The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-01-23
Have Harvard, Yale and
Princeton Lost Leader
ship in Intercollegiate
Athletics Through War
Time Abolition?

Have the Big Three lost their pre-
vious acknowledged leadership in col |
lege athletics?'
THIS question has arisen because so
the position taken by Yale, Hazard
and Princeton toward wartime ath-
letics.
Even the students and alumni of
these colleges now admit that they
made big mistake in calling off their
athletics on the declaration of war.
There is no doubt that the motives
of the men in charge of these colleges
were of the highest. They felt that
they must bend every effort to war
work. They failed to see that college
athletics have a real military and ma
val value in that those students that
have been in regular training are the
very ones that have the spirit and
the physiques to make them at once
available for our forces. They failed
to understand that in war times, in
stead of giving up athletics, courses
in athletics should be extended to COW
er the entire student body, even
though it would mean curtailment
of actual class work. This failure to
cpPIOS1 lLS 1SCI No1uO VI 4hIC1SOA-
legiate sport has left the big three in
a very unenviable minority.
Time was when Yale and Harvard
held a position in this country analo-
gous to that held by Oxford and Cam
bridge in England. This was some
Is years ago. The e-Harvard-Ox-
ford-Cambridge games, though 'criti-
cized then in some quarters as not
actually representing the two coun-
tries, as far as the United States were
concerned, received generally speak
ing very favorable criticism. Ten years
later, or when the last international
games were planned, there was gem
eral criticism throughout the country,
because in the meantime Cornell and
Pennsylvania had outstripped Yale
and Harvard in track and field ath-
letics, and Princeton had also made
great progress. The rise of such col
lege in athletics developed into the
Big Three, Princeton first being ad
mitted, and then into the Big Four,
with Pennsylvania joining the magic
circle. Coumbia's athletic prestige
under the Sanford football regime
and CornelPs rapid rise put them into
the favored circle and the Big Six
was then talked of.
Columbia's president in abolishing
football because of the evils that at
| tended the game at once sent them
as far as athletics were concerned to
the minor college class or practically
SO.
It is pertinent here to note that the
abolition of football at Columbia had
not the slightest effect on that insti-
tuition as a collegiate center, for today
everyone recognizes that Columbia is
one of the greatest colleges in Amer
lea. The fact that football or any
other sport IS not essential to the de-
velopment of our colleges as far as
their scholastic development is con-
cerned will now be felt by practically
all the colleges of the country, though
the war has paradoxically shown that
college athletics as a means of keep
ing the student body up to a high
standard of physical fitness is more
needed today than ever before. In my
opinion, the influence of famous ath-
1etic teams in building up our uni
yersities has been altogether exag-
gerated.
of leadership was extended to the Big
Five or the Big Six, Yale, Harvard
and Princeton continued in the mind:
of the college men throughout mos
of the country as the rea1s leaders il
college sport. This remained so, il
spite of the extraordinary develop
ment of the Western colleges. These
soon began to make themselves Eel
by their progressive ideas in variou:
phases of college sport. AS the influ
ence of the Western Colleges became
more self-centered and fixed, the in
fluence of the Eastern colleges ovel
!: them became less and less.
The Western conference. college:
first saw the evils of various colleg'
sports as generally conducted. Thi
conference did not have to contend
with the long standing jealousies anC
bitterness that existed between soma
of the Eastern colleges. On that &C
count, they were able to go ahead anC
legislate for the good of the sport. II
my opinion, the most advanced steI
they took, one that carried alont
many reforms in it's train, was thu
making of the coaches directly re
sponsible to the faculty.
1t was the influence of the Western
colleges that first demanded change
in our football rules so that injurie
might be curtailed and other bad fea
lures of the game removed. The.
were the colleges that formed tn
backbone of the National Collegiat
Association at its beginning and the,
. have been the ones that have brough
, forth most of the legislation IN tina
. body that has been so beneficial t.
sport. 1t is we'll to remember in thi
regard that a few of our big Easter
institutions did not join the Nationa
, Collegiate Association until late
date when public opinion compelle
them to join hands with body tina
had shown itself so able and impartia
, in handling college athletic matters
From this time on, the leadership 0
:. any small select coterie of colleges be
: came more and more precarious.
This leadership depended on sue
o colleges rather anticipating the devel
> opment of college athletics, than be
: coming a real formative influence
= But the long standing athletic rec
ords of Yale, Harvard and Prince
ton kept them in the forefront of a
y things athletic and it must be state
n to their great credit that they uphel
Y the best traditions of college spol
y in many respects The spectacula
D. nature of the Yale-Harvard, Harvard
: PRINCETON and Yale-Princeton foo
ball games came in for much adver: