No Milksop Can Be A Foot-Ball Player!
I scanned the following illustration from John Clark Ridpath’s Royal Photograph Gallery published by B. F. Johnson & Co., 1893. A fine piece of Americana for a Sunday afternoon.
Image text:
FOOT-BALL.-PUTTING THE BALL IN PLAY.-The great national game of base-ball is played in summer; interest in foot-ball culminates in the strenuous struggles by college boys on and before Thanksgiving Day. Thus far England is ahead of us in the popularity of foot-ball and in the number of fractures, mutilations and deaths resulting from its indulgence; but the widespread excitement caused by a contest in America seems prophetic of our probable future equality with our English cousins in this form of sport, which, spite of the little drawbacks mentioned, has much to recommend it. Rough, it is also manly-no milksop can be a foot-ball player; and it necessitates in the adept the exercise of sound and ready judgment, as well as fleetness, purpose and agile strength. Gambling and professionalism are abuses which good friends of the game should do all they can to discountenance.
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Very appropriate, seeing that the Rugby World Cup is in full swing. I assume that the game referred to in the reference to England is, in fact, rugby, which still remains nothing for milksops - the players wear about as much protection as the guys in the picture above. My opinion is that “your English cousins” (or at least your New Zealand or South African ones) are still way ahead of the Americans. But then I’m not American…
I think you’re quite right that the US lags with rugby. Though I don’t follow the sport with any detail, it comes up often when I talk to British friends about sports. They’re more than happy to point out their dominance and the US’s inferiority. It would’ve been interesting to see how American rugby would’ve developed had we not committed to football.
I’ve come across a decent stack of nostalgic images to scan… hopefully I can find the time to digitize them and put them up regularly.