The Washington herald., 1922-02-15
Modifying Amateur Rules.

y
FOLLOWING the recent furore over pfofes-
i sionalism among athletes of several unver-
sites "a recurrent phenomenon with about faith
ful periodicty of the better-known meteors)
onr contemporary, the Chicago Tribune reminds US
OF some surprising facts in connection with Rhodes
scholarships at Oxford University
One of the qualifications necessary for selec-
tion for this coveted card of entry to great IN.
stitation the Tribune brings to our attention, is
physical vigor shown in outdoor sports. Other
qualifications force of character and leadership,
literary and scholastic ability and attainments The
Rhodes man in Oxford must have fine combina-
tion of abilities and he must be an athlete.
THE stipend he receives E3oo year. with
bonus of $50. is given him partly because of his
athletic ability 1t is not all for that but he could
not qualify for the scholarship without being
athlete any more than he could qualify without
being promising student.
American boys and British colonies are helped
to an education at Oxford and they capitalize
their proficiency in sports Cecil Rhodes did not
make professionals of them even for the colleges
OF Oxford. That university gets of the best
American college athletes who compete for it.
Ziegier. Macdonald Putnam, and many others
have contributed to Oxford successes.
The English assume that these American boys
are not in Oxford primarily to>play their college
Rhodes made it possible for Oxford to get them.
1t is curious thing that England, from which We
get our social caste idea Of amateur sport thinks
nothing of procedure which would make a lot of
trouble in the. United States.
"If graduate of an American college en-
dowed it with large fund to attract college ath-
letes to it from all over the country, stpulating
that they should have distinguished themselves in
college sports, we'd probably have a rule about
it. 1t would be fairer to allow the boys to choose
their schools without such inducements and to
allow them to make money playing summer base
ball or in any other sports in which they could
play without detriment to their college work
I'VE have patent medicine for the trouble
which is exciting the universities of the west
ern conference, but think that the present rules
are based on conventions and traditions which are
not sound in a democracy.
1T is a good thing to increase the college
opportunities of the nation and to attract and
provide for athletic young fellows who like sports
who would like to go to college if they had the
money, and who would like to have the fun of
college games That is desirable class of young
Americans who muscular, active, and fine They
would be better if they had a college education
and if their ability in sports say in baseball could
help them get the money for college without de-
barring them from college sports there might be
great many more of them in the schools.
"Years ago professional baseball player went
through Yale because he wanted the education.
He got his money for it by playing professional
baseball in the summer. At school he could not
play in intercollegiate contests but he could coach
the nine and play on the second nine against the
first. He made fine record in life, the better
because he had determination to get college edu-
cation and got it.
"We not urging that if Grover Alexander
wanted to go to the University of Chicago it would
be fair competition to have him on the university
ball team, but if Grover Alexander were 10 years
old and wanted to 60 to college it would be fair
to allow him to make the money for his schooling
by. pitching ball on a summer resort ball team.
"The things desirable are that the young men
should be in school for education and that their
scholarship records should show that they were
trying to get it and that they had not been in
duced to so by being paid money and that they
did not get money for playing for their schools.
'The rest is matter of adjustment. Scholar.
ship tests indicate what the boy actually is
doing in school. In the old free days athletes
matriculated for the course in penmanshp-and
needed it. We not for that freedom but COL
leges be on the square with their sports with
out being unfair by their definition of the amateur
standing"