The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1914-04-06
IN DEFENCE OF
COLLESE SPORTS
No Ground for Charge Spirit of
Sportsmanship Is Deterioratlng

New York, April 6.-That the recent
attacks upon college athletics in which
1t is charged that the spirit and sport
manship of inter- varsity competition is
deteriorating fail to find general sup
port is evidenced by the many articles
and letters appearing in the college
press of the country. While it is ad-
mittcd that there are isolated cases
which furnish grounds for such con-
tention the opinion is Overwhelmingly
expressed that considered in a broad
sense the standard and ideals of col
lege sport is improving every years.
DR.. c. G. Stroud director of athletics
at Louisiana State University, in an.
interesting review and forecast of coll
lege athletics holds that the standard
of sport and competition in the Ameri-
can college is steadily improving. He
does not contend that some of the
abuses charged do not exist but he
points out that each year sees the
elimination or improvement of these
conditions as the spirit and under
standing Of true college sportsmanship
spreads. DR.. stroud states in part:
From Experience.
I'VE speak from many years of prac-
teal experience when we state that
these evils are lessening. Formerly
these influences, if known, were i'm n
measure tolerated. Moral influences.
either could not speak with authority
or were UNDECIDED by the mass of stud
ent opinion if they did. How different
is il today | venture that there is no
coach or captain in any college of this
land who could continue to outrage de-
cency and the square deal, if a single
man of his team made issue with him
before the faculty Of the institution pr
even before the court Of the whole
student body. | have had personal ex-
perience on the faculties of four differ
ent universities in widely separated
sections of the country, and absolutely
know that were the issue ever made
at any of these on any moral question
that immortality would have found no.
backing.
Athletics Are Clean.
1T is. indeed, "A problem as many
men have found to their sorrow when
they have attempted single handed ;ol
revolutionizc conditions. OF course,
politics and Interior motives often en-
ter into the problem. over jealous
alumni and well-meanng friends may
endcavor to bring the standard of the
street and the markct-place the dollar
standard, back into the college life. III
all seems an interminable conflict, so
that it is natural to ask: Are athletics
worth the price? Does 1t profit us to
be evcrlastingly harassed by this hY
dra headed evil of our student body
polite? We answer unhcsitatingly
Yes Everything worth while requires
a struggle. Athletics have displaced
many other evils we of this age know
not Of. intercollegiate athletics i'm
spire the largest interest i'm intra coll
legiate sports, and theI is universal
testimony today to the value Of the
latter in any educational system.
Code OF Honor.
There is no great difficulty i'm keep
ing sport clean. 1t is its own end and
unfairness is not sport for either par
~. Great exhibitions like our football
contests have an end outside them
selves, and sometimes this end levies
on questionable means. Hopeful coll
lege men have much reason to believe
that our intercollegiate athletics are
coming back to stand for what they
first were-the sport of gentlemen and
played under a gentleman's code of
honor. Willingly or unwillingly, the|
men in the big games play fairer and
conduct themselves more gentlemanly|
than before. The standard is set. This
progresses over the land, and gives
force to every local we'll directed ef-
fort
A Harvard View.
Professor Briggs, chairman of the
Harvard Athletic association i'm his
annual report touches on the improved
attitude of Harvard and Yale inter-
varsity athletics as follows: /,
Not the least important thing in
Harvard athletics of late years has
bccn the steadily Increasing fricndi-
ness and confidence of the relation be