San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-01-16
COLLEGES EVENTUALLY
MUST TAKE STAND ON
FINANCIAL FOOTBALL
Must Decide Whether to
Openly Regard Game
as Money Producer.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY

~'P!'i sh'' is1o, ny The San Antonio Light
New York, Jan. 16.-Whether or not
football shall frankly and openly be
regarded as financia. producer BY our
various institutions of learning is 70.
day pressing problem which will have
TO be settled definitely at no distant
time.
At present. as it seems, our colleges
occupy curious and not altogether log.
! ical position. Processing to include the
gridiron game as part Of warp and wool
OF the Intercollegiate sport scheme sub.
Ject 10 the same rules and conditions
as any Of its sister sports they do NOT
seem to recognize that football has at.
tanned a vital economic significance. Or
II the fact is recognized, it is largely
ignored.
A case in point is the Princeton foot
ball schedule for next fall. The Prince
tonlan, the undergraduate organ. in a
strong editorial, deprecates conditions
that made it necessary for the Tigers
to arrange to play their mid-season test
game against the navy on a neutral
ileld. The editor of the Princeton daily
IS under the impression that the foot
ball committee delayed SO long in ar
ranging the 1923 schedule that it was
forced into the position of taking any
thing 1t could get. An anomalous DO
sitlon, surely, for an eleven that achieved
so enviable a record in the past sea-
son.
The chances are. however. that lack
OF suitable opponents had nothing what.
ever to do with the arranging of the
Nassau schedule. The editor of the
PrincetOnian would not err probably il
he were to study the difficulty from
the standpoint Of financial expediency.
A Princeton-Navy game at the Vena-
bic stadium in Baltimore will draw
more than 10000 spectators at So per
head. Princeton's athletic expenses are
heavy.
SO far as the navy is concerned. she
has announced that proceeds from the
Princeton game at Baltimore will be
applied to adding seating accommoda-
tons to her new football field.
Pittsburg has applied gridiron re-
ceipts to the construction of academic
buildings. Pennsylvania State will do
likewise. Right now move is on foot
in army and navy circles to induce
the federal authorities to permit the
service institutions to charge admissions
to games. the object being to get funds
wherewith to build IN Army-Navy
stadium.
Football is q producer. To greater
or less extent. funds derived from the
gridiron support the system of intra-
mural sports and all other major and
minor sports, except at Yale, Harvard,
Princeton and Pennsylvania and GER
tain western universities where foot
ball and basket ball are at least self
supporting. Therefore, football is a nee
CSsary adjunct to all seats 4 learning
that go in for sport and practically all
the major schools in this country do.
This being the case, it is not always
possible to consult the purely sporting
desires of ,undergrads and alumni, not
always expedient to arra.Ige games with
other colleges on the ground of friendly
relations or traditions and aims that
are analogous. Faculties do insist upon
certain restrictions governing eligibility
of players and class room standing is
presented to the athlete as matter OF
very vital consideration. Indeed, when
one realizes the tremendous economic
significance of the game of football in
our universities, he wonders that those
in charge of the essential work Of the
curriculum have been able to hold their
ground as well as they have. 1t is not