Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-21
TIGERS ATHLETICS
TO Be 0VERHAUlED
Committee to Look After
Princet0n's Foot Ball
Team in Future.
By Edward r. Bushnell.

| purpose of the various committees which
| have been conducting the investigation
| Tito the Tigers athletic situation has
| been to bring about uniticatcn of in
| terests and control to insure the greatest
good to the university in an athletic way.
So far the joint committee representing
\ the students, faculty and alumni has de-
voted most of its attention to the foot
| ball team. seeking to discover why the
| Orange and Black has had such poor
success on the diamond within the last
| few years.
| Hereafter Princeton's football manage
| ment will be conducted according to diff
ferent program. Instead OF leaving the
conduct Of this most important branch
Of athletics in the hands Of the head
| coach, the captain and tf,eb faculty ad-
visor, it will hereafter be intrusted to a
| committee of three we'll known alumni,
who, with the captain, will have sole au-
thority. The naming of this alumni
committee is assurance enough that
PrincetOn's foot ball destinies could not
| be in better hands. They are Phil King,
Walter c. Booth and Howard Henry.
| These three men represent all that is best
of the game under the old, the middle
ard the present regimes. King was not
only great player in his day, but his sue
cess as a coach, both at Princeton and
| the University of Wisconsin, makes him
| one Of the best equipped of the Tigers
graduates. Booth was a most successful
coach at the University of Nebraska
and has done good work as an assistant
at Princeton. Henry was great as a
player, but has his spurs to earn as a
coach.
Who will be head coach is not known at
this writing, but it is likely to be Henry.
The head coach is to be responsible to the
foot ball committee. He will. of course.
have plenty of assistants but the COM
| yr,9ft x~,;I l. ..I4
will have ultimate control. By securing
this central authority Princeton will do
away with the evil of having a dozen or
more coaches all trying to coach the play
ers. In other words, Princeton will de-
mand system in foot ball and reduce
to a minimum the possibility of lack of
harmony among the coaching staff.
There are three other major sports
which the investigators yet must attack.
They are base ball, track athletics and
rowing. The Tigers uniform success on
the diamond makes 1t unlikely that base
ball will be the subject of many radical
changes. Princeton continues to win most
of the intercollegiate base ball champion
ships and the management always reports
| good-sized balance. The achievement
Of these two objects is the ambition of
every team, SO Princeton will probably let
we'll enough alone here.
Track athletics and the new sport of
rowing present serious aspects Both of
/
! at loss. Track sports do not command
the patronage that base ball and foot ball
do. and there is no method known to pro-
duce receipts of any consequence in row.
| ing. Consequently Princeton cannot hope
| to improve the financial condition of
either. But Princeton men would like
! to see their university make more re-
spectacle showing in track athletics. Not
| since 1876. the first field meeting ever
held by the association, has Princeton
a m m
Tigers have won seconds and thirds but
only once the championship. OF recent
years Princeton has been very low in
points scored, frequently doing more
poorly than colleges of half her size.
Princeton graduates do not understand
why their university should make so poor
showing, and there Is likely to be
shake-up in this department soon.
In rowing the problems are all new. The
Tigers have never done anything in this
sport in an Intercollegiate sense. But 1909
was the year In which Princeton had
promised her students to have one or
more crews to compete in outside regat-
tas. To provide money for the support of
the crew and to determine where the
Tigers should compete are the two imme-
date problems to be solved. The support
of rowing must undoubtedly come from
the foot ball and base ball receipts.
1t begins to look now as though Prince
ton would not compete at either the
Poughkeepsie or New London regatta
this year, owing to the difficulty of get
ting an eight that could make a respect
able showing in a. four-mile race. The
American regatta at Philadelphia May 22
looks to be the most favorable place for
the launching of the first crew. In addi-
ton, it is quite likely that Princeton will
arrange several dual races at two miles
with some of the smaller colleges which
are taking up rowing. There is little like
lihood of Princeton trying her skill with
any of the big universities, for the pres
ent at least.
1t is quite natural for all Princeton men
to hope and many to expect that Prince
ton will be able to hold her own with
the leaders in all four of the major sports.
A close study, however. of the peculiar
conditions which exist at Princeton. diff
ferent from those at any other university.
leads the impartial observer to doubt this
conclusion. 1t should be remembered that
Princeton's student body is confined al
most entirely to the academic department
and to only Loo students. less than half
the eligible list at Yale. Harvard. Cornell
and Pennsylvania. Yet these are the in
situations against which Princeton must
compete, and 1t would be almost miracu
lous if the Tigers succeeded as well as
they hope in the face of such great disad-
vantageS.
In addition to the lack of students
Princeton suffers by being in a small
town far from the central bodies of her
influential graduates. This makes it i'm
possible for Princeton to profit by the
graduate advice and direction such as
Yale, Harvard and Pennsylvania receive.
Indians Paying the Penalty.
The Carlisle Indians are still paying the
penalty of having too good a foot ball
team. BY losing the Harvard game. just
announced. they have lost the second of
their most remunerative games. They
had previously been dropped by Mime
sofa This leaves them with only one big
eastern game. that being with the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania. There is no
hope for a game with Yale, Princeton,
Dartmouth or Cornell, the other big east
turns a deaf ear to requests for games
This leaves the Redmen in serious pre-
dicament for contests Of a championship
caliber.
1t is curious commentary on intercol-
legiate matters that the Indians are indi-
rectly obliged to suffer thus because they
have such strong team. However. it
should not be said or inferred even that
Harvard refused to schedule a game with
the Indians for fear of beating. The
Crimson soundly ,trounced the Redmen
last year and suffered their only defeat
from them the year previous. Harvard
had to make choice between the Indians
and Brown, and chose the latter because
Brown is a college institution strictly and
Carlisle Is not
In another way, however. Carlisle IS
suffering because her team Is SO strong.
Harvard has an unusually heavy sched-
ule mapped out for this fall, with games
against Cornell, dartmouth and Yale. The
Indians would have been harder to de-
feat than any team on the schedule, with