The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-07
PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDE. PRES. HADLEY'S VIEWS Discusses a Phase of Pres ent-Day Athletics Hon.
 orable in Methods.

President Hadley herein expresses
 his opinion on subject of interest
 and importance to the Yale public and
 college men in general:
 One of the strongest cohesive forces
 which strengthens the influence of a
 university upon it's members is con-
 nected with college athletics. The
 value of athletic sports when practiced
 Tn the right spirit is only equalled by
 their perniciousnes when practiced in
 the wrong spirit. They deserve cordial
 and enthusiastic support. The time or
 thought spent upon them, great as it
 may seem, is justified by their educa-
 tlonal Influence. But side by side with
 this support and part of it, we must nave unsparing condemnation of the
 whole spirit of professionalism. I do
 not refer to those grosser and more
 obvious forms of professionalism which
 college sentiment has already learned
 to condemn. Nor do I chiefly refer to
 the betting by which intercollegiate
 contests are accompanied, though this
 IS real and great evil and does much
 to bring other evils in it's train I re- fer to something far more widespread
 which still remains a menace to Amer 1can college athletics-the whole svs- stem of regarding athletic achieve ment as a sort of advertisement of one s prowess and in valuing success Tor its own sake rather than for the sake of the honor which comes in achieving it by honorable methods. I rejoice in Yale's victories, I mourn her defeats but I mourn still more when ever l see a Yale man who regards athletics as sort of competitive means for pushing the university ahead of some rival. This is profess sionalism of the most subtle and. therefore, the most dangerous sort. know that the condition of athletic discipline in a college makes a differ- ence in it's attractiveness to large and desirable class of young men, and rightly so Whether victory or series of victories makes such a differ ence and increases the numbers that attend the university, do not know, and l do not care to know. The man who allows his mind to dwell on such a question, if he is not tempted to vio- late the ethics of amateur sport, is at any rate playing with temptation in a dangerous and reprehensible way. T am glad to believe that our colleges ana our nation, as a whole, are be- coming better able to understand the love of sport for its own sake. The growth of this spirit through three has relieved English uni of some of the problems which to-day confront us In America. To the growth of this spirit we must our- selves trust for their solution here. I am ready heartily to co-oerate in any attempts that other colleges may make to lay down clear rules for the practice of intercollegiate athletics. because the absence of such co-opera- 1 ton would be misunderstood and would give cause for suspicion where none ought to exist. But I cannot conceal the fact that the majority of such rules can only touch the surface 'f the difficulty; and that so far as | hey distract attention from the moral | dement's in the case which is beyond Ill reach of rules, they may prove a positive hindrance to progress. If we 'an enter into athletics for the love 'f honor in the broadest sense of the word, unmixed with the love of gain in my sense, Yale may now and then lose few students but it shall grow better ear after year in all that makes for ound university life"