Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-01-11
UPHELD
IN REPORT BY
HARVARD DEAN
Briggs Suggests That Men
too Young for Service
Should Become Athletes

Boston. Mass, Jan. 11.-Sports as a
means Of fitting students for military
service are approved by l.. b. r.
Briggs. dean of Harvard, in his annu-
al report, but he says the war has
made impossible the continuation of
the spectacular athletic contests of
recent years.
Dean Briggs replies to critics who
have censured Harvard with Yale and
P~Tlnceton for disseminating intercol-
|legiate athletics. He declares such ex-
hibitions are impossible. almost unim-
ag1nable, in view of present condi-
tons. He points out that Of seventy
nine men in the university football
squad of 1916. all but two were en-
rolled in war work of some sort last
summer. This, he asserts, is an ar
Sunent for the fostering Of athletics,
not with the expensive coaching and
training that have marked the con-
duct of games at big universities in
recent years.
Keep Team Alive.
AS a substitute for the elaborate
athletic programs that have been dis
continued, Dean Briggs suggests that
students too young for war service, or
physically untitled to serve, should
make up teams to keep the games
alive. but adds that military training
should be placed before athletics.
The report sys:
THE college has been severely
blamed for ~suspendinE intercollegiate
athletics. intercollegiate athletics in
any recognizable sense Of the name
had become impossible and almost
u~nimaginable. The spirit that makes
a man an athlete makes him at the
very first call Of his country a SOL
der. And when war was declared.
our games with Yale. which had
seemed the most important events of
life. became in a moment u%nrealities.
to which no earnest man in a uni
versity team or crew could give seri-
Gus thought.
Many in Service.
Practically all our athletes who
did no enlist as volunteers gave
themselves up to intensive utility
study and practice. till in the sum-
mer. all out two OF seventy-nine men
in the university football squad were
in some form of national service or in
training for it.
These facts may be Interpreted as
evidence that intercollegiate athletic
sport should be kept up.
IF it is good preparation for ser
vice in war, why abandon it now
when we are at war for the first time
in many years? If voluntary service
takes nineteen-twentieths Of our ath-
letes. why not form a university team
of men under age and therefore not
vet accepted as soldiers. thus main
tanning the old contests with. new and
avowed1y inferior material? The
teams Of other colleges are crippled
also: W. and our rivals may be as
fairly matched as ever Why hold
back?
Clearly it is our duty to encour-
age athletic sport, and therefore ath-
letic contests Of some kind, among
those students who, because Of ply
steal defects are kept out Of active
military life. We still encourage such
contests for the sake Of discipline
and the working OF of a youthful en-
ergy. But we believe that in these
!, times military training comes before
athletics and claims more than diyid.
ed allegiance. We believe also with
Princeton and Yale are unbecominp
now, when the friends and comrade,
Of the participants are at the 'front.', OF
on their way to 1t, and in imminent
danger OF a soldiers death.
Zone thing Is certain-if when the
world is at peace again, and intercol.
ilegfate contests r resumed, we fai
Ito reduce the expense Of coaching and
training. to inculcate notions les,
luxurious and to foster a better un.
Id~erstanding Of the relation between
athletics and other interests Of life
We shall lpse nj Of the opportunitie,
soSdearly bought by this war"