The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-10

soon see that what they are stating as facts are impossibilities.
 Concerning Tramp Athletes.
 One way to get rid of the tramp athlete. and the only effective way that l know of. is to pass a rule which would make It prohibitive for a transfer from one college to play football with the college he has re- gently joined. In this way there could never be a charge made that the player In question was entieed away from one college to serve an- other, and the ugly stories that cften circulate about players who make such a switch, could not sur vive. realize that such plan may sound a bit radical but 1t has been tried in the southern conference and found to be a splendid success The colleges that allow their men to play for four years could also help rid the game of the tramp ath- lete by changing their eligibility rules to allew man to play only for three seasons, and this only after a one years residence. Most of these roaming players do not like a college that has one year resi- dence rule. They do rot relish sitting on the side line for season. Hence, instead of going to one of the col leges in this class they seek an in- stitution that allows men to play their first year. Of course, it is not meant that colleges that play first year men cater to professionals and the like. They do not. In most cases they have just as strict rules aside from that one failure as any other college in the country, but this does not change the fact that for the gen eral good of the sport they should change their system and adopt the one-year residence rule.
 Game More Popular
 Each year finds football becoming more and more popular Where the game used to be enjoyed only by a small portion of the population, the college graduates. the undergrad uates, and a few others, now every youngster in the country knows al least little about the game. The open game has made the plays easy to follow. Instead of having to tramp up and down the side lines in order to be near enough to see what was going on, the modern student of foot ball, can sit in grandstand chair and follow closely most of the plays that are made.
 All this has made a problem for engineers to figure over. For some of the big game sover 200, 1000 applications for seats have been received. The largest bowl in the country seats only about S0,00o people. The rest are doomed to dis appointment. At tho present writ ing 1t seems as If the limit in ca pacity had been reached, but I do not doubt that before long some plan will be invented whereby many thou sands more will be accommodated.
 This great demand for tickets has again given the knockers a chance to get their hammers workingJ They point to the huge crowds and say that football Is no longer a sport but 8 big business enterprise. Walls of professionalism and commercialism fill the air and the enemies of col lege football and all other branches of clean. wholesome Sport sit back and laugh in joyful glee.
 Football has always been a sport which Is another way of saying that football has always been play. And 1t always will remain as such. Where professional football has been tried f 1t has failed. Players who have tried 1t do not like 1t. The lure of the dol- lars is not as strong as the love of school or college. As play, football is the grandest game in the world as work, 1t falls miserably.
 Tho Greatest Test
 Football, like all other sports in school and college, should only be a means to an end. The coach who does not realize this has no place in the profession. Football should be merely one form of training for the greater things that are to come. The courage. skill, team work, CO., opera tion, self-sacrifice, and the square ness demanded of the men who play football are the things that are going to stick by these men in later life. The "mucker" has no more place in football than he has among successful men.
 To my mind the only way to judge the merits of coach and of his sys- tenn Is not by the number of winning games that are chalked up. not by the number of dollars that pour into the coffers of the institution as a result of large attendance, but by the calibre of the men that he Is turn ing out each year. The games mean nothing as mere games. Win or lose they cannot affect the future of the men who play in them. But the char. acter of these men Is going to count much in their later lives, and in the history of the American people. Il these men are fair and square. and measure up to the mark, then the coach Is successful though he never wins a game.
 Cnnvriobf N1rth Newspaper Alliance.
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