Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-12-25
SPORTS SURVIVE
|. DESPITE THE WAR
Summary of Years Activities Shows
Athletics To Be Looking Up AFTER
Small Slump.
PROSPECTS BRIGHT FOR 1915
A Few. Inspired BY Patriotism
Threatened Complete Abandonment
Charts Last Spring.

New York. Dec. %. - Apparently
throughout the country the pubic
mind is undergoing a change with re-
gard to the status Of sports during
the period of war stress. Ii is not SO
long ago that wave Of self-deniai,
inspired by patriotism, threatened
complete abandonment Of athletics,
following the entry of the country into
the world war, and on every hand
sport-goyerned bodies and colleges
decided that it was inadvisable to
! continue sports in the face Of ma
tional crisis
With second thought the pendulum
has begun to swing the other way.
Pronouncements from various govern
ing bodies indicate that sport is 70
! be regarded as an essential to the war
preparation as well as a necessary re-
| taxation from the more serious prob
lens which confront the nation.
| However, the resumption of sport is
being brought about with several an
omalies Most striking, for instance
is the fact that whereas amateur
bodies were insistent that sport be
! abandoned just before the draft was
put into effect. professional sports
went on in their accustomed way
Now the conditions are reversed
Amateur sport bids fair to pick up the
reins just where they are dropped, but
professional sport is encouraging diff
fculties.
| The resumption of sport had grad
ual beginnings and is still in the early
stages, The college football season
even without the presence Of Yale
! Harvard or Princeton teams, awok'
the public once more to the lure o
athletic competition. Universities herr
and there announced that sport wouiC
be nurtured until such a time as /
= was incompatible with the militar,
program More recently. however
there is the action taken by the exec
utive committee Of the United State
Lawn Tennis association. which rec
commended that championships be re
stored for next season and that tn
game be established again on its pre-
= war footing In view of the fact tina
il was this body which first called Of
q championships the action is sgnif
cant Following the action Of thi
. committee the National Squash Ten
I mis- association day or two later an
nounced that it would again hold it
D championship events
Word on Golf Awaited.
What some Of the other sport GOV
+ erning bodies will do has not been Ok
termined Golf has still to speak il
word on the matter. but the reason
are so manifest for the return
, pionships and to athletics in ger
. eral that favorable action may be al
tiCipated when the s G. A. holds 4
/ annual meeting As for amateur att
! letics. the governing body in traC
and field never did cancel its chan
e pionships, and they will undoubted
be held next year, as they were du
d ing the last summer
L In the college world there is a laS
y of unity Of action The tri-state co
y lege conference recently took actiC
FL which showed its inclination toward
,e wider participation in athletics. TT
L delegates declared it their belief tn
J. the best method within the power
e the colleges to fit men for militia
d service was by competitive athletic
and 1t was voted to make athleti
u compulsory for the men students
to the universities More than a doz
I'd colleges in Minnesota and North al
d. South Dakota were represented. The
is no college association in the ca
but how matters are being consider
Mt may be indicated by the action of t
" Intercollegiate Basketball league
going ahead with its schedule
b. events. in which Yale. Cornell, Per
to sylvania and Columbia are repl
on scented.
Id College Meeting Soon.
he What the colleges as a body will
I'll with regard to athletics and the
k sumption of intercollegiate contes
a probably will be determined at
ID meeting in this city. a few wee
ol. hence, of the National Collegiate A
he letic association. This body held
le- meeting In Washington last sunni
We and at that time was strongly in fa1
Of no curtailment of athletics. 1t
presumed by those who should knc