Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-25
/ WARTIME SPORTS
Bv Sol Metzger.

 it is quite likely to make eligible for the draft army young men who have passed the age, of twentyone since June 5, l917 Should that bill become a law intercollegiate sport will have another period of hysteria not unlike that which seized it immediately fol- lowing the declaration of war if it doesn't watch out. Indeed, our entire system of collegiate education will get a jolt that is bound to result in fur ther financial retrenchment.
 The results of such a, draft law, should our army be materially in- creased, is bound to make big iIl- roads into the ranks of trained college athletes. l. has already become an established fact that the athlete is the raw material from which to mould all ideal soldier. What more could be asked than that such a law be passed? 1t would immediately make available for fighting purposes those of our youth perhaps best fitted for duty abroad and once more put it up to the colleges to give every encourage ment to the work of producing more men of tht same type.
 Every time college athlete enters the service. no matter by what route, the college in position has a patriotic
  ly to it's athletic prestige the loss of said star may be. This duty is noth- ing more than putting another in his place on the team. thus automatically giving the second man the athletic training which is found to be so val uable in the training of a soldier.
 This war is forcing us to leorn great deal relating to athletics we never imagined before. Dreams are actually coming true. The draft law proposed will but accelerate these dreams. For example not long back this column dealt with what was a more or less ideal conception of sport for-al1 in the colleges. It's meat con- ssited in the proposition that varsity teams should be made up of members of the senior class only thus making the varsity the goal and paving the way for more general participation in all competitive games by under graduates. This plan placed intercol- legiate sport at the top both as a stimulus for athletic efforts by all stu- dents and as means by which mon- ey could be raised for supporting the whole programme.
 l Although our colleges are not think ing of adopting any such programme they are now being forced into one quite similar to it.
 Varsity teams are beginning to exist for one season only. Penn. for exam pie. has already had eight of it's 1917 football team enter service; other col- leges are experiencing the same thing. At Harvard, Princeton and Yale the freshmen teams are supplanting the varsity. Consequently, the job in othletics at most institutions today is to develop new teams in all sports leach year. That is good and it A serving the country. too.
 Those who advocate sport for all and no intercollegiate competition have not looked far ahead. Where is the money to come from even in peace times? While that plan may be ideol in the army those engaged in pro- noting it at the cost of interdivision contests and championships, all with out prizes. are having distressing diffi- culty 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 ploying on teams than before. Joe Strauss, about as good a back as Penn had last fall, celebrated his sixteenth birthday dXr- ing the season. Strauss likely holds the record as the youngest college football player. Henry, Washington and Jefferson's star tackle, one of the best who ever filled that position in all time and who is captain of that 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 os we will see much more of this.
 College rowing is being boosted more or less thi sspring 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 chair in Earlish, has just gone into Y. M. C. A work n one of the southern cantor~u -,ts as
 educational director. Rowin. will likely lose it's hippodroming feature The. days of the intercollegiate regatta were numbered before we got into ac- tive participation in this struggle for democracy. All that had prevented a breaking up of that time honored race over the Poughkeepsie course was the fact that Columbia had gone to con- siderable expense 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 observation train did follow the crews but the re- ceipts from tickets did not go into the various college athletic treasuries but to the railroad. The objection to the regatta was that 1t was held after the various institutions supporting it had
 closed for the summer aud there was continual friction between faculties and crew homogeneous over holding examinations. Also, the cost of two Or three weeks of training over the course was staggering bill. Rowing seems destined to confine itself to term