The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-10
MUST Be AMATEURS
M More Professionalism in
College Athletics.
NEW RULES STRINGENT
CONFERENCE RELD BY PROBES
soRS OF UNIVERSITIES.

New York. Oct Sat a conference
representing the faculty committees on
athletics of the principal American uni
versities which was held at Brown
university. Providence, r. l., on Feb.
Is. 1898. subcommittee, composed of
Professors Wnfred Harold Munro OF
Brown university. Benjamin Ide
Wheeler Of the University OF CaIifor-
mia. James Furman Kemp of Columbia
university. Louis Munro Dennis of Cor
nell university, Ira Nelson Hollis of
Harvard university. George Stuart
Patterson of the University of PennsyI-
vania, and Henry Burchard Fine oS
Princeton university, was appointed to
investigate the entire matter OF inter
collegiate competitions in all it's phases
and 10 prepare a report upon the same
on account of the difficulty in finding
times when all the members OF the
committee could be present for the dis
cussiOn OF the various questions which
arose. the final report of the committee
has been much delayed and has just
been made public.
The report states that at present ath-
letiC sports occupy a disprOportiOnate
amount OF attention in many OF our
universities colleges and school. and
the main end of all rules must be to
prevent outdoor sports and physical
exercises from interfering with the
mental and moral attainments. 1t
seems far wiser to mend abuses by
guidance and regulation than to end
them by the abolition Of the sports.
Must Study, Too. -
1t is obvious that all colleges and uni
verSitieS should have requirements as
10 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 i'm 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 bet
ter if all universities and colleges could
be brought to give up even the prepara-
tory practice two weeks before the term
OpeEA
Another practice which the commit
tee considers objectionable is the inter-
ference with boys who have developed
taste for athletics in the preparatory
schools In many cases correspondence
II NItAtu ny III duudtt committees IN
search Of athletic ma teriaI, or emissar-
les are sent out and influence thrown
around school boys to induce them to
enter certain institutions. Sometimes
even financial aid is promised toward
an education. Some of our universities
are reported to have a regular system
Of looking up likely athletes among the
schools
Illicit Use of Money.
The committee believes that the large
sums Of money taken in at many of the
football games form a constant temp
tatiOn TO extravaganza and to the il
liCit use OF money, and recommends
THAT gate money should be reduced to
g. minimum by agreement of all uni
VerSities.
\ set of rules is submitted and rec
for adoption. Many of these
are already in force at the principal
but as the committee re-
marks. their enforcement is not ali
that could be wished by the friends of
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 COM
petition 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 can
didates for a degree in the department
OF which he is a member.