The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-01-09
SPORT in DANGER
Many Believe College Heads
Want To Curtail 1t.
Cheap Coaches and Officials
,- Mean More NDubS."

FRIENDS of intercollegiate sports In
Kansas have reason to be alarmed
over the stand the college authorities
took at the annual council meeting
here Tuesday when they went on rec
ord as favoring a curtailment of
sports, reduction of salaries for sport
officials and coaches and almost every
other move that will give the good old
college games a black eye.
Not only did the college heads put
themselves on record as opponents of
baseball, the national pastime, but
they Enthusiastically let it be known that
they are going to use the war as an
excuse for doing what great many
have desired to do for a long time;
namely, put such a handicap on in
tercollegiate athletics that they will
not be attractive to either the students
or the public and will gradually fall
into unpopularity.
Action a Surprise.
The action of the college authori-
ties is all the more surprising because
it comes in the face of the fact that
national authorities from President
Wilson down have urged the schools
to keep up athletics at any cost so
that the young men will be kept phys
ically fit for army service when they
are needed.
OF course every one realizes that it
is hard to make both ends meet these
days, and it is admitted that most of
the smaller educational institutions
cannot expect to make money out of
athletics while the war lasts. But the
advocates of intercollegiate sports hold
that the institutions should not expect
to make money and that they should
make appropriations to meet the ex-
penses just as they do to meet the ex-
penses of the educational departments.
They claim that as mich benefit is
he n
boys receive as from the mental train
ing they get from their studies ana
that athletics are worth all the cost,
aside from the drawing power they
have for students and the advertising
benefits they bring.
Want Dub Coaches?
Few who are in close touch with
sports will look with favor upon the
suggestion that a general cut be made
in the salaries of coaches and IN the
payment of officials. IT this is done
MANY of the best coaches will give up
their athletic work to go back to their
professions and every one knows that
this will mean a state full of 'dubs'
trying to do a work that demands the
brains and the experience OF experts
who are highly trained. And the
same will be true of officials.
AS for the matter of substituting
inter-mural sports for intercollegiate
contests, there are many authorities
who hold this a theory that can never
be successfully put iuto practice and
these authorities can cite numerous
instances where big schools have tried
it and have finally gone back to the
intercollegiate idea. The students can
not work up the same enthusiasm or
rivalry for inter-claSs games as for
games with rival schools and the
alumni and outside friends do not take
an interest in sport affairs of this kind.
Therefore, inter-class games often fail
to bring out as many men as intercol-
legiate games do. 1t takes little effort
and there is little honor in doing so.
Iege teams brings out sne best there is
in the best. men and the honor that
goes with winning a place makes many
a man devote a part OF MS time to
physical training.
Football To Be NeXt?s
Nothing was said at the council
meeting here about curtailing football,
but there is no doubt about there be-
ing certain sentiment in every school
in favor of this, and it rs felt by many
that this sentiment will soon begin to
assert itself if the suggestions made
Tuesday are carried out
College sport followers and espec-
tally students should realize that they
have much at stake in this matter and
if they do not want to lose one of their
most cherished possessions they will
lose no time in letting the school au-
thoritleS know their sentiments and in
standin:, up for their rights and their
beloved rivalries.