TRAINING STRESSED AT FOOTBALL TALK

The 1925 football campaign got off to a running start last night with a meeting at the Varsity Club, at which over 150 prospective candidates assembled to hear, Captain M. A. Cheek Jr. '26, E. L. Farrell, Coach of the track team, and M. J. Logan '15, chairman of the Graduate Advisory Committee

Captain Cheek outlined the general scheme of the conditioning work for all football men, which will begin this afternoon and continue until spring. Classes in boxing, tumbling, and gymnastic exercises will be held at Hemenway Gymnasium, and on alternate days the men will run on the board track at Soldiers Field. Cheek strongly urged all men who intend to come out for football to carry on this work faithfully unless they are competing for some other organized sport.

A plan of a similar nature was in force to a certain extent last winter, but it was not as sweeping as the present scheme, and it was purely optional. It was patronized regularly by comparatively few men. Something of the same sort has been done at Princeton and Yale. Football coaches have almost unanimously endorsed the value of boxing for football men.

Speed Decisive Factor in Football

Coach Farrell made a plea for football players to come out for the track team. He declared that the speed and the competitive spirit developed by track work were both invaluable to football men. He asserted that between two teams equally good, speed is the decisive factor. As a proof of the value of track, he stated that all but two Harvard football men named for All-American teams since he had been at Harvard have also been track athletes.

The heavier football men were urged to try for the weight events and the others were recommended to try the running events. Several gridiron performers are already working out daily for the track team. Coach Farrell expects to develop some of these men into track point winners, and he guarantees to help all of them as far as their football ability is concerned.

M. J. Logan, emphasized the importance of one's mental condition in football and urged the men to keep football in the back of their heads 12 months a year. He also praised Captain Cheek's qualities of leadership, and predicted that the mental attitude at Soldiers Field next fall will be a winning one.

After the speeches moving pictures of the Princeton and Yale games of last fall were shown and discussed.