Evening star., 1905-10-29

American athletics professional and anna
teur. as any man of his age in the United
States Passing through all the degrees OF
college athleticism, noted adept in many
games. particularly foot ball. he developed
into one Of the most highly rated profess
sional ball players in the country. He Is q
shrewd and much-sought foot ball COACH
and he knows all of the kinks or track
events, inside and out.
Capt. Jake was in town upon the occasion
of the recent visit of the university FOOT
ball coaches. who came to Washington at
the invitation of the President to discuss
ways and means for modifying the brutal
ity of the game of foot ball. and. being well
acquainted with most of these coaches he
foregathered with them during their stay in
Washington and went over the athletic sit
uation generally with them. In the course
of these chatty conversations with the
coaches Capt. Stahl gave modest expression
to some ideas of his own on the athletic
situation that are worth reproducing.
I'm one of the young fellows yet. he
said land l don't claim to be possessed or
any gift of prophecy. but 1 think l can
foresee the beginning CT a change In the
college athletic system Of this country.
''The competitive idea has already caused
so many abuses that Il seems to me this
change is bound to come. We have become
altogether too eager on the 'beat-em-out
idea The sole idea has become to wallop
the rival crowd. The predominant notion
of the one college Is to inflict defeat upon
the other college in foot ball, base ball,
rowing, track events. The hankerfng to
win at any cost has become a sort of mad
ness. The glory OF capturing big, widely
advertised events is made to seem worth
any sacrifice. Everything has to give way
to the struggle for these occasional tri-
umphs, everythi is staked on the chance
of victory.
]ic hor i1o
to try to overcome. We all like to win the
big thing. Every man who has ever been
through college is bound to swell with pride
when he hears of the triumph of the team
of his alma mater In any sort of an event
The broadca sting of the fame of the old
seat of learning sounds good. I myself
never hear of triumph wrought by the
boys of my university that l don't expert
ence sort of barbaric. elemental gloat.
But, all the same, know that this sort
of thing is all wrong and that 1t has been
extremely injurious to college athletics.
at has. for one thing. made for exclusive
ness in the physical training of students at
the colleges.
THE evenly balanced, useful physical
training of the great body CT students Is
sacrificed for the quick and scientific de-
velopment of the few who look promising
for the big competitive events.
Take. for instance, the eagerness with
which the new fellows coming along are
scanned with view to their probable uss-
fulness as foot ball material. The wheat is
separated from the chaff after the most
cursory inspection. and then there are
dozen additional ciose-hand views and try
outs of the remaining ones to see if they're
going to be worth considering fellows
with a chance to make the team The
promising ones are promptly cut out of the
herd, pampered experimental with, made
,nl f,f a -,I1x 1o rr,~ tI,nir
student mates who furnish no promise of
being proper foot ball material.
In the great majority of colleges only
these culed ones. the chaps who by p-lysi-
cal endowment offer the quickest promise
of being nodded and hammered into shape
as foot ball players in the big games. have
any chance to play the game of foot ball.
The great mass of young fellows who don't
look good enough to be held in reserve a
possible competitive players are virtually
shut out of the fun and the benefit of the
game. They are reiegated to the rank of
mere lookers-on. They are looked upon as
mere clever and noisy rooterS for their
mates who make the foot ball clique. They
can only stand around with their hands in
their pockets and watch the other fellows
take their training for the calendared foot
bail events. In a sort of way they re
treated as the little boys that amt big
enough to play foot ball, and by this sort
of offhand and taken-for-granted shunting
to the rear they, of course, miss all of the
keen sport and enjoyment and physical
benefit to be derived from the playing of
the friendly game of foot ball. The regular
trainers and coaches have no time for them,
Its the same way with college base ball.
The fellows who look good as base ball ma
terial are snapped up and put into the
hands Of the trainer and coach, and the
other fellows. no matter how fond they
may be of the game, or how much they
may enjoy playing the game among them
selves as a plain outdoor sport, have no
chance. Attention is paid only to the fell
lows who look good for the regular team,
the team that is going to compete in sched-
uled games with the other colleges Per-
haps 75 per cent of the young fellows who
go to the colleges are fairly proficient ball
players-young fellows, that is to say. who
know the game and who like to play il lust
for the fun Of the thing and the exercise
But they are brushed aside for the very
few who look good enough to be taken in
hand and trained for the regular teams.
Thus being left out Of the base ball scheme
of their college, they don't care to form
themselves into scrub mines for the purpose
OF playing the game for fun. They know
that they're not what might be called ex-
celIent al the game. and they don't like to
show themselves up. College lads are
pretty sensitive in these things. and rather
than stand for the probable jeering they
simply let the game go altogether so far as
playing II themselves is concerned and
with great good nature as / think they
promptly constitute themselves into a root
ing brigade for their more fortunate mates
WIZ nave DttH SpltCleu 10 De trained Tor
the regular college teams.
Thus all of the keen enjoyment of play
ing base bal-and ball playing is to my
way of thinking the greatest fun imagln-
able-is virtually taken away from the
great body of college students on account
of the predominance of the competitive
idea, which, under the present system,
makes 1t necessary that the fellows offering
the best and quickest promise of being de-
veloped into regular players on the COM
peting college team shall receive the ex-
elusive attention OF the coaches and train
ers. Even If the unsolicited students who
wanted to play ball among themselves just
for the fun and exercise of il were to or
ganfze themselves into scrub mines they
wouldn't often be able to get hold of the
college ball diamond to play the game for
the diamond is in almost constant use by
the selected ones, who are being coached
and trained for the regular teams
1t is exactly the same with regard to
track events. and even gymnasium work.
The instruction and training are all de-
voted to the chaps who give promise of de-
yeioping into something excellent in their
respective lines Tor competitive events