The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-26
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.
QUESTION STATUS OF AMERICAN
 COLLEGE ATHLBTES.

l HOES1ION STATUS OF AMERICAN
 COLLEGE ATHLETES.
 Answer of the English Universities to the
 Challenge Issued by the Executive Com-
 mittee of the Intercollegiate Amateur
 Athletic Association of America Made
 Public.
 New York, Feb. 25.-The executive committee of the inter- collegiate anna teur athletic association of America held a conference tonight at the Fifth
 Avenue hotel, which lasted from o'clock until midnight. One of the members said there was a hot discus- sion over the refusal of the English
 universities to accept the challenge of the American colleges for a series of
 two sets of games, one to take place in England this year, the other to be-
 held here next year. When the roll
 was called there were present Oliver
 Shiras of Cornell, president of the In-
 tercollegiate association; Henry w.
 Howe of Harvard, I. N. Swift of Yale. I. D. Winsor of Pennsylvania, R. K.
 Bird of Columbia, B. P. McVitty Of Princeton and J. B. Briggs of Univer- sfty of New York Johns- Hopkins university applied for admission. The application was passed upon favorably.
 The correspondence relating to tho
 proposed international intercollegiate games was laid before the committees. The first letter dated Philadelphia,
 December 3. 1897, was sent to the pres- ident of the athletic association of Ox- l ford and to Cambridge university by the committee appointed for the pur-l I pose. This committee consisted Of T Oliver Shiras of Cornell, president H. w. Howe of Harvard, g. K. Gerard of Yale, F. B. Ellis of Pennsylvania. The
 letter stated that the purpose was to. learn whether arrangements could be- made for a meeting between the wins
 ming contestants on both sides. The
 committee favored the holding of one
 series of such games in England and
 one series the following year in Amer
 ica at such times and places as would
 be convenient to the universities inter- ested. The letter further says in part:
 ''It is our thought to have the same
 nine events which you have now in yOuT 61IllcSs OuI LSttll WOUlu lG GO4klr
 posed of the winner and the second Tn
 the said nine events in our games : Each of our contestants is required to
 be certified to by two professors of his claim that he has been a student in a regular course at the college since the
 18th of the previous October. You
 could regulate your qualification to suit yourselves. The time most cons | a... 4o 1x. l, would be about the last of June or the , first of July. Your return visit to our : country could be made at time that ll was convenient to you. We have been I very strict of late years about xeqtirS
 ing our athletes to be bona fide stu- > dents and strict amateurs. We would . be quite willing to arrange with you : on any student amateur qualifica- tion that you might submit. We wilt } have no trouble in agreeing upon finan- l cial arrangements. We do not at press ent have three-mile race upon our programme, but we would add one at our annual meeting if the games were arranged. Our thought was to have two contestants in each event, although everything we suggest will be subject , to change
 | TGGD1lGS u lIllS AcLIcI WCIC ASSC1VSO from President Fremantle of the Ox- ford university Athletic club, and Press ident Carter of the Cambridge uniyer- sity Athletic club, promising to lay the |, matter before the athletic committees
 of the two universities. MT. Shiras.
 answering their letters, expressed his
 satisfaction and said that he hoped
 nothing would prevent the bringing ! ,f<Sf 1 the proposed meets.
 On February Il, 1898, MT. FreemantIe wrote from Oxford to MT. Shiras let-
 ter in which, in part, he said: My com-
 mittee would naturally wish to pro-
 mote the welfare of athletics by pro-.
 noting some international meetings of kind similar to that which you pro- pose. But after giving your proposals the, fullest consideration, and after hav-
 ing consulted some of the leading ath-
 letic authorities in England, they re-
 gret that they do not see their way just , yet to advise their club to enter upon
 such meetings, either by themselves or
 in conjunction with the Cambridge University Athletic club. It seems to my committee that the time has not , yet arrived when the truest interests of amateur athletic sports would be
 best served by such meetings taking place between English and American
 universities.
 As regards Oxford and Cambridge, !. it is universally recognized that no question as to the amateur and student
 status of their athletic representatives { can be raised, but on the other hand if my committee are rigidly advised , , there are difficulties surrounding both ; these points in many American univer-
 sities and colleges which render these questions of status alike uncertain and
 unsatisfactory. While recognizing gladly that some American universities
 and colleges are doing their best to re-
 move such difficulties and to render the
 status of their amateurs and students l both certain and satisfactory, my com
 mittee feel that t he most prudent
 course would be, in your interest as well as in their own, for them not to accept the present proposals under the existing conditions.