The Washington times., 1902-04-20
Purifying Sport in Collegl-
ate Athletic Ranks.
HARVkRD'S LATEST SUSPENSIONS
Meetings of Basketball and
Indoor Baseball Leagues.
INDIVIDUAL BOWLING CONTEST
May "a Games-Probable Association
Entries-Baseball Schedule-Infantry's
Future Contes.s-Eme1son Institute.

The spirit of publication is abroad in
college athletic circles, and woe be to the
student who at any time lit matters not
how long ago nor how recently has been
guilty of any real or suspicion of profess
sionalism.
The application of the rule and the re-
sulting suspension of this or that player
is causing more uprising and objection
on the part of the graduates and under
graduates and the student body generally
than it brings protest from the suspended
player.
This was demonstrated last week when
Orville Franz, first baseman of the Har-
ward nine, was disqualified. He is one
of the greatest players thar ever repre-
sented the varsity, and his suspension at
the hands of the athletic committee was
one of the bitterest pills the athletic
coaches and students ever had TO swal-
low The committee says he violated a
rule. Under this rule he is professional.
The committee, however, does not say
that he is professional but merely sus-
pends him from the team for 'one or
more reasons" This is mere quibbling,
and If the man is a professional he should
be declared so, right out
Franz is practically as pure an amateur
as any college, athlete, his offense con-
sisting of having part of his expenses paid
while travelling with the amateur town
nine at his home in the West some seven
years ago, at a time when he never
dreamed of having to stack up against a
rule made by the Harvard athletic COM
mittee which is not strictly enforced
and which is certainly obnoxious alike TO
graduates and undergraduates.
A Snag for Harvard.
This suspension, coming on top of SINH
lar action in the cases of Storey and
Murphy, the crack infielders, has raised
no end of hard feeling. 1t has caused
much talk, and the truth is the Harvard
athletic committee has struck snag. Il
has professed to make Harvard athletics
SO clean and out of the reach OF sus-
picion that it set standards for itself and
this has nettled other Eastern colleges.
and one can hardly blame If they indulge
in quiet little laugh over the Cults in
cident.
The spirit of 'I am better than thou
first cropped out in the McCracken Incl
dent, in which there was considerable hard
feeling against Pennsylvania Then came
others. eliminating in the Glass incident,
which Yale SO gracefully but effectually
solved.
Then came the crash with Cults, and
with him the downfall of all the Harvard
athletic committees most cherished
boasts, for Cults was one of the truest
professionals that ever wore shoe.
A Reorganization Threatened.
1t was great blow to the athletic COM
mittee. One OF Harvard's well-known
coaches, a Harvard graduate and a coach
there practically every year since leaving
college and who is now in business in
Boston, summed it up today by saying
that the committee is trying TO walk so
straight that it is falling over backward.
He is authority for the statement that
graduates and the men who have come
out year after year since graduation to
coach Harvard teams are disgusted at the
methods of the athletic committee and
that some action will undoubtedly be
taken in the near future for the reorgani-
zation of the governing body in Cam
bridge. He says they have stood for &
great many things and do not propose to
see things go on as they have been any
longer.
II may result in abolishing all plans
and methods for the season at hand, and
IL all the coaches and many OF the ath-
letes "go out on a strike" the Crimson
will indeed be in sorry plight when it
comes time for track or field or aquatic
contests.
The question is asked why there should
be any leniency shown Drill, late catcher
for Georgetown, and who was suspended
for playing one game last week with the
American League team, which was minus
catchers. In answer TO the query it is
proper to add that the case is different.
Drill knew of the danger, and he was
warned against playing by Captain moran
and others, and however arbitrary the A
A. o. rule may be upon this particular
point it was rule nevertheless, and as
the intercollegiate Association is an allied
BODY of the A. A. T., the Georgetown
management. as a member Of the associ-
alton. could do nothing but enforce II,
even at the loss of one of its best players,
and Drill is, or was, undoubtedly the best
aIl-around man in college baseball
A Hard Problem to Solve.
Il, is admitted that the problem Of draw
ing the line between the amateur and pro-
fessionai is one of the most delicate ones
a college body has TO deal with. II the
line is drawn absolutely and without the
slightest compromise, it is safe TO say
that half the athletics in American col
leges would be disqualified. II men whose
carfares are paid while playing on a team
representing their home town are profess
s!onals, is not man a professional
whose new fall suit is paid for out OF the
funds of the football management; or the
man whose bill for a new suit of fannels
is paid for by the management OF base
ball?
Eligibility Committee in Order.
Things have come to such pass and
the athletes have so little show-I mean
those not shown to be flagrantiy guilty.
but the ones who have suspicion cast upon
their standing as amateurs-that a move
may be made to establish a general COM
mittee 10 have charge of college athletics,
which shall be to the colleges what the
A. A. U. is to amateur athletics in gen.
eral. This committee would be a sort Of
court Of appeal in cases where the ell
eibiIity of a student TO compete is in ques-
tion, something after the plan mapped
out last fall when the Cults and ether
cases were on
II has been thought by many college
men that some such committee would be
a great power for good in intercollegiate
athletics and uniform eligibility rules