South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-03-06
Do n. D. MEN
SRUN ATHLETICS?
Coach Attributes Lack of In.
tereSt to High SChoIaS-
tic Standing.
by CHARLES d. CRIMES.


Has the war turned the average
college student into a bookworr- TO
the detriment Of college athletics?
The question has Coach Dorais. of
Notre Dame. guessing. lie believes.
In fact he knows that athletics have
suffered Of late. yet he Is loathe to
concede that the students scholastic
standing has been heightened by
their student aversion 70 athletics
Coaches in other institutions have
openly attacked students for their
lazy attitude of late. Not so with
Dorais or Rockne. of Notre Dame,
but both have been disappointed in
The seeming lack Of athletic interest
among the student body
DOrais made his debut as baseball
coach at NOtre Dame yesterday aft
ernOOn. II was disappointing be
ginning from his point of view.
a few years ago" he said. lin
fact, until just before the war start
ed. when first call for baseball can
didates was sounded So many re-
sponded it was next 20 impossible
Tor them all 10 get any more than
elbow room ir the gym. This after
noon you could run 40-yard dashes
between them and maybe not touch
ALL"
Less than 90 men reported for
the practice yesterday. The number
was few. but the display OF enthusi-
ssm by those out was fairly encour-
aging. DOrais insists. however, that
IL NOtre Dame is 10 make any kind
Of a showing this season the size OF
The squad must be doubled aye
tripled Competition, in addition to
being the spice OF life. is the making
OF many college ball teams. Dorais
wants competition. He wants more
men out for the team, and proposes
To get them If the ennui of the stu
dent body can be sufficiently
aroused lie is not complaining
about the quality Of the men who
have already reported.
Just now" ne says, what we
want is quantity. If "a hundred men
come out for the team this year a.
they have done in past years.
chances are much better for adding
two or three good players TO the
cOterie. More competition will
make those already out work hard
or. and harder work means a better
team.
The idea that the team IS al
ready as good as picked is all XII
oOsh. Only two men on the team
are fairly certain of their positions,
one OF them a pitcher. the other an
infielder Any man in the univer-
sity capable of holding down the job
can have a catcher's. an infielder's
or outfielder's position for the try
ing. There are four infielders,
three outfielders, a catcher and
three pitchers to be selected. Tho
berths are open 10 those who can
hold them"
In the practice yesterday after
noon Pat" Murray burned 'em
across with more or less accuracy
for 20 minutes. Mcguire was on the
receiving end. Hard" Smith also
got an early season start in warm
ing up" He needed il. for he was
wild as the proverbial hawk. his
basketball muscles having not yet
changed about
Earl Gilfillan, the Gold and Blue
Jim Thorpe tried his hand at speed
ing them over and succeeded fairly
we'll for his first attempt Versaul-
ity is the big boys middle name.
After DOrais wound up the baseball
session "Grllie' switched from dia-
mond 20 track activities. He is in
fairly good shape. Upon him
Rockne relies for better Gold and
Blue showing against Wisconsin