Arachnid
Bench player
1/1/1915 RTD
(Stumbled on this trying to find Gov Spottswoods grave site). Not certain what happened on the copy and paste format)
College Athletics Need More Control
In a paper read before the National
Collegiate Athletic Association Conven
tion in Chlra^o, C. W. Savage, si11»l»^ti«-
director at Oberlln College, declared
thai there arc two meat aspects of tho
athletic problem in the colleges.edu-j
rational and professional. In the early
years of college sports in America only j
the recreational, hygienic and social as-
pects were recognized. Thore, In a snr-
prlsingly short time, strong athletic,
associations, controlled entirely by stu¬
dents, flourished, and soon obtained
great power. Young and inexperienced
stiident managers abused the power,;
and made mistakes, causing nilsunder-
standing and friction, which brought
about tiie graduate iimnaRers, and for
a time the athletic ship sailed smooth¬
er seas.
But sports well managed grew In
popularity both with the students and
with the public.. The graduateman-
aRcr was a business man, and, with an
eye to business, he saw that greaterj
(rate receipts meant hotter facilities,
more equipment and the means of at-j
talning better results. Better results
to tho students, to the alumni, to the
graduate manager, and even to the fac¬
ulty, ment more athletic victories. |
The business man's business grew. The
training table, the training quarters,
the return of star graduates to help
coach, the high-salaried professional
coach, magnificent athletic fields. end
imposing stadia were all made possible
by good business methods and by the
skill of the graduate managers In ex¬
ploiting the loyalty of alumni. Hut tbo
Athletic Association was not an educa¬
tional body. The graduate manager
was not an educator. lie was closer
to the alumni than to the faculty. Mis
great enterprise assumed rucli propor¬
tions, and its exactions on the time
and thought of the .students became so
heavy that scholastic pursuitswere
considerably Interrupted.
(irmliintr Control llegnn.
Here with characteristic consorva-i
tjsm, college authorities came forward
with a harmless prescription for fac¬
ulty control.an advisory athletic
committee, composed of some members
of the faculty with sporting proclivi¬
ties. a proportion of real sports from
the alumni, ami a representation of un¬
dergraduates. This committee advised
the graduate manager, and even did
more, but the graduate manager still.
for the most part, had his own way.
The athletic associations have grown
into corporations, and now hold prop¬
erty worth millions. Intercollegiate
sport has gradually become commer¬
cialized and professionalized. The
goodname of the student athlete has
often been smirched by proselyting and
subsidizing, and our controversy of j
amateurism vs. professionalism has
grown ever more insistent. How can
we expect professionalized sport to turn
out amateur sportsmen? I believe that
college and university presidents and
thinking people in general who have
the courage to face the situation j
squarely feel with President Wilson j
that there is real danger of the side
show becomingrnoro important than
the main tent.
During the last few years slight In-
dilations of attempts at readjustment
have appeared. The place of play Is
coming to be recognized. The educa-
tlonal world is in travail, and there
is hope that a new athletic era is to
be born,an era with an athletic policy
that shall be the legitimate offspring
of an educational system: a child, sane,
sensible, sturdy and strong, who will,
by the might of his clean ancestry
and undoubted parentage, beat down
his bullying, braggart of a bastard
brother until he shall come to recog¬
nize his rightful place In tho educa¬
tional family clrclq. I
But possibly the sturdy younger son |
has already been conceived. In almost
any college faculty you will now hud
a few men of vision who are begin¬
ning to preach the doctrine that play-
has a real and distinctive place in edu¬
cation, and even in higher education.
What that place should he, 1 would
like to discuss here, but >t is outside
the province of this paper. But what
of the place of play In education at
the present time?
Condition*) Improved.
The facts of the case are that there
is little or no justiilcation of the
present status of intercollegiate sport
as a legitimate interest in an edu¬
cational system. Thanks to the in¬
fluence or the association, and to tho
zealous and indefatigable efforts of the
friends of good sport, working through
local conferences, the conditions sur¬
rounding intercollegiate sport have
improved tremendously in late years,
as far as public performances and ex¬
ternal conditions arc concerned. But
with the great educational and moral
principles underlying sport, and with
the question of amateurism, little prog¬
ress is being made. The difficulties in
both of these respects are largely due
to one and the same cause. Under ex¬
isting conditions promising young ath¬
letes in high schools and academies arc
rounded up by alumni scouts or other
agenclos, they receive Inducements of
one sort and another, in many cases
legitimate and in many other cases
such as to prostltuto all moral integ¬
rity. But whether rightor wrong, the
athlete is zealously sought after, and
that because 1(0 Is an athlete. If pos¬
sible, ho is placed under obligations
beforo reaching college; he is even
steered to tho proper lilting school of
the particular college.
ile thus enters college with tho
wrong Idea of the relativo Importance
of sport ami study. Once In college
ho lives in an athletic atmosphere thai
is commercialized and professionalized.
Neither time nor expense Is spared to
tit hiin to deliver. With professional
coaches, paid enormous salaries for a
season's work; with the high-salaried
trainer and his retinue; with a famous
old grad.a thousand miles away sum¬
moned by telegraph, expense* paid,
to show lilm how to lengthen his punt
a couple of yards; with scouts who
have watched < very game of opposing
teams throughout tlie season, returning
for the week prior to meeting this or
that opponent and coaching how to
meet the particular opponent's play;
with trips Involving three or four da\s
absence from Classen; with a week
Spent at the seashore or mountains
away from/the classroom.with all of
these things and countless others, what
idea of sport is the student to get? Is
It sport or Is It business;a pastime
..r a profession? la is more Import¬
ant than studies or not?
That our student athletes carry
themselves as well as they do under
these circumstances Is a tremenrtouH
tribute^to the stuff of which theyare
made. That theyare able to do any¬
thing with their studies Is almost In¬
conceivable, yet here again thoy acquit
themselves surprisingly well.
\\ liolr l'rogrnm in Wrong.
Rut the whole program Is funda-
mentallv wrong. The whole scheme is
professionalized. Ktllclency Is .level-
oped down to the minutest detail. -No
captain of Industryor corporation
board of directors could map out a
plan of campaign and carry It out with
greater etliclency. The fcoaches and
the managers In our great colleges
leave no stone unturned that victories
may result. Money Is povred out like
water. The student playersare mere
pawns, a hand of picked nieti trained'
and groomed for the day of tj\e contest.
That the boys like this sort'ef thing,
and that athletic honors are coVey*1is neither here nor there. In splto o
multitudinous rules of eligibility, in
spite of gentlemen's agreements, li >
spite of <|itasl-facnlty control, we stll I
have inside nt calls for rule revislom#.-J
we still have men actually hired to'
play football on college teams, wo
still have men competing four and five I
years, we still have boys lying about ^
their amateur standing,we still lia\»
charges made against the morality of
intercollegiate sport.
All tli^se things and countless oth¬
ers exist because of the system that
has gradually developed. Since the^be-
ginning of intercollegiate football each
institution has attempted to get ahead
of its rival In preparedness for tho
game. The time for disarmament has
come. Athletic troubles will never
grow less, discussions over the defini¬
tion of an amateur never cease until
there, is a radical readjustment of the
athletic system at least as far as In¬
tercollegiate football Is concerned.
That the great universities will soon
change their methods is doubtful, but
reformation or revolution must come.
Schedules should be greatly cut down,
or different teams sent into different
"imes. In the great games the days
should he a holiday for both Institu¬
tions. The one, both students and fac¬
ulty. should be guests of the other.
Hospitality should he extended and ro-
ceiVed. Most of the troubles might be
eliminated if gate receiptswero done
away with, and attendant}*? be by stu¬
dent tickets or invitation. There is
110 reason whya sane athletic system
should not be supported by endowment,
and run on a carefully prepared budget.
The sport would then be runningon a
strictly amateur basis, and" most of the
evils would die a natural death. An¬
other suggestion would be to schedule
intercollegiate meets between doparti
ments or classes. If Intercollegiate
games are good for twenty-five playerJ
out of five thousand students, why noj
good for a hundred or five hundredl
Doubtless many other and better sug|
gestions oould be made.
(Stumbled on this trying to find Gov Spottswoods grave site). Not certain what happened on the copy and paste format)
College Athletics Need More Control
In a paper read before the National
Collegiate Athletic Association Conven
tion in Chlra^o, C. W. Savage, si11»l»^ti«-
director at Oberlln College, declared
thai there arc two meat aspects of tho
athletic problem in the colleges.edu-j
rational and professional. In the early
years of college sports in America only j
the recreational, hygienic and social as-
pects were recognized. Thore, In a snr-
prlsingly short time, strong athletic,
associations, controlled entirely by stu¬
dents, flourished, and soon obtained
great power. Young and inexperienced
stiident managers abused the power,;
and made mistakes, causing nilsunder-
standing and friction, which brought
about tiie graduate iimnaRers, and for
a time the athletic ship sailed smooth¬
er seas.
But sports well managed grew In
popularity both with the students and
with the public.. The graduateman-
aRcr was a business man, and, with an
eye to business, he saw that greaterj
(rate receipts meant hotter facilities,
more equipment and the means of at-j
talning better results. Better results
to tho students, to the alumni, to the
graduate manager, and even to the fac¬
ulty, ment more athletic victories. |
The business man's business grew. The
training table, the training quarters,
the return of star graduates to help
coach, the high-salaried professional
coach, magnificent athletic fields. end
imposing stadia were all made possible
by good business methods and by the
skill of the graduate managers In ex¬
ploiting the loyalty of alumni. Hut tbo
Athletic Association was not an educa¬
tional body. The graduate manager
was not an educator. lie was closer
to the alumni than to the faculty. Mis
great enterprise assumed rucli propor¬
tions, and its exactions on the time
and thought of the .students became so
heavy that scholastic pursuitswere
considerably Interrupted.
(irmliintr Control llegnn.
Here with characteristic consorva-i
tjsm, college authorities came forward
with a harmless prescription for fac¬
ulty control.an advisory athletic
committee, composed of some members
of the faculty with sporting proclivi¬
ties. a proportion of real sports from
the alumni, ami a representation of un¬
dergraduates. This committee advised
the graduate manager, and even did
more, but the graduate manager still.
for the most part, had his own way.
The athletic associations have grown
into corporations, and now hold prop¬
erty worth millions. Intercollegiate
sport has gradually become commer¬
cialized and professionalized. The
goodname of the student athlete has
often been smirched by proselyting and
subsidizing, and our controversy of j
amateurism vs. professionalism has
grown ever more insistent. How can
we expect professionalized sport to turn
out amateur sportsmen? I believe that
college and university presidents and
thinking people in general who have
the courage to face the situation j
squarely feel with President Wilson j
that there is real danger of the side
show becomingrnoro important than
the main tent.
During the last few years slight In-
dilations of attempts at readjustment
have appeared. The place of play Is
coming to be recognized. The educa-
tlonal world is in travail, and there
is hope that a new athletic era is to
be born,an era with an athletic policy
that shall be the legitimate offspring
of an educational system: a child, sane,
sensible, sturdy and strong, who will,
by the might of his clean ancestry
and undoubted parentage, beat down
his bullying, braggart of a bastard
brother until he shall come to recog¬
nize his rightful place In tho educa¬
tional family clrclq. I
But possibly the sturdy younger son |
has already been conceived. In almost
any college faculty you will now hud
a few men of vision who are begin¬
ning to preach the doctrine that play-
has a real and distinctive place in edu¬
cation, and even in higher education.
What that place should he, 1 would
like to discuss here, but >t is outside
the province of this paper. But what
of the place of play In education at
the present time?
Condition*) Improved.
The facts of the case are that there
is little or no justiilcation of the
present status of intercollegiate sport
as a legitimate interest in an edu¬
cational system. Thanks to the in¬
fluence or the association, and to tho
zealous and indefatigable efforts of the
friends of good sport, working through
local conferences, the conditions sur¬
rounding intercollegiate sport have
improved tremendously in late years,
as far as public performances and ex¬
ternal conditions arc concerned. But
with the great educational and moral
principles underlying sport, and with
the question of amateurism, little prog¬
ress is being made. The difficulties in
both of these respects are largely due
to one and the same cause. Under ex¬
isting conditions promising young ath¬
letes in high schools and academies arc
rounded up by alumni scouts or other
agenclos, they receive Inducements of
one sort and another, in many cases
legitimate and in many other cases
such as to prostltuto all moral integ¬
rity. But whether rightor wrong, the
athlete is zealously sought after, and
that because 1(0 Is an athlete. If pos¬
sible, ho is placed under obligations
beforo reaching college; he is even
steered to tho proper lilting school of
the particular college.
ile thus enters college with tho
wrong Idea of the relativo Importance
of sport ami study. Once In college
ho lives in an athletic atmosphere thai
is commercialized and professionalized.
Neither time nor expense Is spared to
tit hiin to deliver. With professional
coaches, paid enormous salaries for a
season's work; with the high-salaried
trainer and his retinue; with a famous
old grad.a thousand miles away sum¬
moned by telegraph, expense* paid,
to show lilm how to lengthen his punt
a couple of yards; with scouts who
have watched < very game of opposing
teams throughout tlie season, returning
for the week prior to meeting this or
that opponent and coaching how to
meet the particular opponent's play;
with trips Involving three or four da\s
absence from Classen; with a week
Spent at the seashore or mountains
away from/the classroom.with all of
these things and countless others, what
idea of sport is the student to get? Is
It sport or Is It business;a pastime
..r a profession? la is more Import¬
ant than studies or not?
That our student athletes carry
themselves as well as they do under
these circumstances Is a tremenrtouH
tribute^to the stuff of which theyare
made. That theyare able to do any¬
thing with their studies Is almost In¬
conceivable, yet here again thoy acquit
themselves surprisingly well.
\\ liolr l'rogrnm in Wrong.
Rut the whole program Is funda-
mentallv wrong. The whole scheme is
professionalized. Ktllclency Is .level-
oped down to the minutest detail. -No
captain of Industryor corporation
board of directors could map out a
plan of campaign and carry It out with
greater etliclency. The fcoaches and
the managers In our great colleges
leave no stone unturned that victories
may result. Money Is povred out like
water. The student playersare mere
pawns, a hand of picked nieti trained'
and groomed for the day of tj\e contest.
That the boys like this sort'ef thing,
and that athletic honors are coVey*1is neither here nor there. In splto o
multitudinous rules of eligibility, in
spite of gentlemen's agreements, li >
spite of <|itasl-facnlty control, we stll I
have inside nt calls for rule revislom#.-J
we still have men actually hired to'
play football on college teams, wo
still have men competing four and five I
years, we still have boys lying about ^
their amateur standing,we still lia\»
charges made against the morality of
intercollegiate sport.
All tli^se things and countless oth¬
ers exist because of the system that
has gradually developed. Since the^be-
ginning of intercollegiate football each
institution has attempted to get ahead
of its rival In preparedness for tho
game. The time for disarmament has
come. Athletic troubles will never
grow less, discussions over the defini¬
tion of an amateur never cease until
there, is a radical readjustment of the
athletic system at least as far as In¬
tercollegiate football Is concerned.
That the great universities will soon
change their methods is doubtful, but
reformation or revolution must come.
Schedules should be greatly cut down,
or different teams sent into different
"imes. In the great games the days
should he a holiday for both Institu¬
tions. The one, both students and fac¬
ulty. should be guests of the other.
Hospitality should he extended and ro-
ceiVed. Most of the troubles might be
eliminated if gate receiptswero done
away with, and attendant}*? be by stu¬
dent tickets or invitation. There is
110 reason whya sane athletic system
should not be supported by endowment,
and run on a carefully prepared budget.
The sport would then be runningon a
strictly amateur basis, and" most of the
evils would die a natural death. An¬
other suggestion would be to schedule
intercollegiate meets between doparti
ments or classes. If Intercollegiate
games are good for twenty-five playerJ
out of five thousand students, why noj
good for a hundred or five hundredl
Doubtless many other and better sug|
gestions oould be made.
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