Evening star., 1912-03-10
GAME IS IN DANGER
Basket Ball Not in Favor
Among Big Colleges.
A NEW ATHLETIC BOARD
Princeton Will Have q New system
Next Year-Penn's Grad
uate Manager.
BY EDWARD r. BUSHNELL.

BY EDWARD Il. BUSHNELL.
intercollegiate basket ball, in at leas,
two eastern universities. is on a mos,
precarious footing. It is not unlikel,
that Yale will discontinue the spor
next winter. and there exists senti
n.ent at Princeton to take the sam,
action. The season which has Just com
| to an end with the third successive vic
tory Of Columbia University was ia,
from satisfactory. Columbia, of course
was pleased enough to win. and the
games at Columbia, Pennsylvania ant
Cornell drew well and were popular.
The game is in danger at Yale fol
| two reasons. One is that the Yale
team made a complete failure of its
season, winning but a single game or
the entire schedule. The Ellis defeated
Princeton once, but their other seven
games they lost. 1t may be assumed
that Yale was represented by a very
poor team, and this was enough to
destroy any enthusiasm there might
have been for the game among the
Yale students.
| It should be remembered. too, that
at Yale the game was on probation A
year ago the Yale authorities decided
that the game as played by their team
was entirely too rough and that as such
1t resulted in unsportsmanlike tactics.
The authorities were not willing to
condemn the game offhand. nor were
| they disposed to place all the blame
for the roughness they saw upon the
Yale team. At the same time they
warned the Yale Ave that If there was
recurrence of some of the things that
marred the game a year ago the sport
| would be abolished altogether.
There was no criticism upon the
| conduct of the Yale team this year.
but the very nature OF the game has
at Yale and 1t Is reported that the
| Ellis will discontinue the game unless
some radical reforms are introduced.
Yale men are not alone in this critf-
cism ,of the sport. Their most serious
attack upon the game is that it con-
| tains rules which permit man to
commit four personal fouls before he
is disqualified. In one of the recent
games Yale played there were called
foul time had to be taken out and the
team which made the fouls penalized.
The continual stopping. of the game
and the constant commission of fouls
many sportsmen. II basket ball is to
be continued, say the Yale men, 1t
should be played according to rules
which make 1t q more sportsmanlike
game.
There are a great many college men
who think that the present rules
should be completely overhauled, or
that they should be patterned after
the game as played by the professional
east. The difference between the col
lege and the professional game Is that
the professional game is played within
q cage. The cage prevents the ball
from going out Of bounds and permits
the players to continue without the
persistent stoppage Of play. Efforts
have been made a number Of times to
Introduce this feature into the college
game. but the college men are loath
to change and their game has suffered
In consequence. The professional game
Is so much faster. permits of much
greater development Of individual and
comparison between the merits Of the
two games. Not until Yale and pos
sibly one or two other institutions
drop out of intercollegiate basket ball
because bee, OF present defects in the rules
committee awake to the realization
that 1t must make some radical change
II 1t expects this game to continue.
Yale's Rowing Problem.
In spite Of the fact that Yale has had
a thorough housecleaning In the depart
ment Of rowing, the rosy conditions
which were prophesied for the new order
Of things do not exist. The material with
which Coach Rodgers hfsNto work is not
up to the old Yale stahdaM. In spite of
had In the fall. About the best descrip-
ton which has been given of Yale's row.
Ing troubles in recent years is that of
Lester Dole. who is now the coach Of the
st; Paurs School crews. Mr.. Dole has
called attention to a number Of things
pointed out by the writer to explain the
superiority of Harvard's crews over Yale.
First of all. he contends that the Yale
men made mistake when they attributed
the poor showing of their crew to their
professional coach, John Kennedy
The strongest factor In Harvard's sue
cession Of victories is due to the Harvard
system of arranging as many, outside re.
gattas for the crews as possible. Mr..
which develops a crew faster than a race
with some other organization. He also
calls attention to the Harvard policy of
copying the good points of other rowing
abroad. Yale has been proverbially slow
in both of these respects. For instance,
the Ellis went a good many years with
no other experience than that gained in
big race with Harvard. The Crimson. on
the other hanG, never hesitated to arrange
q dual regatta with Cornell, and annually
sent its freshmen and second crews to
the American regatta at Philadelphia.
The result was that Harvard's oarsmen
had great deal more rowing experience
than those of Yale, a fact which has
much to do with the Crimson's superior
rowing.
Only the season itself will show whether
or not Yale has profited by the new system
in coaching. Mr.. Rodgers has surrounded
himself with six other graduate coaches,
who propose to render him what service
they can. In addition. Yale has sent
Freshman coach Hartman to England
for the supposed purpose Of learning
what he can about the English rowing
methods. He Is to make study of the
conditions at Oxford and Cambridge, with
the expectation that some Of the things he
learns will be introduced into the new
Yale system. College men should not ex-
for 1t takes a good many years to make
q new coaching system anything like
perfect.
Princeton's New Athletic Control.
In spite Of the wonderful success which
followed Princeton's athletics under the
regime Of William w. Roper as graduate
director Of athletics. the Princeton au-
thorities have decided upon quite rad
ical change in the government of their
athletics. They have permanently de-
cided not to appoint a successor to Mr.
Roper, but to SO remodel their athletic
government that there will be no neces-
sity for one individual to be in charge
The new system is to be very much like
that which existed at the University of
Pennsylvania for SO many years. The en-
tire athletic control Is to be vested In a
board of nine members, three OF whom
will represent the faculty. three the
r1vrt d4Hcr l,r0k