Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-11-24
BETTING, BOOKING AND COLLEGE ATHLETICS

The students of Parsons College. at
Fairfield have united with the faculty
in resolutions condemning betting on
football games and requesting students
and friends of the college to refrain
from thus degrading the college team.
At recent game between Presbyterian
Parsons College and Methodist Iowa
Wesleyan. betting was extremely ac
tive and some thousands Of Methodist
dollars were prosecuted to Presby
terrain pockets. In fact it appears to
have been an "outpouring," and a stir
ring of the (college) spirit to the depths
The wad these Presbyterian lads
brought home to Fairfield would have
built a goodly sized Methodist church
and paid the $500 salary of a country
preacher a year or so. 1t was big
enough to fight q saloon petition with.
from accusation of being sore loser.
suggests the doing away with the
betting ring. That other charge of
cold feet" common among those who
tarry long at the jackpot and directed
at the thrifty winner who evidently
means TO keep what he won. may be
byterians say they mean to reform
The Methodists should be in that
chastened and financially embarrassed
state which is Of itself an impulse
toward reformation And outsiders.
who can not see much difference be-
tween betting on an unregenerate horse
race or an ungodly contest between
Big Smoke" Johnson and the white
mans hope and getting money down
pro and con on Methodist muscle or
Presbyterian Drawn. will agree with
Parsons College, that they'd best cut
it out. 1t is reasonably hard to con-
vince father that the dead game quail
game is desirable part Of the educa-
ton of son who needs urging to
! face a corn pillow or dare the menace
| of the harvest field
\ man very prominent in one field
OF educational work and who is person.
ally known by most of the teachers in
Iowa and adjoining states. not long ago
described the scene which followed a
game between the "Cornhuskers" of
his own state and an Iowa team from
! a state college of prominence in ath-
| letics and other branches of liberal
educatio The game was played in
Nebraska. A train load of college root
ers had accompanied the visiting team.
Before and during the progress Of the
game betting was free and members
of the betting contingent walked about
with money in their hands and called
the odds and amounts aloud somewhat
after the fashion of the prize ring and
the race course When the game was
over college men stormed the sa-
looms They stood three deep at the
bars They yelled their slogans with
husky voices and thick tongues. II
looked like a ratification meeting of a
successful saloon consent petition OF
the night before saloon closing
That's the way a competent observer
himself a college man. an educator
: a good fellow and a free spender'
saw the betting and drinking accessor.
les Of good game between colleges
both Of which are almost entirely re-
cruited from the farms and smaller
cities of two agricultural states.
Parsons is in right. Either the bet
ting and BOOKING of college football
should stop or the game be abolished
If college athletics are to be degraded
to the level of sports which some states
have already abolished because the.
/. had become part of the gamblers para
phernalia, the best thing the college
: can do is to cut out intercollegiate
athletics.
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