereby reasonably guess what it will wreak in 1927.

Only five goals from the field in 1926 were scored from the fifty-yard line or beyond. The brilliant schoolboy, Lodge, end on the Western State Normal School eleven at Spearfish, South Dakota, against the School of Mines, sent two successful drops spinning from the fifty-two and fifty yard lines, respectively. James J. Fitzgerald of Tufts shot a scoring drop from the great distance of fifty-five yards against the Massachusetts "Aggies." Grant Iler of Detroit scored against Assumption by a place-kick from the fifty-two yard line and Paul Piersol of Lebanon Valley duplicated the feat against Albright.

These five goals would have been improbable under the new ruling. Their proportionate rarity also indicates that very, few, if any, of the forty-five other goals scored last full between the forty and fifty-yard lines, would have scored under this new rule. Thus Paul T. Scull of Pennsylvania would not have beaten both Columbia and Penn State by forty-five yard drops; Forest Peters of Illinois would not have defeated Iowa by a forty-yard drop, and Clarence Lautzenheiser of Chattanooga would not have overcome Citadel by another forty-yard drop. The redoubtable Benjamin Freidman of Michigan similarly would have been deprived of a victory over Ohio State by a forty-five yard place-kick and George M. Marsh of Roanoke would have failed to win a victory over Hampden-Sydney by a forty yard place-kick.

Other brilliant scoring forty-yard kicks in 1926 which probably would have failed are as follows:

DROP-KICKS

  • 48 Frank T. Orube, Lafayette vs. Albright.
  • 48 Frank T. Orube, Lafayette vs. Dickinson.
  • 48 Frank T. Orube, Lafayette vs Washington and Jefferson.
  • 48 Field Phelps, Colorado vs. Western State.
  • 48 Edwin B Dooley, Dartmouth vs. Harvard.
  • 43 Edwin B. Dooley, Dartmouth vs. Harvard,
  • 43 Frank Davis, Furman vs. Clemson.
  • 42 Humphrey B. Howe, Springfield vs. New Hampshire State.
  • 40 Clarence Zimmerman, St. Johns vs. Richmond.
  • 40 Robert Middleton. Harverford vs. Drexel.
  • 40 Robert Middleton. Haverford vs. Drexel.
  • 40 Frank B. Creamer, Delaware vs. Springfield.
  • 40 Robert Wilson. Purdue vs. Indiana.
  • 40 Frank Davis, Furman vs. Newberry.
  • 40 Phillip Bunnell, Yale vs. Harvard.
  • 40 Bernard J. Kllroy, Boston Col. vs. Catholic.
  • 40 William Slaughter, Blue Ridge vs. George Washington.

PLACE KICKS

  • 46 Benjamin Tout, California 'Aggies' vs. Pacific.
  • 45 John Harvey, Rose Poly vs. Vincennes.
  • 45 William I. Amos, Washington and Jeffernon vs. West Virginia.
  • 45 Charles Wall, Kansas vs. Nebraska.
  • 45 Eugene Cook, Washington vs. Washington State.
  • 45 Harley Boss, Louisisna Poly vs. Clark.
  • 40 Clarence Strack, Oklahoma "Aggies" vs. Grinnell.
  • 40 Paul Piersol, Lebanon Valley vs. Villanova.
  • 40 Paul Piersol. Lebanon Valley vs. Albright.
  • 40 Joseph Fleming, California vs California Tech.
  • 40 Joseph Fleming, California vs. Redlands.
  • 40 Lester Leitl, Wisconsin vs. Minnesota.
  • 40 Kenneth Strong, New York Un. vs. West Virginia Wesleyan.
  • 40 Ray Schell, Ursinius vs. Swarthmore.
  • 40 W. P. Moulton, Auburn vs. Marquette.

Year after year, the compilations of the field-goal data reveal that far away the greatest number of goals from the field are attempted and scored from the thirty to the forty yard lines. This is due to the workings of play and generalship. This great annual grist of field goals also must disappear because only a few will be successfully negotiated from forty yards and beyond because the incentive and invitation to try for a goal from the field is not the same within the thirty-yard line as it is between the thirty and the forty-yard lines.


The additional financial assistance of the community is critical to the success of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.
We gratefully acknowledge these individuals and organizations for their generous support.