The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1911-03-13
ATHLETICS DISCUSSED
At Secondary School Conference in Bur
lington.

lihShphs
Burlington, March l3.--At the school
conference with the university OF Yer.
mont the subject Of athletics was tax
en- up Saturday and papers were pre-
scented by Prof. Frederick Upper, chair
man OF the committee on athletics in
the university, and BY James p. Tay-
Tor, vice principal Of Vermont academy
Prof. Upper spoke on THE True Aim
Of Athletics and he spoke in part as
follows
The friends of athletics have one
reason to congratulate themselves upon
progress during the past five years.
Athletic conditions are much healthier
than they were few years ago. The
college community expects as a mat
ter Of course, rules and provisions that
often elected much protest. A protest
must be entered against the fallacy
that the true aim Of athletics is TO
advertise a school or college. If by
advertising is meant the securing Of
more students through success in games,
then colleges would certainly fail Of
their athletic aim, for il has been re-
peatedly shown that the size Of enter
ing classes bears no relationship what
ever to success or failure during pre-
ceding seasons. The aim Of musical
and dramatic clubs is not to advertise
college but TO teach the students to
sing and play and act, The object Of
the literary magazines is not to adver-
tise college but to teach the students
to write. The object Of athletics is
certainly not to advertise college but
to produce through general participation
in sport, the physical advantage of the
many
The chief defect of our American
system OF athletics is this lack of gen.
eral participation. President Taft said
The defect of American athletics is
the tendency TO eontine work to those
who are naturally best adapted TO IL
while the great student body takes no
active part in games Under the sys-
TEN of athletics at the English univer-
sites every man takes part in sport,
so that il often happens that game
has no spectators, merely because other
undergraduates are taking their own
form of exercise elsewhere. This sys
tenn has a double advantage. II is, OF
benefit TO the individual because every
one obtains athletic practice. II is Of
benefit to the university because no
athletic material is overlooked, and it
may be turned to account when need
ed. The English teams are representa-
tive in sense that we cannot even
understand,
"Our American system on the other
hand il so highly specialized that IL
benefits only the few, and the great
mass Of students take part in ath
letics only By proxy. This vicarious
exercise breeds no Drawn. Loyalty to
college teams is demanded of every col
lege man but the restriction Of athletic
interest to the activities of the var
sity' leads TO a two-fold evil; the
feverish concentration of athletic en-
thusiasm and the killing OF general par
tieipation in sport. Thus the individual
loses the strength, the healthy endur-
ance which would come to him from
exercise and which would be of meal /
cuable benefit to him later in business
and professional life. The university
loses the reserve forces that exist in |
second teams and substitutes. At pres
ent it ) difficult at all small colleges I
to organize even second squads, and an
injury to halfhsck or catcher often |
jeopardises the success Of the season /
because there are no reserves to call /
upon. How shall we secure this gen I
eral participation, this benefit to the I
greatest numbers The problem is mere I
II stated by the present speaker"
The Non-Athletic Boy.
Mr.. Taylor talked on "The Outdoor
sports and the Non-athletic Boy" and /
he presented his subject as follows: /
"The non-athIetic boy is the boy who
by physique or temperament or taste
is not fitted to do wen in the competi
tive sports of conventional games. Out
door sports are those the nature and
spirit of which require that they be
conducted out of doors. Football and
baseball might be played within vast
room and be football and baseball, but
walking and mountain climbing and
skeeing and snow-shoeing from the very