Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-18
TALES ATHLETIC FINANCES.

ale has stood for fair sport and fair play as squarely as any of the great universities of athletic prominence. but the influences working against the Worfn1est ideals of sport have affected the system at New Haven. This criti- clsm finds solid grounds in the latest report of the Yale Financial union. That the total receipts of the universf- Ly athletics for one year should be SlOO,0OO, all amount nearly as large as that derived from the univers .ty funds, and enough to pay the salaries Of forty professors, is not an indict- ment against the athletic administra- ton. 1t is only sign of the times. But the ltemized accounts tell another story. that of the fragrant abuse of the training table system. Last year the crew training table cost $1 .O64, and the oarsnlen paid in board. against this outlay the pitiful total of $125. The track team cost $1,471, and the ath- ietes paid in for their board the amount of $17.50.
 Tn other words, for boating and track athletics last year there were paid out S2.535 for, training tables in New Ha- ven, with only $141.5O in repayments, or less than 6 per cent of the total. It is easy to explain the meaning of this. Every athlete at a Yale training table IS supposed to pay for his board the weekly amount his means would allow him to pay elsewhere. He cannot ob- tain table board in New Haven un- der four dollars week, and this may De accepted as minimum rate. The athletic management pays in theory the difference between this sum and the greater cost of training table board i9 joUi iY,oa %ea does not impair the spirit of anna teurism.
 Now, what does the statement from the Yale Athletic union show? In four months at the training table the oars man able to pay only four dollars week for his board would contribute nearly seventy dollars toward the cost Of running the training table. Yet the total revenue from this source was $125 for the season. This means that nine men of the eleven in the univer- sity crew squad, not including the four-oar and the pair-Oar crews, or total of about twenty men, paid not one cent into the treasury of the Ath- letic union for their board from early In March to the last end of June. Again. the outlay for the ordinary table expenses must include the cost of the tables and quarters at Gales Ferry, which adds the large figure of $3,O46, total of $4,11O, under this one head. This total outlay does not affect the issue under discussion, how ever, save for the extravagance of management indicated.
 But the fact which is most damag- ing to the standard of sportsmanship is that practically all of the universi- ty oarsInen were given and accepted their board for four months without accepting cent for it. In track ath- letics the showing was much worse
 The training is not as long, and the total outlay is smaller than for the 1 crews, but the payments made by the athletes amounted to $17.50 according to the official figure.
 The Yale track squad taken to the training table for at least two months number from twenty to thirty men. All these repaid for their board the total cost of feeding one man for a
 month at & cheap New Haven board ] ing house, an item so small as to be
 Insignificant These figures are made public with no attempt to hide them. 1 Apparently the officers of the Yale Athletic union see nothing wrong
 with them. The public interested in
 college sports is free to make their
 own deductions.
 But the statement can mean noth- ing else than the rowing and track
 men of Yale are given free board
 through the training season, and do
 therefore by just so much receive sub-
 stantial reward for their services. l In other sports the rule was not so
 reckIessly swept aside. The football
 men paid $753 for their board, and l the baseball men did better with a total of $S63. But free board is the
 rule for boating and track organiza- l tions.-Illusrated Sporting News.