Omaha daily bee., 1894-02-25
PRESIDENT ELIOT ON ATHLETICS.

President Eliot's report to the overseers
of Harvard university made public last week
his promised recommendations with regard
to changes in the management of college
athletics, which have for some time been
eagerly anticipated in the student world.
President Eliot. ~prefaces his positive sug-
g%estions by a review Of the course of ath-
letics at Harvard in recent years, in which
he calls attention not only to the abuses
and exaggerations that have arisen in the
system, but also to the many advantages
which accrue to those who do not let their
athletic proclivities carry them to excesses.
Athletic sports are to be encouraged from
the university point of view only because
either they constitute wholesome pleasures
that do not interfere with work or they
serve to maintain healthy and vigorous
bodies in serviceable condition for the in
tellectual and moral life. SO far as they
assist in the upbuilding of the mind they
become an integral part of the college pro-
gram, but when they tend to obstruct the
real work of the student they Immediately
lose their usefulness. Athletics I'M the COL
lege world are to be judged solely by the
standard Of their success in promoting bet
ter work in the class room and the labora-
tory.
President Eliot gives ample testimony of
the fact that athletic sports do come up
to this standard and that with certain ex-
ceptions they operate to elevate the tone
Of the entire student body. He cites
statistics which show that a very large per-
centage of the students participate in
these SDOrtS I'm Soma wny or anntbar dur
ing their careers at the university and that
on the whole they benefit thereby. These
statistics are referred to for another pur-
pose, namely to prove that the greater num-
Der of those who offer to train for the col
lege teams belong to the first two years
of the course. The longer the student re-
mains at college, the less is his ambition
to represent the institution in intercdl-
legiate contests. Therefore President Eliot
recommends the complete abolition of in
tercollegiate freshman contests, presumably
with the expectation that such a move would
spread participation in the athletic sports
more evenly through the whole student
body. Against this it may be urged
that discouraging freshmen athletics need
not necessarily promote athletics in the
upper NiaSScS lOT tHe reason tnaL unless
the student catches the athletic fever on
entering college he rarely does so after
ward. The very statistics cited in the re-
port go to show that the more students
attracted TO athletics when freshmen, the
more continue the practice in succeeding
years of their course.
The other suggestions of President Eliot
are all in the line of mitigating the evils
of professionalism and brutality in what he
calls the three highly competitive sports,
boat racing, base ball and foot ball, partlcu-
larly the latter. The risks Of these contests
are run by only a very small percentage Of
the total number OF students who take to
athletics. They are not only injurious, but
also unnecessary. To do away with them.
President Eliot would bar out the so-called
professional student, he would forbid the
same student to take a place on more than
one university team In the same year. he
would conlne intercollegiate games to the
college fields OF one or other of the partic-
ipants, and finally he would reduce the num-
Der of intercollegiate contests in any one
sport to not more than one in every two
years, The last two recommendations are
aimed at the tendency to make these con
tests mere money-making speculations and
the consequent evils OF gambling and of
wanton waste and reckless extravaganza
with the funds belonging to the different
athletic associations. With the premises OF
President Ellot's discussion OF college ath-
%letics, that grave abuses exist in the sys-
tenn. and that these abuses call for prompt
| and effective measures on the part Of the