The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-01-22
"AMATEUR RULES WILL
NOT AFFECT MANY OF
OUR Col FERS" ---ME.NkE.
Well Known Writer Admits That Dangers of Becoming Pro
fessional Are Great Stands Behind A. u Rules and
Claims They Are Not Only Just But Necessary to Amateur
Sport.

BY FRANK q. MENkE.
New York Jan Ala study OF the
rules governing amateurtsm IN ath-
letics convinces us that there are 80
few simon-pure golfers and foo'oaH
players in the United States TO-DAY that
. they can be counted almost on one
hand.
Jerry Travers and Francis Ouimet,
the aoifing stars, are regarded as anna
tours. They are not amateurs; they
are professionals, IL we interpret the
rules correctly. And IN the profess
sional class belong at least 500 golfers
who are under the conclusion that
they are amateurs.
Eddie Mahan. the great Harvard
football star. and the man who will
he Crimson's pitching mainstay In the
spring, is in the professional class,
according to the rules. So are his
teammates. So are all the players on
the Yale, Princeton, Syracuse, AM
herst, Trinity, Dartmouth Michigan,
Michigan Aggies,,- Colgate. Carlisle,
williams, Tufts. Wesleyan and score
OF other teams.
The Rule.
Article 10 of the constitution of the
Amateur Athletic Union. the govern
ing body in amateur athletic AFFAIRS
in the United States, says in part:
IAN athlete becomes a professional
II he enters competition open to
professional. or knowingly completes
against a professional
Tainting of Golfers.
Jerry Travers. Francis Ouimet and
hundreds of other supposedly amateur
golfers have competed in open tourna=
ments--haye played against profess
sionals and have done so knowingly.
BY this act they violated the laws of
the A. A. q. and became professionals
in every sense OF the. word.
Later when these men-~Travers.
Ouimet ct AL. who had become pro
fessionais by playing In open tourna~
ments played against real amateurs
they tainted every one of those anna
tours with professionalism. The rules
of the A. A. l.. are specific on this
point, and can be construed TO mean
that if Travers. after competing
against professional, played in
tournament against 500 amateurs
every one OF those amateurs would he
COME professionals by their very action
in playing against Travers.
There is no alibi for those who
played against Travers. Ouimet ct al.
after they became tainted through
playing In an open tournament lg'
norance of tie law excuses no one.
The amateur law reads plainly and IL
was up to these men who wanted TO
preserve their amateur status to make
sure that they were not playing
against professional
What Brickley Did.
And. now. as to football:
George Brickley was signed 10 play
for Connie Macks Athletics last
spring Bricliey played two or three,
games with the Athletics during the
summer and was paid for his SER.
vtes. in Keeping with the contract
he signed when Mack corraled him.
Brickiey entered Trinity College last
September and played halfhack on the
eleven. He was In every sense "a pro-
fessional. and all his teammates be-
came professionals through their ae-
ton in playing with him.
Here is the A. A. Il. rule to hack
up this statement;
"A Single professional player In
team makes that tearl professional
Brtckiey and the professional Trinity
team played seven games during the
1918 season. Every team that Trinity
played became professional through
its action in playing against n team
that had become professional through
the fact that II knowingly played
Brfckley. the professional baseball
Professionalism Spreads.
Norwich. Brown, Bates. Amherst,
williams, Tufts and Wesleyan were
the teams that played against Trinity.
and each became tainted with profess
sionalism by Its action in competing
with the professional Trinity team.
These teams. in turn, tainted all those
who PLAYED against them later.
Brown played Trinity. got itself in
the professional class and then passed
II along by playing Yale and Har-
ward Those teams tainted Princeton.
Syracuse played Brown and automati-
caily got into the professional class,
and Syracuse made professionals out
of every team IL played afterward.
The Ultimate Result
Many of the 1915 football players
will compete in baseball, track and
field and rowing affairs in the spring.
By their presence on those teams they
will cause their amateur associates
10 become professionals and will throw
into the professional class all the .''4-
tours against whom they compete.
In short. the fact that George Brlck-
ley was allowed to play with the TrIn-
ity team in 1918, when the fact was
generally known that he was In the
professional class, has so tainted attn
letic affairs in the various colleges
that before the end OF this school year
there will not be dozen absolutely
pure college athletes among the tens
nj tbousa nds that hagai1 the t9tg-feib