The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-22
COOP ron TEE FRESHMEN.
Barring Them From Varsity Teams Hat
Its Beneficial Results.

Freshman eligibility for minor athletic
teams at Yale has practically been decided
in the negative and the decision meets with
the general approval of the undergraduate
body. says Everard Thompson in the Yale
Ahimni Weekly. "The original eligibility
rules agreed upon by Harvard. Yale and
Princeton last spring were meant. according
20 strict Interpretation. to cover only the
four main sports of bas eball. football, rowing
and track athletics. But they worked with
satisfaction to every one. including the faculty,
and when the time came for making up the
minor teams captains and managers OF these
teams offered no serious objection to the
suggestion that the rules Of the major asso-
Citations should govern their eligibility. as
far as eligibility relates to freshman candidates.
The attitude of other colleges in the In
teroOllegiate Hockey and Basketball Assoc
III alton IL the same as it is here. The decision
TO bar freshmen from the hockey teams In
the intercollegiate association was taken q
few days ago at the meeting OF representa-
tives In New York OF all the colleges in the
association. There was practically no op-
position.
soon after this the intercollegiate Basket
ball Association met in New York. but voted
TO leave the matter OF playing freshmen TO
each member of the association to decide rs
IL should choose. Princeton, Pennsylvania
and Harvard have already announced their
intention OF keeping freshmen OF their v varsity
basketball teams, and although no official
record has been made here by vote or an
nouncement IL Is known for a certainty that
Yale will play no freshmen in the intercol-
leglate matches.
7Considerable compliant has been heard
since the adoption of the new eligibility code
about the injustice the debarment Of freshmen
works on an athletic member OF the Sheffield
scientific school. where the course V only
three years. The rule gives a Shen man
only two years to play on a varsity football
or baseball team or row on a varsity crew and.
SO say the critics of the rule, handicaps him so
badly in com netitiOn with his tpAmmatD of
the academic department that 1t will be prac-
tically impossible for a sherf man to win the
only one year of play in which to prove him
self. AZ first glance there seems substantial
ground for this criticism and conclusion. but
The relative length of competition in the
departments is not changed and the attention
teams now will tend TO bring TO the front a
good player even more than the same player
SSieTy y U 1T8eEH cls osS en- because ssSs IS",i wR0SId
be developing under more natural surround
ings.. A good Shef athlete and leader will
Of any Yale team as he ever did. IL depends
upon the man himself. In the past Shef has
given Yale some OF the best athletes and cap
be a misfortune If Shelf opportunity should be
reduced by even 80 gooda rule as this Of
freshman ineligibility.
I'll freshman eleven of 1905 may he taken
as an m OF what may be expected of
reshma elevens. This eleven had the bene-
1T of good and consistent training through the
whole season and was for at least "A part of the
fall almost as strong as the varsity. The
interest the freshman class showed in its
games was greater than any freshman class In
recent years has shown and the leaders among
its play crs were rs we'll known in the uhiver-
sity Ms though they had played on the varsity.
There appears 10 be material in college for a
freshman baseball nine which will rival in its
sport the freshman football eleven, IL has
already been said in this column that the
freshman Oarsmen are at least as good rs any
that have ever come out here. IL looks as
tIntErh tlnhar the a snnn NalR ia IN ha Va a
much TO be desired development Of fresh man
athletics in an ideal way"