Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-09
ROPER'S SELECTION
TO BENEFIT TIGERS
One Thing Needed to Brace
Up Athletics at Prince
ton College.
By Edward R. Bushnell.

The athletic authorities of Princeton
University have apparently awakened to
the fact that some radical move is need
ew to put the Tiger sports on real
competing basis with the systems now
employed at the other big universities of
the east. Their appointment of w. IL.
Roper as graduate director of athletics
is proof of their awakening. Not only
is this the first time that PRINCETON has
ever placed her athletics in tho hands Of
a single man. but she has shown de-
termination to make the innovation "A
success by putting a live man at the
head of things.
Those who arc acquainted with the
athletic situation al Princeton arc unani-
nous in the opinion that the new re-
gime will put Princeton among the lead
ers if anything can do it. For the last
eight or ten years the athletics at
Princeton have been going from bad to
worse. There was time when Prince
ton figured prominently in nearly every
sport on the athletic curriculum and it
was not infrequent that the Tigers car
ried off the premier honors en- the grid
iron and diamond and were among the
leaders on the track.
But recently Princeton teams have fail
ed to maintain this pace. Indeed it has
been a rarity for the Tigers to win an
intercollegiate championship in amy of
the major sports. So frequent have
these disappcintments been that year
ago the athletic system of the univer-
sity was the subject Of a special inves-
tigation Foot bali received the most
attention and in an effort to put it on "A
winning basis Roper, who had been the
head coach for four years was dropped
and committee of three men placed in
charge Of the team. Measured by the
number of victories and defeats the new
triumvirate was far less satisfactory
than Roper had been.
Without waiting to give the committee
another chance to make good, the adj
visory board last week voted to put
Roper i'm charge of all the sports. He
will have charge of all the departments of
athletics, with an oversight over the
finances and the appointment of the vari-
Gus coaches. Naturally he will be SUI
preme in the coaching of the foot ball
team and will select his own assistants.
But. in addit on to solving the foot oall
problem. the appointment of Roper to this
position means that a serious effort is to
be made to strengthen all OF Princeton S
athletic teams. In this respect Roper
ought to accomplish a great deal of good,
for there is no doubt that more athletic
talent is allowed to go to waste at Prince
ton in single year than at any other big
university of its Importance and size in
the country. For instance, 1t is COM
mon sight on the Princeton campus to
see scores of students out XII XIII foot
balls back and forth, playing catch or
doing seine other purposeless sort of
training instead of giving their services to
the university teams. Within the last
year or two the Tiger faculty has been
making a serious effort to develop inter
club sports. to the end that the greatest
possible number of students will be in
duced to take some part in athletics.
That this interest in athletics may be