The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1906-03-27
WHAT AIS COLLEGE A ATHLET TICS?

El y u he AOfutii w itStL IS itlS IiIdLI6Ji
with college athletics Every little
while comes some news item in the press
showing that some university or some
athlete has been guilty IF a breach Of
the amateur rules. What are these
| amateur rules? T? Amateur rules are
not a development of sport iii this couIl-
try. These rules came. almost entirely,
from England where no man is an anna
teur unless he has ali income OF at least
500 a year, and performs no manual
labor. whatsoever. In the early stages
of sport in this country, no such rules
were IN effect, and il is a most significant
fact that this period in athletic history
in this country is the puTestt of which we
can boast For some ill-fated reason,
however, these rules made their appear
arlce in this country, and then the trou-
bic began, WaichEis now eliminating ia
the present agitation in regard to col
lege athletics. 1t was at once evident
that these amateur rules could not exist
in this country in the same form that
they existed in England, hence some
self4constituted authorities modifedthese
rules SO that amateur in America does
not mean a fixed income and freedom
from manual labor, but has acquired the
wholly mistaken meaning signifying that
no personal gain must be made otlt of
ones athletic ability
I'm 1907 the Dublin Boat club of Dub
lin, ireland. sent to the University of
Wisconsin an invitation to send a COM
peting crew, to row in the annual re-
gatta to be held i'll Dublin on that year,
and one Of the requirements in the list
of qualifications was, that eachcompet-
ing oarsmafl must never have done anv
manual labor. The rules plainly stated
|that this was d most necessary qualifi-
cation of an amateur 1t is needless
to say that the Invitation was not ac-
cepted. What effect, then, have the
amateur rules, modified as above stated,
had upon the natural growth Of atlilet4
les in this country In the opinion Of
the writer the effect of the attempted en-
forcenlent of these rules has been wholly
bad There. IS not a single university Of
note in the United States that makes
any honest pretensions of observing
them. There is hardly an athlete Of
prominence in the middle west that is
really an amateur under the rules in
this country. The whole attempt or ap-
parent attempt to enforce these rules
has resulted in lowering the whole lone
of collegiate athletics by forcing each
university to profess something which
they themselves and all the other uni
l4ye.sities know is a pure farce Il
Much criticism has been made of the
violation OF the amateur rules in the
reference to the game Of football. So
far as the individual record of the par
I5ticipants in the game of football is Con
Icerned this criticism is somewhat I'm
Justified. because there sis no collegiate
sport which contains. among its partici-
pants as large a proportion of amateurs
III truth and spirit, as does the game oi
football. The reason is not hard to find
Football is usually learned, at least the
best part of it, after one enters col
llege. Football is only played in the fall
and each collegiate student playing the
game, is necessarily confined to his own
lcollegiate contests, and there is no op-
portunity for him to professionalize him
sell. even If he would In the second
place there is but very little professions
al football, and hence no particular pres
sure is brought to bear upon the PLAYER
TO play professional football. Again
football does not of itself qualify the
player to any material extent, to partici-
pate IN any other collegiate sport, 50