The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-21
BROWN STANDS FOR
HONEST ATHLETICS
Accepts Professional Athletes
Only When They Are Bona
Eide Students.

BUFFALO, N. Y, Feb. 20-Brown has
exploded a mine under the whole college
fabric OF the East. The action of the
board Of athletic control of that univer-
sity passing rules which allow members
Oh summer baseball mines to play on the
coilege nine and permitting professionals
10 complete If they are bona fide students
mas raised a storm which will be heard
away around the college world
Universities like Yale and Harvard
nave immediately assumed holier- than
thou attitude and denounce the radical
action of the Brown board. Not onlv
has that body which has taken such a
fearless and forward step been criticised
abroad, but It's plans are meeting with
determined opposition at home. Mass
meetings of students have been called
and have been addressed by such able
Brunonians as Hamilton Lamont. editor
OF the New York Evening Post; President
Faunce and other distinguished men who
vigorously protest.
Courtney Langdon. professor Of Eng
llSh, has made bold stand in favor Of
the innovation, and says that colleges
had better throw off the cloak and come
out in the true light This original think
er has carried about all of the student
body with him in spite of the opposition
Of other influential men interested in the
university. The colleges Of the East
stand aghast while internal dissensiona
in regard to athletic policy stir the Prov
idence institution.
All colleges have made for stricter eIigi-
bility rules the past few years. Play
ing summer ball has been frowned on
and in most schools forbidden on penalty
of exclusion from college teams Despite
the rulemakers it is a fact which cannot
be controverted that many cOlegiana
have played baseball for money on minor
state league and semi professional teams.
There Is also more than a suspicion that
many athletes in the universities are d.
rectly or indirectly paid for their athletic
services. A really great football player,
great track athlete or crack baseball
man has little trouble in meeting his ex-
penSes in college If the money Is not
paid to him from hand to hand he will
wake up some morning and find sufficient
of the wherewithal in his inside pocket to
pay his room rent, buy a meal ticket and
have plenty of change to spare for in
cidentals Very few colleges in the East
can place a team in the field which Is
not tainted more or less with profession
alism. Some Of the best athletes in every
school have taken the money, but in
many instances have not been caught al
1t.
One-Year Rule Safeguard.
The argument advanced is that as long
as a candidate for team is a bona fide
student and has perhaps been forced to
stay one year in college before he can
compete. he is entitled to wear a letter
as much as the so-called simon pure
athlete who perhaps some time has play
ed ball on corner lot nine or run at a
Fourth Of July celebration.
The one-year rule would stop all abuses
of a man entering college for the sole
purpose of representing the school on a
team. If he was obliged to remain in
college a year and pass all scholarship
requirements very few abuses could creep
In under the system proposed at Brown.
The position taken by Brown is viz
tually a stand for honesty In athletics.
1t invites other schools to throw off the
mask and stand out in the limelight
swim against the tide? No probably
not. The more conservative members
of the corporation will repudiate the
advanced action of the board Stifle the
clare that Brown must be represented
by amateurs in all branches of athletics.
When this iron-clad rule is reaffirmed.
as 1T has been done at rival institutions,
the student with baseball or other ath-
letic ability will sneak away to some re-
mote region, change his name and earn
what money ne can.
The argument Is advanced that II a
student has ability to play baseball for
hire, why is it not just as legitimate as
it Is to wait on table at a. summer no
Tel OF JuRRlb Win u typewriter. Ii Ills
natural bent is in the direction Of sport
and he can earn the capital to pay his
way through college hard-headed bust
ness men and people generally who are
of sport which were imported to this
country from England will say that it
is right for him to go out and get the
money.
Different in England.
In England the spirit of amateurism IS
carried to extreme limits On the island
an athelete must be a gentleman as well
as an amateur. That is. he must not
work with his hands if he wishes to com
pete in any branch Of sport. This idea
may grow In America until the poor stu
dent is excluded from sports. The wealthy
Notwithstanding gentleman only will
be allowed to make the football and other
teams. This was the state Of affairs at
few years ago until aroused by
defeats this spirit was booted out Of Cam
bridge.
While amateurism should be encouraged
and makes on the whole for cleaner bet
eligibility rules are carried to ridiculous
extremes under present standards.
If the Brown board has the nerve to
stick to its advanced ruling and turns
deaf ears On the mouthings of learned
professors at home and the sneers Of rivals
who secretly tolerate the same sort of
thing, tremendous reversal in standards
is apt to be attained In few years. Men
have been barred from both Yale and Har-
ward teams the past five years, but not
until their opponents found them out
Every effort is made to conceal an ath-
lete's record on his own campus, and IL
he Is expelled at all it is because rival
digs up his past. And there are very few
amateur athletes today who have not a
past. III they conform to all Of the re-
qufrements that are laid down for them
they are pretty near saints. but unfor-
tunately they do not. Brown asks them
to come out I'm the open, call a spade a
spade and be honest with themselves and
the rest of the world.