New-York tribune., 1912-01-28
ATHLETICS At COLUMBIA
Death KneII to Teams Seen in
Action of University Faculty.
ENGINEERS CAN'T COMPETE
Only a Little More than 700 Men
Left to Support All
Activities.
NGINEERS CAN'T COMPETE

With the announcement that the CO.
lumbia engineering schools are TO be prsc-
tically graduate departments Of the uni
versity. beginning in ;914, Columbia alumni
ard undergraduates who are interested in
athletics are fearful lest the new order OF
things will mean the death knell OF most
Of Columbia's athletic teams. According
TO the new arrangement only students who
have completed two years academic work
will be permitted TO enter the engineering
courses. thus eliminating practically one
half of the undergraduate student body and
the half from which a large part Of the
support to- Columbia's athletic teams C:
the last dozen years has come.
Although columbia has never had an
eligibility rule confning participation in
athletics TO undergraduates, II has beeii
true in all branches of sports that pracu-
caly no support can be looked for from the
graduate departments. and as result the
Columbia teams have been drawn from the
undergraduate body almost entirely. At
the present time there are roughly speak
ing fourteen hundred students in the un-
dergraduate departments at Columbia, but
as many as two hundred of these, espe-
cialIy in the engineering schools, have al
ready apent n year or more in some other
college SO that the undergraduate body.
strictly speaking IS only little more than
twelve hundred in number. From this total
Columbia has supported teams in pract-
cally every branch Of sports. excepting
football. for the last six years. and until
1905 football also.
flk
figures as they are to-day, the $50 engineer
ing students will be practically eliminated
from participation in athletics, LEAVING
only the scant 80 men in the college de-
partment 10 support the crew, the track
baseball and all other teams by which CO.
mmbia is represented. The university aC-
thorities believe that the change IN the
curriculum in the scientific schools VIII
bring about an increase In the registration
of the college department, but at the best
II is hardly to be expected that the total
undergraduate registration in 1914. when
the rule first goes into effect will be over
one thousand. The question is one that Is
causing the Columbia athletic directors a
great deal OF thought, and they say thai
the only solution, II Columbia is still to bt
represented in intercollegiate athletics, Is
the adoption OF some means to interest the
graduate students in athletics TO such ar
extent that they will compete In Columbia
teams
In the past. fully 70 per cent of the mel
who have been on Columbia teams hav
been students in the engineering schools
This has been particularly true in practi
cally every branch OF sport excepting bas
ketbal. The 1911 varsity crew, for ex
ample, was made up OF six engineering stu
dents. one college student and one studen
In the school of architecture. This rati
was true in the freshman crew, too an'
also in the varsity baseball team. Practi
cally all Of the captains OF Columbia team
this year are engineering students, includ
ing II. s. Babcock, the pole vaulter, who l
captain of the track team: G.. S. Downing
stroke oar, and captain OF the 'varsit!
crew. c. ID. Benson. captain Of the basket
bal team. and VI. NJ. Barker, who wal
captain of the water polo team. T. Kiend
the captain Of the baseball nine, is a gradu
ate student in the law school, while onl
the captains OF the swimming, gymnasti
and tennis teams are in the college depart
ment.
Since the Columbia law school has been
graduate department OF the university YER
few members of the various teams hav
come from the law school, and, although 1
has contained great many very fine ath
letes, IL has been impossible to get then
TO come out for places on Columbia teams
Some of the men who have been in tn
Columbia school are ]. j. Hogan, Inciu
Bigelow and Karl Behr, of Yale; M
Dwight, of Princeton; Paul Williams an,
F. l.. d'Autremont, of Cornell. The las
three are in the university at the presen
time With the engineering schools fallin,
into the graduate category the directors O
athletics believe that 1t will be necessary
in order TO prolong sports at Columbia, L
draw in some measure at least from tn
graduate schools
BY the purchasing Of q permanent HON
for the Columbia crews at Poughkeepsie
the crew management on Morpingsid
Heights apparently believes that It will
have sufficient number of candidates TO
the crews right along, despite the chang
in the science curriculum. This, however
remains TO be seen.