Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-10-08
"Sport for Sports Sake"

! IA c,,,tv member Of the univerSity's ath-
| Jetic committee, expresses the hope in
| one of the magazines that the idea OF
| winning" may be lived down in all
branches of intercollegiate sport and
that the joy of sport for the sake of
! sport may be the prevailing motive in
these contests. Never mind who wins;
| sport for the sake of sport. Think OF
that undergraduates and alumni, who
surge along the sidelines madly cheer
ing your eleven as it rips up the op-
posing team and fights it's way from
bar to bar over the gridiron toward
the goal posts! Think of that, rooters
on the bleachers. as your college mate
pounds out the home run in the 10th
clinches the championship, while the
chapel bell over on the campus peals
above the cheering. Think of that.
YOU bows in the grandstand, coming to
your feet as the leaders in the half
mile run dash down the finish and the
man with your college letter on his
Jersey breasts the tape foot ahead OF
the fellow from that other institution!
Is il only the idea of sport for sports
sake which thrills your blood with
wild eXultation, and makes the songs
of Alma Mater into peans of glory and
victory? Is it?
While there is red blood in the veins
of young manhood the idea of winning
will not be eliminated or seriously
subordinated in intercollegiate con-
tests on gridiron, diamond. track or
river. To talk of college games for the
sake of sport alone is absurd, I'M
practical and anaemic. Without We
tory as an end to be gained by the ex-
ercise of skill, energy, endurance and
every fair means of brain and Drawn,
there would be nothing in college
games for participant or spectator.
snort for the sake of sport is fine
sounding phrase, but it is absolutely
empty and meaningless. Who can
conceive of an athletic contest, and an
intercollegiate contest, of all kinds,
with any zest or spirit in it, and the
earerness for victory absent?
The benefit of athletics is not only
in the manly exercise involved. The
determination to succeed, the feellnS
that the honor of the college is in ones
keeping. the bending of every energy IN
intense effort toward given end, the
sinking of self in the team-these are
in the training of the athlete and they
only come with the strenuous striving
for victory. In the stern game OF Ire
there is no sport for sports sake.
There the banquet rewards the victor
and starvation faces the vanquished.
The idea of winning cannot for
moment be forgotten if one does ones
duty by self and home and native land.
And it is the determined struggle Tor
the mastery on the athletic field and
for the medal on the track. as well as
the work in the laboratory and lecture
room. that helps fit the college boy Tor
a victory in the game of life.
1t is only when the rules of the
game are over-stepped and the lust for
victory drives out all spirit OF falr
rlay that the Idea of winning is car
ried too far. Perhaps it was the fear
of such a tendency which led Professor
Hollis to write what he did. we 90
not believe there is such tendency IN
orr American colleges. The spirit OF
orr athletics is well summed up in
President ROosevelt's admonition TO
American boys: Hit the line hard.
Don't foul and don't shirk, but hit the
line hard" There is no sport Tor
SPORTS sake" in that strenuous advice.
IT is the spirit which drives the foot
hall man to put every ounce in HIM
into the effort to gain another men
toward the goal line where victory Tor
his college lies.
There is little enough pleasure or
benefit in watching an intercollegiate
contest when one cares not which side
wins: and a contest where the con-
testant is not eager and determined to
win is almost beyond conception-tO
the college man, at least. There is an
inevitable suspicion that in making
plea for sport for sports sake. Pro-
fessor Hollis is influenced by the fear
that Harvard is not going to have
winning eleven. this fall.
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery
COMPANY of Boston has gone on an eX-