Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-01-29
ATHLETICS FOR
ALL NECESSARY,
LESSON Of WAR

(By Robert Edgrcn0


The plan to adopt compulsory
physical training" under national di-
rection in all public schools is Il nat
ural outgroWth Of what this country
has learned from the war. 1t took
a war to make easy going Americans
realize a fact that some Of our best
athletic authorities realized many
years aEo-that athletic training for
all children viii make this a far
more powerful and efficient nation,
as well as a more healthful and hap
Ply one.
James T.. Sullivan for years head
OF the American Amateur Athletic
union. was first to realize the i'm
portance of general school athletic
training, He spent n great part of
his time planning school athletic
work and putting it into effect in
New York. Few of Sulliyan's friends
realized the Importance Of the sys-
TEN he was starting. They called it
his hobby
I talked this over with Jim" Sui
Ivan one afternoon.
people don't see it now" he said,
"but in a few years our school ath-
letic training is going to be adopted
in every school in the country our
so far ahead of the rest OF the world
in athletics that our teams will out
class all others in the olympic meets.
] don't think that's the important
thing though. The DEVELOPMENT Of
champions will only be a side Issue.
School athletics for all the, purils viii
improve the health and the strength
of the whole nation. If we get into
war wen have millions Of trained
men to turn into soldiers Our whole
country will he better and stronger
because every individual citizen viii
be mentally and physically stronger
as a result of early training in ath-
letics'
That sounded a little amusing to
some people when ] quoted James f.
sullivan ten wears ago ! had few
letters of favorable comment from
old time athletes. who were naturally
Interested And then Jim" Sulii-
vans theories were forgotten ev-
cept in the districts that he was abb
to reach by his own individual effort
BEFORE his death he had the salts
faction of seeing educational autho~i-
ties in several states adopt his
school athletic plans aud come to him
for advice Incidentallv he took a
great pride in the American OLYMPIC
champions who had been devolope d
in the schools; men like Meradith
and Ralph Rose and Fred Kelly.
From the start, school athletics de-
veloped athletes who were champions
before they entered college.
The real usefulness of athletic
training was brought out in the army
camps in such a way that athletics
VIII he an important part Of Amer
Il 6. A,,1tr hAg
who have seen the development Of
hundreds of thousands of men from
clumsy novices to the most alert and
capable fighting men in the world
through athletics, can realize what
sport did for all the British and the
French troops, and to some extent
for the Italian. It is no eXaggeration
TO say that athletic sports and ath-
letic training did more than anything
else to win the war for the allies. II
gave the fighting men the fighting
spirit and fighting skill they needed
and il helped to keep them in good
health and spirits through hardships
that might have broken down then
morale Il they hadn't been interested
in sports.
OF course unless it is our ambition
to become a race of Spartans We
for school use. There are a few stunts
that are a lit strenuous. But the
general idea Of compel tive athletic
training through athletic games ir
which all take part should be carried
into scls,o athletics.
Tho most important thing in ath.
letic training is to make the train
ing interesting. No one is benefited
by going through a long routine OF
uninteresting exercises. This was
the German idea of athlotcss 1t had
something to do with the fact that
German soldiers were utterly ineffi-
cient in hand-to- hand combat with
our American boys or with the
French or the English.
The Germans were trained from
childhood in gymnastic exercises
which are entirely without the in
terest given by competition. These
exercises develop big muscles. They
make athletic looking men-but mer
who are slow, muscle-bound, lacking
in endurance and inclined to thinl
the way they move--in slow routine
Routine exercises make routine
thinking. Quick action in the sport
ANA games used in our schools anf
our army camps make quick think
ing.
The idea of compulsory" physica
training in schools, may not appea
to some people. But athletics vii
he compulsory only in the way tina
the study of spelling, geography his
tory and arithmetic are compulsory
They are necessary studies ant
physical training is as necessary n
any mental study.