Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-31
WITH COLLEGE ATHLETES
DOingS in the Field Of Sport in East and.
West
PURE CONTESTS ARE NOW HOPED FOR
what the Amateur Athletic Union
Hopes the CO1legians VIII DO 60
Cheek InterschOIastic
Athletic Evil.

Cheek AnterHchOlnsttc
Athletic Evil.
What the Amateur Athletic union wants
OF the college men OF the country most,
says. prominent member OF that asso-
citation. is a helpful action to educate the
preparatory school and high school athletes
80 that they will know the laws Of ath-
letics and, furthermore, viii observe them
The Amateur Athletic union naturally has
very little to do with what the school lads
do, so long as they conine their athletic
activities to purely interscholastio competi-
lions. II the boys did not venture outside
their own field there would be no call for
the Amateur Athletic union to do what
II did just recently In dsqualifying school
hockey team for playing on It boy who
was not eligible for Amateur Athletic union
competitions.
At the time that was done there was
more than a little comment that the union
was venturins out OF its own province IN
disqualifying school boys when they were
not members OF the Amateur Athletic
union. 1t is on such points as these that
the union looks to college men to help
clear up the difficulty. College men come
more in touch with school boy athletes
mostly by association with the lads before
they enter college, as trainers or teachers
The men In control of the athletic union
regard this as a very serious problem and
they believe that teachers and principals
especially should have Il clearer knowledge
Of the athletic law and should teach their
boys to respect 1t.
Boys Do Not Respect A. A. U.
The trouble is in the main sort Of moral
obloquy. The boys are not told to have
any respect for the Amateur Athletic union.
They are allowed to subscribe to a gem
eral, somewhat popular, idea that the union
is run for the personal benefit Of a few,
and they feel that they should not be made
smenable in any way to its laws unless
they Join it. They do not realize that the
union stands merely for the general prin-
ciples of amateurism and that when an
athlete contravenes the laws of amateur
sport he thereby disqualiies himself. He is
not disqualified by the Amateur Athletic
union. He may not be at all a member
of the association and still be ineligible
for amateur athletic competitions.
There are plenty of cases in point, but
there is one case that Is much more typical
than any others that could be mentioned
offhand. A school in New Jersey recently
had change in principals, A young man
came to the school who had been interested
in athletics in his college and he at once
paid attention to that side of the work in
his new charge. He looked over the or
ganization and found that there were
things being done in his school that should
not be- He at once took steps TO change
all that. A little while later there came up
question of arranging meets and games
as usual with a neighboring school,
hereditary rival. This school sent in list
of names of men eligible for the basket
ball team.
The new principal heard indirectly that
the men who composed the team in this
school were regular members Of profess
sional team hired to play basket ball at
a winter resort. He had asked also for the
names Of the men that the other school
had for its base ball team. He found that
| these with but few exceptions were men,
bers of q Jersey so-called semi-professional
| league. When he had had a chance to look
over the names carefully he wrote a letter
TO the principal OF the other school, point
ing out what he knew and saying that as
the men were in the first instance profess
SIGNALS, and In the second not even stu
dents in the school named, It was highly
unfair to play them as members of a school
nine OF ive.
To this he received answer that It al
ways had been done by this school and
that II he was not willing to meet the OPP
posing institutions under those conditions
he did not have to. Although not a bit
puzzled as to the line Of action that he
ought to follow, the new principal sub
mitted the facts in letter to James e.
Sullivan, president of the Amateur Athletic
union, asking his advice on the matter.
Mr.. Sullivan wrote back that he was very
glad to find that there was q man Of this
kind in charge Of athletics ct the school
and encouraged him by all means to stick
to his position. This letter in turn was
sent to the principal OF the pro" school
He wrote a highly indignant letter to
Mr.. Sullivan. setting forth that II was all
right for the Amateur Athletic union man
to be mixed up in matters that concerned
him, but that this was none OF his affair
and would not be until such time as the
school entered the Amateur Athletic union.
1--WE viii subscribe TO the Amateur Athletic
union jurisdiction and rules when we Join
and not before" was the idea expressed
It Is this sort OF thing that makes the ex-
istence of the Amateur Athletic union a
contest against certain element in athle-
tics They are the men who think Of the
money that Is being handed in for regis
tration fees as all that the Amateur Ath-
letlc union stands for or cares for and
they believe that II they are able to dodge
the surveillance Of the Amateur Athletic
union they are all right.
Law should he Obeyed.
They forget It is the suggestion OF prom
inent athletic officials, that the law Is what
they are evading, and that no matter
whether eligible or disqualified in fact
they are professionals or amateurs at heart
OF In fact just as they act for themselves.
The Amateur Athletic union wants the coll
lege men to make that clear to the school
boys and also to impress upon these boys
that their best interests demand that as
school boys. no matter what phenomenal
athletes they may be, II is for the best In
terests OF themselves and their future that
they do not enter upon competitions. That
is a thing for which Mr.. Sullivan is fighting
a hard campaign. No one realizes more
than he what the trouble is and from what
Il proceeds. His experience in some thirty
years OF athletics has been that II the boys
Z a., Ehafs al Nd on1 a