The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-03

world cannot impeach their regularity
Ihey exist, and as long as present con-
ditlOns last viii continue to eVist You
cannot deprive q man Of a right to
earn his way through q university, Il
IL when his work Isl no work and his
pay comes from the misappropriated
funds Of an athletic association that his
motives can be questioned.
Secondly. the professional coach is
charged with the use and abuse of the
men who are placed at his disposal for
the advancement of his own interests;
that he sacrifices the good OF the indi-
Vidual to the good of the team: that
permanent injuries or broken health is
the result of forced action on the part
of the athlete when he is unfit for VIC
lent exercise, and that he forgets the
men under his direction are there not
only 10 learn TO be strong physically,
but mentally and morally as well.
= =
These are the principal charges that
have been brought against the profess
sional coaching system. Others have
been advanced, but they sink into COM
parative insigniticance beside the ones
mentioned. The press and the pulpit
have re-echoed the whole story from
brutally TO moral degeneracy, and all
hands unite in laying the evil at the
door OF the professional coach. The
present system is said to be on trial,
and the future hangs in the balance
It is not the system OF professional
coaching that is on trial but the Amer
lean system OF university athletics
that is before the bar; only "A blind
public opinion does not understand
what 1t is arraigning.
If there is one thing that is charac-
teristic of our American life IL is the
desire for success. There is no he'll so
terrifying; as the he'll Of failure. sue
cess must be achieved now as never be-
lore. To let up for a single instant is
10 slip back. Is there little wonder
then that the same spirit should dom
mate the comparative athletics OF the
universities? To win is to be success
ful. Standard of scholarship in popu-
lar estimation is judged by the success
OF a football team, and how much the
Michigan machine has done to build up
that wonderful university is a matter
Of conjecture. So much for the spir-
1t that is the dominant one not only in
business. but III education as well. To
the perversiOn of this same spirit can
~ 'AN~-~N 81 IAiett 10 SN u III CDilt5SE
sport
our coaches are not told they must
produce winning teams. They are dis
missed if they do not and another man
Is employed TO produce the desired re-
suit. And the days of glory, Of blaz-
ing bonfire, Of nightshirt parades, and
and of big registrations in the fan
have come again.
Now let US see what price has been
paid for this particular brand of sue
cess, trdceable. not 20 the profession
al coach. but TO an unthinking uni
Versity.' In the first place the presence
Of the professional on the squad has
kept the amateur from the field. Foot
ball as college sport has been res
tricted TO twenty men in 1000, and
these twenty men have been secured. -
Secondly, the big uniVeIs ity has CO.
creed every minor college within a ra-
dius Of 800 miles to adopt It's own
brand OF dishonor in self-defense. The
eddies OF thought thus created reach to
the high sohol itself Sport has be-
come a commercial enterprise.
This is the limit we have reached.
Lust for victory begat professionalism,
and professionalism brutality, and each
the other. The whole case becomes not
q case against the coaches, bur case