Evening star., 1924-12-09


| in the number and size of amphi-
| theaters built for athletic events. The
Roman Colosseum could be put down
| inside the Yale Bowl and still leave
room for sizeable hippodrome
| Coaches often receive salaries greater
| than that OF the president Of their
university and nearly always three
times that of the average professor
What Parents Don't Know.
Almost no one. outside OF the or
ganization, sees the wheels go round
The old crude methods have been
| abandoned and the old crude and OBJ
vious evils have been eliminated. One
would have to search with a high
powered microscope to find the slight
est evidence of coarse professionalism
in American athletics today. But the
fact is that foot ball rides through
college "on the cushions" and scholar
ship still makes its own uphill way
Almost no parents, and few players
know or understand anything about
all this. I shall tell the whole story
as it has come within my personal
| experience.
l worked my way through a small
New England college. II is a school
OF fine traditions, with a splendid
athletic record, and its foot bal
achievements have been such as to
| bring it within the circle of "bie
time" Eastern college athletics. II
has always had an alert and aggres.
| sive student body, and / think is q
| good choice for n type.
Coaches were supposed to be hard
| boiled in the old days. Proficiency ir
profanity was almost necessary
| part af the equipment of a successful
| coach.
| You fumble-footed double blanket
sons of blanks. don't stand there
| braiding your legs like a blank
| blanked blank. You're so blank
blanked slow you'll starve TO death
waiting for that signal Boot yourself
into it, or else go back to the nursery
| You blanks ought to be in some
| blank blank old ladies' home"
Anything to Win.
This was the coach, lashing the
| first and second elevens into a frenzy
| of combat, on cool September after
| noon, perhaps a few days before the
| opening game of the season. 1t was
| the beginning Of the red-blooded era
in America, and there was not only
| an esprit in the student body, but
| there was a fanatical desire to wiz
| amounting almost to hysteria. Sc
faculty members, watching and lis.
| tening, and the players themselves
| did not resent the coach's intemper.
| ate language. They were similarly
! unconcerned about the vague antece.
| dents and doubtful academic status o.
some of the players. The coach USED
! to get players and he used to warn
| them up in his own way and nobody
! showed any unbecoming curiosity.
! Last year / went back to the ole
college and watched foot ball prac-
tice. Seventeen years had brought
great changes. The coach was or
| the side lines, not out on the field ex-
ecrating and belaboring the players
| as in the old days. He was of tho
| type of a keen young business man
There was no profanity. He occa
| sionally summoned an assistant anc
| gave him a few curt instructions
| lowering over the scrimmage wer.
| the assistant coaches, giving a few
| explicit directions or taking a mar
aside and showing him some detail
of form. Emphasis was always or
integrating the man in the machine
| play-as 1t was in the old days, to b,
| sure-but now with more of the eff
| feet of a well oiled antomation. Their
| was no smoke or steam and no up
| roar-nothing that could have offend
ed the most fastidious mother who