Connecticut western news., 1880-03-24
New Haven Letter.

This is the time of year at Yale when new life and vigor is infused into college thletics The athletes who have been compelled to cherish their muscles in the close quarters and crowded air of the gymnasium will have the opportunity to again bend to their work over the springy ash, and once more enjoy the de
 lights of fresh air and out door exercise. In few days the boating season will open in earnest. The Varsity" will take longer pulls, and keep strcter diet. The harbor will be covered with class crews and single shells in practice for the spring regatta; and the ball field will attract thither the bl le uni formed candidates for the Yale nine of 1880.
 The decisive defeats of the Yale crew by Harvard for the last three years, have dealt severe blow at boating matters here. And when at the opening of college last fall Cap tain Rogers tried to get two -eights into tram ing, it seemed an almost hopeless task, and it was only by the utmost efforts that he and Mir. Keller could induce eleven men to be- come candidates for the new crew. This lack of interest in Yale's greatest athletic sport was duo partly to the fact that candidates had never been required to train before in the fall, and the best men were dcvoting their atten- tion and muscles to football; and because ot the feeling of the utter hopelessness of our trying to beat Harvard, while their old crew, nearly all, still remain in or near the college and could and would row again if they cons1d- l cred it necessary. Our faculty, always an un- known and unruly factor in Yale athletics
 had shown marked signs of displeasure with boating. The captain this year, for the first time in Yale boating history, is from the scientific school, and the academies from whom all the rest of this years crew is to come, have not the confidence in him that they would have in one from their own de- partment. When MT. Keller, the largest and strongest oar in last years boat and an en- thusiast in rowing left college, boating stock | took another tumble, but the disbandlng of | the football team returned some of the athlet- | ic material to training for the crew, and mat ters began to look up again. But in spite of the want of enthusiasm in college in general, the men who could be obtained, were put to work at once in the gymnasium. The open ] winter allowed the great advantage of getting the men into the boat earlier than ever before, in fact they have been on the water nearly all winter. This commencing training at the beginning of the college year, IS the new de- parture" of Captain Rogers, about which so much has been sad and so much more will be said, for and against it.. Upon this thew | departure" Yale bases her hopes of this years crew There IS this much in it's favor: | the crew can be picked out much earlier than by the old way, thus giving the "University" proper five six weeks longer to get into cond tion than $ for nerly allowed when the tram i'd not b. gin till the middle of Jan- | uary, and longer tune is given to get rid of individual faults and weaknesses, which are
 lways so discouraging to the coach, when later in the season the general "form" and st.oke of the crew are all he can attend to.
 The apathy towards the crew, so apparent all winter among the undergraduates, is now | beginning to disappear, as 1t is seen how hard and faithful the men have worked. And it
 ioesn't take very penetrating eye to per-
 'eive that the 80 crew will yet get her share
 If the praise that belongs to her and her
 sturdy captain. Although the interest now
 enters on the nine. the only one ot Yale's rep resentat yes upon whom Victory perched her
 , nners in 1879; the early date of the spring
 egatta the organization of class crews, the ia t of there beng freshman eight in prac
 t ce and thelr desire for a challenge from the Harvir freshmen, are all strong evidences
 't revlviag energy in boating matters, wh 'ch w Il orly culmmate in the annual struggle on the Thames, July2. H.