The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-31
GIRLS PLAY GAMES UNFAIRLY.
DESIRE TO WIN ANYHOW SPOTLS
THEIR BASKETBALL MATCHES.
Public School Physical Training Society
Discusses Feminine FofbleS In sports
and Plans Reforms-NaIe EMPIRES
EGctaSS-ESercisa the Sex Needs

and Plans Reforms-SIaIe Empires
Esetnss-ExerCIaa the Sex Needs
Ths Public School Physical Training
Society held a conference in the Wadlelgh
High School yesterday and the fifty or
more tea cheers whose special province 1t Is
to look out for the sdno corpore not only
threw serious question on the wisdom OF
the individual who applied the term "gent1er
sex" 10 the feminine portion Of the race.
but loudly applauded the half dozen or
more speakers in the discussion who boldly
got up in meeting and made declaration
that girls would be girls and that for real
naughty and unfair playing tactics a girls
basketball game had an ordinary football
contest beaten at the start.
So serious has the question become that
DR.. Luther Halsey Gulick, who Is the d.
rector Of physical training in the schools
Of New York city and who is president OF
the society, declared in his opening re-
marks that the meeting was intended as
the birth Of n movement which weuh
check the growing recklessness and spirit
Of win at any and all hazards which has
already let fall its blighting influence upon
the younger portion OF the long time sup
posedly @gentler sex"
BLISS ElIld Il. NdIIeI' WIN llICo W SeiD
the o~verabundant enthusiasm of the girls
In the Eastern District High School in Brook
lyn. but candidly acknowledged that she
has found discretion the better part OF valor
In her paper on "Interschool Athletics
went even further than DR.. Gulick. Ad-
hitting that she was ION the fence, she
threw herself on the indulgence of her
fellow workers and appealed to them to help
- .-l,,t;An &c fhn 1ttaatinn oWhlf
shall we do with our girls?"
: Gustavus T. Kirby, the old Columbia
athlete and chairman Of the advisory COM
mittee Of the intercollegiate Athletic
Association, who preceded Miss Warner,
declared that in his opinion the only way
TO remedy the evils attendant upon foot
ball and other intercollegiate contests
was for each college and school to employ
a professional coach of unquestiona able
integrity and good character, who should
be directly responsible TO the governing
BODY of the institution and not to the
students themselves. When Mr.. Kirby
had finished, several OF the women teachers
'present took the floor and minated in no
Uncertain tones that the dangers OF inter
collegiate football were as a mere nothing
compared with the growing evils ~ the
intersoholastic basketball held, so far as
IL IelaItu 10 lAG BlllSs - tAS ~ 80
public school athletics all the speakersTb by
common consent, as 1t were, dismissed
him as a minor EVIL. Il
One of the women instructors declared
that girls would chuck any coach who failed
10 make good, even after a single season,
IL he or she couldn't turn out a winning
team. The principal OF the WESTMINSTER
Normal School in Pennsylvania, a mere
man. said that though his institution was
coeducational the boys we're on no ocoa-
sion allowed to witness the sports OF the
girls. and to DR.. Gulick's suggestion that
such a procedure was unklnd repiled
with some heat that the effect was too
demoralizing and too brutal.
Another of the speakers said that broken
arms, legs and noses In football had more
thai their counterpart III the whacks and
thunips, the hysteria and melancholy
which inevitably accompanied the ordi-
she advocated the abolition of men officials
in girls games, as they didn't dare to i'm
pose fouls on the players, who. were we'll
aware Of the fact and idn't hesitate to
take advantage of 1t.
Substantial evidence of the truth Of this
statement was given in the girls hockey
game which preceded the conference,
when one of the players who had been hit
in the face, in claiming a foul, dlsregarded
the male umpire and appealed successfully
TO the woman teacher who was supervis- |
ing the contests.
There was also an exhibition OF athletics
for girls, including indoor baseball, indoor
hockey and putting the 3 pound shot IN IN
feet amid the wild plaudits of the onlookers:
City Superintendent Of Schools Maxwell
presided at the mass meeting, OF the con.
ference held in the hall Of the Board OF
Education in the evening. DIR. Dudley Allen
Sargent, director of athletics in Harvard
University, in hs paper on What Athletic
Games Are Injurious for Women in the
Form in Which They Are Played by Men,
pointed out that many OF the best gymnasts
before the public to-day are women attired
"a men. While recommending physical
exercise for women, be said that good form
and grace and not great records should be
the end striven for. the whole object OF
physical education for woman being to fit
tally feminine. AS men and women show
nv their organization that they were de-
veloped from a type in which both sexes
were present In the same individual pro-
gTessive divergence and not approximation
n the sexes should be the end Of all physical
'r9 Dr. 8Sulick; speaking Of athletics from a
biological viewpointj said that athletics
we're very largely 1fs op y sr up w OF rddhI raCtEfs
traceable to the necessity Of their possession
for self-preservation on the part of the
early man. Woman, however. did not
require this ability to run, to strike and to
throw until she was compelled to usurp
mans place in the universe or had entered
into competition with men In those fields
which formerly had been regarded as dis
t1nctively masculine.
me other speakers were Miss Katherine
ID. Blake Of Public School 6 and DIR. E.
Hermann Arnold Of New haven. DR..
Arnold expressed his pleasure at woman's
Inability to climb, but said she should be
encouraged In exercises Of endurance re-
curing expenditure Of small effort, and in
those physical actions requiring skill and
dnoSSe.
The conference will be concluded this
morning with an exhibition OF athletic
games for elementary school girls at Pub
he School 1888, followed by a business meet
ing and election OF officers.