Sport: Stagg Fears …

At Palm Springs, Calif, last week, football’s eldest statesman had a few words to say. White-haired Amos Alonzo Stagg, who began coaching when Knute Rockne was a two-year-old boy in Norway, had forgotten more about the game than some of the younger coaches present ever knew. He originated such things as the end-around play, the fake kickoff and the tackling dummy—and at 86, is still going strong as coach at Susquehanna University. Said Stagg at a National Collegiate Athletic Association rules committee meeting, where free substitution was the main topic:

“Players today are not trained or prepared physically to go an entire game . . . and [thus] never reach the peak of physical condition. They’re good passers, better catchers, and good kickers, but they lack stamina.” Then he allowed himself a Senecan lament on mid-Century males in general: “It is my opinion that the youth of today, on or off the gridiron, is not trained for total responsibility as the youth of my earlier years.”

The N.C.A.A. noted his remarks respectfully, then went on record against any major changes in ig48’s easy substitution rules.