The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-10-09
TOO MUCH ATHLETICS.
Must Not Be Allowed to Interfere
With Other Work.

New York, Oct Sat a conference
representing the faculty committees on
athletics of the principal American uni
versities which was held at Brown uni
versity, Providence, R. L, on February
IS, 1898, q subcommittee, composed Of
Professors Wilfred Harold Munro of
Brown university, Benjamin Ide Wheeler
of the University of California James
Furman Kemp of Columbia university,
Louis Munro Dennis of Cornell univer-
sity, Ira Nelson Hollis of Harvard uni
versity, George Stuart Patterson Of the
University of Pennsylvania, and Henry
Burchard Fine of Princeton university,
was appointed to investigate the entire
matter of intercollegiate competitions in
all its phases and to prepare a report
upon the same. On account of the diff
Guilty in finding times when all the
ismemb hers of the committee could be pres
ent for the discussion of the various
questions which arose the final report
of the committee has been much de-
layed and has just been made public.
The report states that at present
athletic sports occupy a, disprOpOrt1on-
ate amount of attention in many of our
universities, colleges and schools and
the main end of all rules must be to
prevent outdoor sports and physical ex-
erciSes from interfering with the mental
and moral attachments 1t seems far
wiser to mend abuses by guidance and
regulation than to end them by the
abolition of the sports
It is obvious that all colleges and uni
versities should have requirements as to
the scholarship of their teams. Every
member should be in good standing No
student should be permitted to make
athletics the principal occupation OF his
| college life.
Only students who are genuine mem
bers of a university should be permitted
| to appear in public exhibitions, and gate
| money considerations should be wholly
| eliminated from the games
The committee considers that there is
! no reason why college teams, or even
parts of college teams, should be as
sembled for practice during the sum
mer; and when they receive a money
| benefit by having even their expenses
paid the practice trenches dangerously
near professionalism. 1t would be better
| if all universities and colleges could be
| brought to give up even the preparatory
practice two weeks before the term
| opens.
Another practice which the committee
| considers Objectionable is the interior
ence with boys who have developed a
taste for athletics in the preparatory
| schools. In many cases correspondence
| is opened by graduate committees in
search of athletic material, or emissaries
| are sent out and influence thrown
around schOolboys to induce them to
| enter certain institutions. Sometimes
even financial aid is promised toward an
| education. Some of our universities are
|
looking up likely athletes among the
| schools.
The committee believes that the large
| sums of money taken in at many of the
! football games from a constant tempta-
| ton to extrava gance and to the Illicit
use of money. and recommends that gate
| money should be reduced to a minimum
| by agreement of all universities
A set of rules is submitted and recon-
mended for adoption. Many of these are
| already in force at the principal univer-
| stiles, but, as the committee remarks,
their enforcement is not all that could
| be wished by the friends Of amateur
| athletics" Chief among them is the
| stringent amateur rule now in force at
| Columbia. and the rule which forbids
a special student from taking part IN
! any competition until he has been a year
| at the university The latter rule is
made even more stringent by a clause
| which requires that he shall take a
| course equivalent to that prescribed for
! candidates for a degree in the depart
| rnent of which he is a, member