The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-23
Standardization Of
Rowing Shells Is
Urged By Metzgel
Much Time and Money May Be Saved by Eliminating
Especially Designed Boats in College Races-New
Registration Will Have salutary Effect on University
Athletics Younger Men Receiving Opportunities.

prizes, are having distressing diff
Guilty in supplying even small part
of the needed equipment.
Some odd facts have come to light
in college sport since the war has
been on. Younger men are playing
on the teams than before. Joe Strauss,
abouts as good a back as Penn had
last fall, celebrated his sixteenth birth
day during the season. Strauss like
ly holds the record as the youngest
college football player. Henry,
Washington and Jefferson's star tao
kle, one of the best who ever filled
that position in all time and who is
captain of that team for next fall,
was seventeen years old during; his
first season on that varsity Bailey.
West Virginia's captain and center
last fall, was of like. age his first year
on that team. AS the war goes on we
will see much more of this.
College rowing is being boosted
more or less this spring and there will
be many events rowed on college
waters. Princeton is going to- be up
against it, as DR.. Spaeth, coach of
the crew who occupies a chair in
English, has just gone into Y. M. C.
A. work in one of the southern can
tonments as Educational Director.
Rowing will likely lose it's hippodrom-
ing feature for all time as result
of the war. The days of the intercol-
legiate regatta were numbered before
we got into active participation in
this struggle for democracy. All that
had prevented breaking up of thai
time honored race over the Pough-
keepSie course was the fact that Co.
lumbia had gone to considerable ex-
pense in erecting a boat-house and
dormitory near the course.
The objection to this race was. and
is, based not upon the commercial
side of the regatta. True, an observa-
ton train did follow the crews but
the receipts from tickets did not go
into the various college athletic treas
uries but to the railroad. The OBJ
lection to the regatta was that it was
held after the various institutions
supporting it had closed for the sum-
mer and there was-eSntinual friction
between faculties and crew manage
ments over holding examinations.
Also, the cost of two or three weeks
of training over the course was
stined to confine itself to term time
races and regattas over waters ada
cent to the various colleges. This
will necessarily limit it to distances
of two, or, at the most, three miles
because neither Pennsylvania nor
Princeton can train for longer races
on their home waters.
The big problem in college rowing
is to standardize the shells to be US
ed. This would facilitate matters
more than at first supposed, as it
would eradicate the necessity of crews
shipping their boats from place to
place That accomplished the Co
lumbia crew could leave New York at
noon, win or lose to Princeton in a
Princeton shell and be back home in
time for dinner and three hours of
possible study. All that stands in the
way is the prejudice of rowing
coaches, each of whom thinks the
shell he designs may be the reason
for his crews victory. AS the object
in college rowing is to make it a test
of rowing by oarsmen and not of skill
in designing shells the earlier we boat
all crews in Liberty model shells, the
better for rowing.