Breath of Autumn

When Eskimos take up tennis it will be news not much more unexpected than last fortnight's reports from Mexico City. There, where people take siestas before the bullfight, was played football. Soccer has long flourished in the sunshine zone, but it is regulation U. S. football, in felt-padded moleskins, that University of Mexico students are learning to play.

Yale blue is the complexion of the U. S. State Department nowadays and Yale blue are the Mexicans' jerseys. Their coach is Reginald Root, burly Yale tackle of 1924-25. He was sponsored by Arthur Bliss Lane, Yale '16. chief of the State Department's Mexican section, and by James Rockwell Sheffield. Yale '87, one-time (1924-27) U. S. Ambassador to Mexico. His presence in Mexico was described as '"'a gesture of good-will." Ambassador Morrow contributed to the necessary fund.

In the University of Mexico's first game last fortnight against a pick-up team from the U. S. colony. Coach Root's swart quarterback cried signals in Spanish, drove the team through oldtime Yale formations, held the gringos to a scoreless tie.

Last week burly President Fortes Gil invited Coach Root to his castle at Chapultepec and said: "I shall be glad to give all possible encouragement to this sport in Mexico and shall look forward with pleasure to your next game. I shall be there.

"I look forward to the time when there will be ... games with colleges in the United States." In the U. S., the arrival of September brought the breath of autumn, the chug of preseason punts. From the colleges issued long publicity screeds on the sport which supports all the other sports.

P: From West Point came announcement of a Spartan schedule, including Harvard,

Yale, South Dakota, Illinois, Ohio Wesleyan, Notre Dame, Stanford.

P: To Dartmouth as a line coach went "Swede" Youngstrom', 1919 All-American Dartmouth guard who blocked 23 punts in one season. A stiffer line, less passing, is to be the new strategy at Dartmouth.

P: Knute Rockne, grizzled Notre Dame football coach, famed for frowning and talking dolefully about great teams before they went into action, lately spoke to a group of coaches at Northwestern University's summer school. Said he: "Pessimism as applied to football has been worked to death. It is time to swing back the other way. . . . Hereafter I will present a more or less radiant picture of my prospects." Of Notre Dame's nine games this fall, not one will be held in South Bend.

P: At the University of Illinois stadium, the gridiron, worn ragged, got a $3.000 resurfacing. Sod with a mixture of sand, clay, loam, best for drainage, most free from weeds, was found in a pasture, brought 15 miles to its final, glorious resting place.