San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-11
THERE : CASTE, /
IN SPORT WORLD
DECLARES CANT.
Those Who Belong" and
Those Who Don't Even
Think Differently.
OFFICIALS REALIZE IT..
Dean Briggs Of Harvard
Bases Report on Exist
ence of caste"
BY WALTER CAMP.

BY WALTER CAMP.
Copyright, 1923. by the San Antonio Light.
New York. Feb. 1O.-There is a caste
in sport as immutable as any caste in
! Hindustan and although people do not
talk about it very much, it has existed
always and will always exist. Those
who belong breathe an atmosphere
that is unclouded; they do not have to
stop to argue about what they are do
ing because behind it all is the personal
| tradition of the sportsman. They are
men who believe in fair field and no
favor and in the slogan, May the best
man win"
Those who do not belong to the sport
! caste fail to think in the same terms
as those who do and much as they mag
endeavor by rule and yerbiage to ac-
complish something, they for the most
| part fail to get the flavor of sport.
There are a great many critics of sport
who belong in this class, who go about
! Shrilly calling attention to the short
| comings of athletics and who are not
willing to give the athlete even the
fair field and no favor" They wish
to hedge him around. willy-nilly, with
such suggestions as would indicate that
without ironcInd rules there was no
! probability of his living up to sports
manlike conduct. 1t is easy for them
TO find men who do not, and find them,
| too, in the ranks of athletes, 50 they
gCneralizc and throw all athletes into
this class.
Briggs Realizes II.
Dean Briggs of Harvard. as well as
many others. realizes that there is caste
in sport, and in his report, which has
aroused much discussion. he comes out
in flat criticism of the inquisition sys-
TEN now in vogue in amateur athletics
at the universities and says that the
questions would be "insolently personal
if it were possible. as a school master
once said, to treat an athlete like an
ordinary decent citizen
Dean Briggs proposed substitute for
the Harvard Eale-princeton agreement is
to come out fatty, as follows: Il need
know nothing more about the Iegirfnnatys :
! of your players than is implied by your
willingness that they shall represent
you" He adds that only then would
those involved be sportsmen.
John Z. Gavit, on the other hand,
says in regard to the college situation:
Il am glad to see lat the wOmen's col
leges) no yielding at any of them to
the temptation to win ephemeral public
CClat by the intercollegiate sports which
at the mems colleges have degenerated
nearly TO the level of the gladiatorial
shows, amusing the public at the ex-
pense of the things for which the col
lcges at least are supposed to stand"
There Is Discrimination.
Dean Briggs. however, says: Indeed,
there is serious danger of discrimina-
ton against the athlete" and has much
to say also about the value of athletics
and the spirit of craftsmanship.
Though the athletic situation last
year seemed TO force on the committees
at Princeton, Yale and Harvard the fl
nancial inquiSitiOn of which am writ
ing and in the responsibility of which
| share" the dean states, "such method q
cannot be permanent and, indeed, can
not be used at all, without danger to
the very foundation of craftsmanship.
Ultimately, the information received by.
the committee depends in most cases on
the players word. There is no ques-
circumvent. Eventually. the question
defeat its own end"
1t is this feature of universal distrust
against which the dean and many others
rebel, and believe that it tends to force
upon those who are put under its in
QUESTION a strong desire TO evade il
and beat il.
Can't Treat All as Suspects.
The dean continues: IF the college
office should treat every student as
suspect it would stimulate in the stu
dent generally desire to circumvent
IL. and would destroy that frank and
friendly intercourse on which its Of
ficiency depends. Can a committee on
athletics with similar policy escape
a similar fate?"
He concludes by putting the burden
up strongly TO the preparatory schools.
He says: 1t is in these schools rather
than in the colleges that the chief dan
ger of illegitimate propaganda lies. and
nothing can check this propaganda ex-
cept observation-disclosures among under
graduates and alumni" He hedges Just
a little, and no one could blame him,
when one views the number of times
an athletic committee or faculty COM
mittee, acting under the old and even
the present methods Of inQuisition and
has had a scan al sud-
denly unearthed under its very feet.
The dean qualities with this paragraph:
Speaking always with the knowledge
that something scandalouS may be I'M
earthed at any moment. I nevertheless
know that this observation-disclosures has
been greatly increased in the last 80
Iears."