The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-28
PROF. CETTELL
 LAUDS FOOTBALL AS GREAT CAME
Typifiss Highest Human Achievement and Highest
 Craving of Soul.

New York, Dec 2S.-In an address on "The Value of Football" deliver ed at the eleventh annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association here to-day, Prof. Ray mond Garfield Gettell, of Amherst college, said:
 "A phenomenon of frequent recur- renee in widely separated times and places has been the intense general interest in games or contests mani fested by those peoples who held the leading place in the civilization of their day. The Olympic games in Greece, the gladiatorial co1tests in Rome, and the tournaments of the Middle Ages alike were characteriz- ed fby the enthusiastic zeal of those actively engaged by the presence of crowds of frenzied spectators, and by the interest and attention centered upon them by the public at large. All these athletic carnivals were sub jected to severe criticism in their age, yet they increased in popularity in spite of opposition, and declined only with the decadence of the peoples i'm terested or with changes in culture that made them no longer possible.
 
 ples hold the reins of power, and among them great football, baseball and cricket contests inspire vide spread interest end enthusiasm. One explanation of this phenomenon, us- ing football as an example of the modern type, is here attempted.
 "As might be expected, football has been subjected to unusually severe criticism. The danger to life and limb, the accompanying evils Of gambling, professionalism, or un- sportsmanlike methods, the enormous expenditures, the comparatively small number who actually take part in proportion to the numerous specta- tors, the false standards created i'll the minds of growing school boys, the over-emphasis on athletics ill general in colleges and universities these are some of the direct accusa- tions that the sport has been com pelled to face.
 "In spite of these criticisms and these defects, however, football has become during the autumn season, the pre-eminent sport, especially in American schools and colleges. The football star is a college hero; ann bition to make the team is a chief de- sire in the mind of many a, student, and pride over football victories is. a powerful stimulant to loyal college spirit Nor does public interest in 1 the game show sign of decline Each Saturday during the season, thous- l ands assemble to witness the contests, additional thousands, even in the re- motest parts of the country, crowd around bulletin boards. which give detailed descriptions of the plays or announce the scores. and: still other thousands turn first to the sporting columns of the Sunday morning newspapers. A game that inspires l such widespread devotion must rest | upon certain vital underlying prin- ciples of human nature.
 Football is not a contest between individuals. It is @ contest, between groups or teams. The union of II men under their captain typifies the characteristic human factor of or- ganization. In no othery game is the individual, as individual, of So little moment, and the unit, or team. so closely integrated. The success of a1- most every manoeuvre depends upon detailed division of labor, distinct part being assigned to each member within the machine; and the success of team in competition with others depends mainly upon the perfection of it's organized teamwork. Football, then, demands co-operation, the sub- ordination of the individual interest to the welfare of the larger unit. It reproduces on small scale that pro- cess of organized social effect by which man first. attained supremacy over the world of nature, and by which the more highly organized and more closely co-operating peoples have conquered and surpassed their | less advanced rivals. z<rf -e.~ts-.9,---, | Football, while retaining the vir- tues of physical combat, remedies it's worst evils by emphasizing organiza- tlon,N cooperation and obedience.
 These necessitate self-sacrifice, sub-
 ordination, mutual aid and fair play. They discipline the individual. teach self-contrOl andF inculcate princinIes
 of honor and loyalty Especially do
 they build up an ideal.
 More than any other sport # re-
 tains the vital elements of physica
 combat and necessitates an exhibi-
 tian of all it's essential factors Strength, speed, skill and cunning Tn addition to this primitive lust for bat-
 tie, it satisfies the higher and dis
 t1nctly civilized interest in organiza-
 tion, cooperation and the skilled in.
 ter-relation of individual effort di.
 rected to common purpose. I, typifies the highest human achieve.
 ment in it's unusual emphasis on dis.
 cipline and obedience, on the subor. dinationsof the individual to authority
 and law, Finally, in it's purpose anG
 in its spirit it represents that high. est craving of the human soul 1hs
 striving for an ideal"