The sun., 1908-11-08

covering what en- athlcte may or may not
do is no small list. 1t is entirely too big
for thing which efter all is sport The
sport idea hrs been somewhat lost sight OF
IN many universities, it must 6e confc ssed.
Year by yer the code of laws he's grown,
SO thRt the athlete has TO he something
OF q lawyer, end the professional trainer
rather more 80. Because. es hrs been ssid
before, TO some of the professionals the
rules do not present standard to he lived
up to, but hempe-ing restrictions thet
must be lodged, the appearance OF now
rule means 10 some Of them simply little
more worry end brain work to find some
scheme OF evading its intent.
II the colleges had confidence in the
honesty and integrity Of the governing
athletic boards of their rivals the whole
thing might be reduced to this: Let any
man be an athlete who satisfies his uni
versity that he is a student in good faith. !"
That is the only rule needed. But as
soon as that is promulgated some one is
sure TO ask Good faith? Well, what
constitutes bad faith?" As soon as that
question is answered it leads the way to
a colony OF exceptions, and it is out Of
these exceptions that the many rules
grow. II II were not for these special
cases, each requiring new interpreta-
ton by some governing board, the whole
matter Of athletics might be conducted
as IL II were sport and not something rather
more resembling business.
The first thing some college trainers
or coaches do is to attempt TO develop
their own teams; the next is to see whether
there isn't some man on another team
which is TO be met who is not strictly
eligible. II makes the whole thing look
bad. 1t isn't real play. Competing on
an athletic team Is supposed TO be for
amusement 1t has grown to he some
thing more than that in many instances,
L. Love nj
who will think at once Of their particular
places and say internally, why, that's
all nonsense. 1t isn't so at -" Well.
perhaps after they think it over they
will remember some things that hap
pened at somebody's elses ----, when
they were in college, They, will recall
how they got the impression then that the
athletes at the other place were suspi-
cious persons. as the police slip has it.
Then maybe they will be able to figure out
how IT is that their own men came to be
regarded as questionable in other col
eges, Maybe, but not likely, because
only II few men are able to adjust their
fool in that way.
WRONG FUNDAMENTALS.
A very great trouble with athletics in the
colleges OF this country seems to be that
they started wrong and they have been
going wrong ever since.
There are SO many colleges in this
country and there are so many men who
choose 10 regard their athletic proves
as salable that the conditions are bound
sometimes to he unsavory. Every one
has had chances TO see how some OF the
great athletes OF the colleges turn out
They are prominent in their college days.
but afterward drop out of public notice,
probably to start in where other men.
VINO left nigh schools when they did,
bear. IN business some years before.
And furthermore, it is not as if they
brought 10 the work the trained minds
that four years OF college study should
give them, On the contrary, they bring
into the Wort all the habits Of indifference
TO mental attainments that four years
Of athlcticism have incubated in them
Not all the college athletes are this way.
not by great deal; but there are some
men very prominent indeed in their COL
lege days who get out Of college after
devoting themselves 100 strongly to !