The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-12-29

There is one criticism that have often felt constrained to make re- garding college athletics, and that is that the wrong men are given all the attention. Too much attention is law ished upon them so that they are de- veloped into specialized athletes, while the weak and anemic are left to play | the part of observers. Gentlemen, there are not enough star athletes in
 the colleges to fill our armies. What the nation requires is that all our young men attending school shall have the benefit of physical training so as to develop their bodies and
 make them proper material for filling the armies of the country in the pres ent emergency.
 NO one knows how long this war will last. It may be that those who have been called to the ranks will
 never have an opportunity to engage | in fighting. On the other hand, the
 million of men now undar call or in l service may have to be supplemented | by yet other millions, and the youths ! now in college or contemplating col- | lege may be withdrawn to stand by. l the side of their brothers who have 1 gone to the front before them" President Faunce of Brown made | strong plea for the continuation of sport in the colleges, but also asked
 that they take advantage of the op | portunity presented by this war to
 clean house. He asked that strict
 eligibility rules be adhered to now
 more than ever and he questioned l the benefits of certain features of our l present system.
 College sports must be maintained l chiefly for those who do not know how to play and therefore do not
 know how to live," said Dr. Faunce.
 From this point of view the minor l sports may be of major importance. We must subject them all to the one | great test Do they teach men how
 to live and how to live together in the service of the nation?
 l '"The war offers college athletics a
 priceless opportunity of appraisement
 and revision. The most expensive i paraphernalia of sports are suddenly
 tables which have fostered profes- l sionalism by treating athletes as a
 separate caste. Gone are the Pull
 man cars and the Southern trips
 which have been an expensive detri- ment. Gone are some of the costly
 coaches who regard the faculty as a
 natural foe and who must turn out
 winning team or lose their job.
 Gone in some cases is, the whole var
 sity team which may have regarded a single letter on sweater as far
 greater honor than Phi Beta Kappa
 key
 Now is the opportunity such as America has not seen for 50 years to
 evaluate the play of young men to
 discover it's real function in the na-
 tional life and decide whether to con upue or abandon or reform it. I 1lust Show Benefits.
 Unless college sports can demon
 strate today that they are more than i. trifes, more than costly advertise
 ment more than pedestal for indi-
 vidua1 notoriety, unless they can be shown to make better citizens and
 so better soldiers; unless they can
 produce men men capable of demo- } cratic, wholesouled cooperation in devotion to the ideals of the nation
 they will be sent to the scrap heal by an ignorant people
 I've cannot at this national crisis say business as usual nor will we announce business suspended We . do not want athletes as usual because they have usually been abused, nol 7 do we want them abolished But we , want all business and all sport, al Z dork and all play, relieved of super. fiuity and extravaganza, stripped fol
 action in the nations service and CO } ordinated with the laboratory and tn, } library and the classroom in the end , less task of creating men fit to b' : citizens of America"
 Four New Members. : Most of the afternoon session wa. : taken up with routine business whic1 included the reading of reports iron the various districts. Four new mem ] bers-Georgia Tech, Trinity, Texa. : A and M. and New Hampshire Stat f were admitted. Resolutions for tn = fostering of boxing and wrestling il 7 the colleges were adopted and com t mittees to take the propaganda il 9 charge were named. The reports in the main showe e that intercollegiate sport, despite tn war, had remained nearly normal an - that the vast majority of the college s had acted in pursuance to the resolu
 tions adopted last August. These call q ed for no preseason training, the ab It clifton of training tables and the gen = eral cutting down of expenses. At the night session there was h general discussion of the Washingto B. resolutions.