The Pleasantville press., 1912-12-04


from the various teams. II such re-
suits do not materialize those en-
ployed are discharged and others of
more strenuous or capable sort are
engaged. These directors OF athletics
are kept busy endeavoring first to at
tract and corral successful scholastic
athletes to their college, and, once
there, to try them out, and then to
train their abilities to higher order,
which consumes not merely great
deal of the new recruits time, but his
strength and freshness as well. For
it requires high degree of excellence
and laborious practice to meet and
conquer the skill sent out by the great
institutions of the land.
Candidates for the football team are
put through three or four hours oaily
practice at top speed, most exhaust
ing to both the physical and mental
vitality. For, be it understood, the
games today are not merely of Drawn,
but also Of brain. This practice starts
as soon as the study periods end, from
September until December, and lasts
until darkness makes it impossible to
play any longer. When it Is over the
average young man is tired enough to
drop in his tracks, and the lounge or
the bed in his room, whether at col
lege or at home. is far more attractive
than poring over his books and wrest-
ling with the next days studies. They
also have to play actual games, not
merely on the home grounds, but at
distances which take them away from
their studies for ten days or more
each year. The same routine is true
of the baseball, track crew, and other
teams.
While the colleges stand with the
big stick threatening the young men
with expulsion If they do not reach
the necessary standard in studies, the
coaches, on the other hand, whose posi-
tions and salaries are dependent upon
turning out victorious teams, are US
ing every persuasive power at their
command to induce the men to come
quick from their studies and to use
up every bit of their physical and
mental vitality to become expert and
capable, so as to enable them to beat
contending teams. In other words.
there is the constant temptation of a
divided loyalty-one to the student
work, the other to the athletic. 1t Is
true that now and then colleges OBJ
tain men who seem able to do justice
to both ends, but are extremely rare.
and If the athletics of the colleges had
to depend upon men of honor to the
student body the teams would be ex-
tremely small.
The summary way of throwing out
men who have worked harder for the
athletic glory of their college than
any student does over his books, be.
cause he is not quite up to the re-
quired standard, seems to be brutal
and unnecessary. 1t is common talk
to hear college presidents. provosts,
and deans say that positively ath-
letics do not count and will not In any
way be considered In connection with
the students work, and that, in fact,
they are not interested in athletics at
all; but every one Of these men who
has not reached his dotage knows
that, without athletics, and victorious
athletics at that, his college will at
once begin to go backward, and be-
come less attractive to the student
body, and, in fact, to the average IA
ther who is sending or contemplating
sending his boy there.
Ask the same average father why
he sends his boy to college, and he
will tell you that it is for the asso-
Citations, companionships, and exper-
fence gained rather than for the study
results. Ask the average graduate Of
college of years past as to who have
been the most successful men in later
life of their various classes, and they
will not point, with rare exceptions.
to the best students of the class.
Copyright. 1912, by Universal Press Syn
dicate.)