The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-06
MANIA FOR SPORT
Princeton Students Go Strong
on Athletic Exercises.
Baseball and Football Are the
Most Popular Games.

Princeton. y. j., Dec. Ga mania
for regular physical exercise seems
to have taken possession of the stu
dent body at Princeton university, ac-
cording to a report which has just
been presented to the trustees COM
mittee on morals and physical educa-
ton. Fully seventy-eight per cent of
the students are engaged in some form
of exercise or athletic competition and
the number of branches of sport in
which contests are held has more
than doubled in the past four years.
DR.. Joseph E. Raycroft, who pre-
sents the report on behalf of the de-
partment of hygiene and physical ed
ucation. attributes much of the en-
thusiasm for sport to the great num-
Der of competitive games which have
sprung up within the university,
Known as the intercollegiate sports.
r. These. embrace fourteen different
sports which. aside from the many in
dividual contests in golf, tennis, hand
ball and canoe racing, are represent
ed by 149 teams \ number of men
are on teams of more than one sport
so that the total engaged in intra-
collegiate sports in 1871, a hundred
more than We're actually in the uni
versity last year.
Few Left Out.
The actual number of individuals on
these teams is S42. y In addition to
these there were last year 1O5 men on
varsity and freshman intercollegiate
teams and 195 students. not members
of any competitive teams, are known
to be regular workers at some form
of physical exercise This leaves but
321 men who. as far as the depart
ment could learn, took no regular ex-
ercise.
The freshman class at Princeton has
IN the past few years been required
to exercise regularly, three times
week A result of this requirement is
that seventy-four per cent of the soph-
omore class, for whom there is no reg
ular exercise requirement, continued
the previously acquired habit of TAX
ing regular exercise.
Total No. 2,24S.
- According to one method of COM
putting the students who report for
athletic squads and exercise groups
the number is 2.24S, while the total
Undergraduate attendance is only
1,46S- This of course disregards the
counting of the same men several
times, but shows the active interest
in varied sports.
The most popular of the sports en-
gagged in within the university. and all |
but football are represented is base
ball, which more than a fourth of the !
total competed in Basketball. relay !
racing, indoor and outdoor track. and |
rowing are the other leaders in popu-
larity in these intra-collegiate compe- |
titions.
DR.. Raycroft points out in his re- /
port that perhaps the most important |
fact of all is that these various lines |
of work call out more men than can |
be cared for during the afternoon |
hours with the present facilities. Saws /
the report, I'VE cannot expect to reach /
n much larger percentage of the stu
dents until we make additional pro- |
vision for organized exercise outdoors /
and particularly indoors and make il /
easier for them to get regular exer- |
else without undue waiting and loss of |
time.
THE situation represents a healthy
growth in the direction of the ideal /
of the university of stimulating in the |
students the formation of habits of |
regular healthful exercise and of MAX /
ing it easy for them to learn and en-
joy two or three of the simple contest |
games such as tennis. baseball and |
wrestling. that will not only improve
their health and working capacity
while in college but will be important
factors in enabling them to realize
their full possibilities in after wears"
Box for Bantam Title Tonight
New Orleans, La, Dec 6-"Kid''
williams of Baltimore. worlds ban
tanweight champion. and frankie
Burns of Jersey City. early today de-
clared their fitness for the 2O-round
bout for the title to be fought here
tonight Ed Smith of Chicago will
referee A number of wagers were
reported at odds of 10 on Williams.
Set New Biccle Record
New York, Dec. 6.-The seventeen
teams in the six-day bicycle race had