Evening star., 1908-12-20
VARSITY LETTER IS
PRECIOUS EMBLEM
College Athletes Strive Hard
for Prize Given for Com
petition.

This is the time of year the college foot
ball star Is sporting the emblem Of his
prowess about the campus. This emblem
is none other than the varsity letter
which has been awarded to the player
because Of the work he has done on the
gridiron.
In the, colleges the biggest athletic pre-
MUM is the varsity letter-that Is. the
initial of the college name. To persons
not familiar with universities and their
customs the value that college men put
on it is hard to understand.
Nowadays when schoolboys are we'll ac-
quainted in advance with college customs
lad doing as one did some years ago. He
bought himself a sweater the day he
learned he had passed the entrance exam
nations for Cornell and put on It q big
&C." He wore it until about an hour aft
er he arrived in Ithaca. Then an upper
classman tipped him off.
The customs which concern the wear
ing of the varsity letter differ In the va
rious colleges-but in the main the priVi-
lege is bound by the same rules. In col
without further question for the four
major sports. These are foot ball, base
ball, track and crew.
Crew Always Rewarded.
The eight men and the coxswain of the
crew who take part In an intercollegiate
regatta gets the letter. In base ball In
most colleges the nine men or more who
take part in 60 per cent of the seasons
schedule get the letter. Sometimes 1t de-
pends on participation in a certain few
important contests at the end OF the sea
son. So, also. in foot ball. Many big
colleges make the winning OF the letter
depend upon single game.
At Yale, for instance, playing for min
ute only against Harvard or Princeton
is enough. Very often a player works
hard for four seasons on the scrub, never
being good enough to deserve place on
the varsity. AS a reward for fafthfulness
he is sent in at the very end OF a game
perhaps only long enough to get In one
the letter. 1t is the great prize of ath-
letics, the Phi Beta Kappa OF sports.
Track Goes by Conditions.
Track depends more on individual condi-
tion than on fixed rule. Any college gives
q letter for point earned In the big inter-
collegiate meet First, second, third or
fourth place gives that.
Harvard gives the II for any place in
the Harvard-Yale meet Yale awards the
Y only for first or second place. A curl
competing for the Crimson on the track
may wear the uniform shirt, white with
a. crimson cOurier's stripe across the
chest, with small H on it: This letter
may be worn by any one, but for occa-
sions of competition only.
All letters look alike to the average
person, but actually there may be dif-
ference Some colleges have separate
STYLES of letter for various games. AT
Cornell, for instance, small block G goes
T. n
worn with crossed oars on the left upper
pocket OF a coat.
A large black C. rather flattened down,
in white on a red sweater, means foot
ball. A white sweater with block G In
between the crew and foot ball size Is for
track. Base ball gets q round red letter
on jersey or sweater.
Different Colors Given.
At Yale rowing gets regulation Y In
blue on q white sweater. Foot ball gets
a white letter on blue sweater. SYRIA
cuses's color Is orange, but as 1t gives a
letter In blue for track, for instance, the
impression got abroad that there were
two colors.
Basket ball and hockey players are
often given letters. sometimes OF dis
tinctive type.
lations can in q minute pick out the sport
for which an athlete won his letter. AT
Harvard the hatbands worn by athletes
show this.
Aside from the big sports letters occa-
sionally are given for the minor sports.
A man who wins for his college a cham
pionship in golf, wrestling. fencing, lawn
tennis. swimming or gymnastics gets the
letter ordinarily by courtesy. In many
colleges. however, objection is made to
this as cheapening the letter. The stand
ard reply is that dozens OF men get the
letter out Of foot ball or other sports who
do not deserve 1t as much as hard
working gymnast who spends years ac-
curing the skill he needs to win cham
pionship.
Honor for Local Boys.
Among the local boys who received their
letters for their prowess in athletics this
fall were John Field. the old Eastern
High School boy who played on the Yale
University foot ball team against Prince
ton University and was awarded his Y:
Logan Cunningham, formerly of Central
High School. who played on the Prince
ton University team against Yale and
was given a p. and Harman Linthicum.
also OF Eastern High School. who was
on the University Of Michigan team
against Pennsylvania and Syracuse and
received his M. Linthicum was given his
letter last spring for his work in base
ball, having pitched on the varsity team.
At the present time he Is the only ath-
lete in Michigan who has ever won two