The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-09
Dean Tells
 Why Harvard Quit Sports
Crimson Chairman of Ath- letic Committee Implies That "Taste" Had Much to Do With Decision to Abandon Games During Period of War.

Cambridge, Mass. Jan. 9-An off, cial statement of Harvard's stand on sport and an indication that while the war is on there is little chance intercollegiate athletic arena are con- tained in the annual report to Presi- dent Lowell by Dean Le Baron R. Briggs chairman of the committee on athletic sports made public yesterday.
 The dean implies that taste" had a great deal to do with Harvards sus- pension of sport with other colleges. He says that the big games with Yale and Princeton are unbecoming now and adds whether a modified and less formal Yale or Princeton game than we have had could escape the publicity which the newspapers are Watchful in maintaining is at least a matter of doubt.' The report is as follows:
 ITO the President of the University:
 "Sir-The report of. the committee on the regulation of athletic sports for the year 1916-17 must be brief. Till war was declared more students than usual engaged in athletic sport. This is especially true of the fresh- men. Even at the end of the year the number of students on the river and on the tennis courts was not small; but the physical energy and the men,
 tai concentration once bestowed on athletics were right brought to bear on military training.
 'In football and hockey we won | track athletics baseball and rowing, university contests were abandoned because of the war. MT. Haines, the coach of the crew, and MT. Duff, the coach of the nine, are retained for work with such students as they may , help; but the university teams as we have known them in recent years do not exist today. The college has been severely blamed for suspending inter- collegiate athletics. Intercollegiate athletics in rank recognizable sense , of the e.name had become impossible 2 and almost unimaginable.
 7 'The spirit that makes man an 3 athlete makes him at the very first
 call of his country a soldier; and when war was declared, our games ? with Yale, which had seemed the most } important events of life, became in a l moment unrealties, to which no earn } est man in university team or crew . could give serious thought. Pract-
 tically all our athletes who did not l enlist as volunteers gave themselves l up to intensive military study and l practice till in the summer all but l two of 79 men in the university foot l ball squads were in some form of na- 3 tional service or in training for it. s These facts may be interpreted as i evidence that intercollegiate athletic
 sport should be kept up. If it is good
 preparation for service in war, why
 abandon it now when we are at war
 fo: the first time in many years? If voluntary service takes nineteen twentieths of our athletes, why not form a university team of men under age and therefore not yet accepted as
 scldierss thus maintaining the old .- contests with new and avowedly in- - ferier material? The teams of other Il colleges are crippled also; we and our a rivals may be as fairly matched as II ever, why hold back?
 Clearly it is our duty to encourage n athletic sport and therefore athletic
 contests of some kind, among those a students who because of youth or o1
 Physical defects are kept out of ac- O tive military life. We still encour. I age such contests, for the sake of ex, "a ercise, discipline, and the working of .- of youthful energy, but we believe
 that in these times military training a comes before athletics, and claim:
 more than divided allegiance. We be lieve, also, that such public spectacle!
 as our games with Princeton anG
 Yale are unbecoming now, when the
 friends and comrades of the partici
 pants are at the front, or on thei
 way to it, and in imminent danger O
 a soldiers death.
 Whether a modified and less forma
 Yale or Princeton game than we hav'
 had could escape the publicity Whicl ,q the newspapers are watchful in main
 taining is at least a matter fo 10 doubt.
 One thing is certain: If when tn
 world is at peace again and intercol
 legiate contests are resumed we fai
 to reduce the expense of coaching an
 training to incu1cate notions less lux urious and to foster a better under t standing of the relation between ath
 letics and other interests of life, W
 shall lose one of the opportunities S ~: dearly bought by this war. an Meantime we have cause for thank ~ that in the fearless and immediate re
 sponse of college athletes to dange
 clearly seen at duty the training ( intercollegiate athletics, faulty as it i 1 has achieved no small measure [ ,L justification"