158

after a five-minute overtime. Imag-
ine 150 points in forty-five minutes.

Think that’s something? In two
widely separated towns on the
same night in a recent Illinois
state prep tournament, there were
seores of 106 to 100 and 102 to 100.
And 32-minute high school games,
too. Perpetual motion? Whew!

“Call it a marathon or a test of
endurance, but don’t call it basket-
ball,’ wrote Vance E. Geiger,
eoach at Hopkins, Missouri, high
school, recently in Scholastic Coach,
a magazine circulated among prep
coaches. ‘‘Every change over the
past few years has been intended
to support the fan who thought
the game was too slow. They for-
got that the game is supposed to
be a form of play and exercise in
which thousands of boys partici-
pate each year.”’

Various surveys have been taken
in recent years to discover what
harmful effects, if any, are being
shown by the players. The findings
show wide variance.

One of the most comprehensive
was made at Rockford, Illinois,
two years ago. Players were tested
over half adozen games by a group
of physicians for pulse, blood pres-
sure and other reactions. Check-
ups were made before, immedi-
ately after and twenty minutes
after each game.

Pulse reading before a game

Mayhem at the Box Office

Continued from page 72

ranged from 52 to 84. After its
finish they were from 80 to 126.
Twenty minutes later they ranged
from 72 to 114—all for the same
group of boys. The findings of the
committee, briefly, were:

‘1. The hearts of all the players
were functioning well after each
game and no excessive fatigue was
noted.

‘*2. In no ease was there a tend-
ency toa heart rate in excess of the
physiological norm after any of
the games.

‘*3. No untoward symptoms were
complained of by any of the
players.

‘‘4. The medical, insurance and
physical education literature offers
no conclusive evidence of cardiac
or blood vascular damage to the
individual that can be attributed
to his athletic activity, providing
his heart was normal before enter-
ing the training period.”’

Good enough. And we do not
question the sincerity of the com-
mittee. But the medics thought-
fully added this reeommendation:

“That the committee on rules
increase the rest period of one
minute between quarters to two
or three minutes and would espe-
cially urge that captains, officials
and coaches take full advantage of
the time out privilege as now
granted in the rules. This, we be-
lieve, would be an added safeguard

against the possibility of over-
fatigue.”

Now you see it, now you don’t!

Along about the same time two
estimable gentlemen in Kenosha,
Wisconsin, Fred V. Hein and Dr.
A. J. Randall—were conducting
similar experiments. They drew
this conclusion, in contrast to the
Rockford findings:

‘There is an appreciable differ-
ence in physiological effect in the
old and new games... Many may
feel that the difference is not suffi-
ciently great to seriously affect a
player. However, when one con-
siders that basketball has always
been a strenuous activity, that a
boy plays not one game, but many
during the season, and may par-
ticipate over a period of years,
things appear in a different light.”

Down at De Pauw University in
Greencastle, Indiana, Paul J. Fay
and Lloyd L. Messerschmidt rigged
up an apparatus which compared
old and new basketball from a
ground-covering standpoint. Their
gadget revealed that collegians
now run from 3.87 to 3.97 miles in
a game, as compared to 2.25 to
2.50 under the previous rules,
while the mileage of prep basket-
eers also has been increased from
fifty to sixty per cent.

And finally comes a clincher
from Dr. Forrest C. ‘‘Phog’’ Allen,
coach of the 1936 Olympic basket-

ESQUIRE

ball team, director of physical edu-
cation and basketball coach at the
University of Kansas. Phog is re-
garded as about the final authority
on basketball in all its ramifica-
tions. Says he:

‘There is grave danger to the
health of junior high and younger
high school boys—especially to
their growth—by continued strain
of the shuttle, hockey type of
basketball.

‘‘As chairman of the National
Basketball Research Committee,
we are constantly doing research
work on the effect of the game.
And it has shown the new game
is injurious to growing youth!”’

Dr. Allen offers a plan to re-
store the center jump, but in a
modified fashion. The principal
objection was that it put too much
emphasis on height (although
bean-pole construction is still con-
sidered a valuable asset).

“Why not,” asks Dr. Allen, “‘ro-
tate the center jump among the
players on each team? Each club
would use a ‘jumping order’ and
after a successful field goal or free
throw, the players would rotate
the center jump exactly as a base-
ball team follows its batting order.
This would eliminate most of the
inequalities of the past.”

What do other coaches think
about the modern game? View-
points, perhaps, may be shaded

 

   
   
      
       
 
   
   
     

 

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