Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-25

ference, the SouthWeS stern Conferel
Athletic Association-and try toge
concerning development OF athletics
based on a sympathetic understand
ing on athletics and the problems
many instances occasions for the III
So far as the writer knows, this
way of developing athletics along
right lines never has been attempted
on any large scale. OF course. COL
lege presidents have sat in athletic
meetings and have spoken in ath-
letic meetings, but only in a casual
way and in most cases without full
understanding of what is entailed in
the management of highly developed
system of modern athletics
1t is just as true-even more true
that the average man managing and
coaching athletics understands just
about as much about the fundamen-
tai problems of education and the
current troubles of every college
president as Hottentot about a
Fifth avenue hat shop.
No doubt such a getting together
would create in the average college
presidents mind q fuller apprecia-
ton OF the difficulties encountered by
those directly charged with managing
and developing sports, and certainly
no athletic director could emerge
from meeting of this kind without
a mental resolve to lend all possible
support to the president and other ex-
ecutlVeS authorities of his institution
Plans Being Formulated.
Definite plans have not been formu-
lated for the meeting, nor has the
exact time for holding 1t been set,
out the committee appointed by the
Association Of Colleges and Secon-
Diary Schools of the Southern States
TO work out something Of this kind
has approached DR. s. V Sanford
president OF the Southern Conference
the most powerful of the three ath-
letic bodies, and Dr. Sanford is now
trying TO arrange for a Joint meet
ing of the executive committees of
the Association of Colleges and Sec
ondary Schools of the Southern states
me latter part of February, so that a
oennite program for the larger and
general meeting may be made up.
one definite thing should be the aim
OF all athletics, and inasmuch as that
same thing also is the aim of the col
lege presidents and faculties of all in
sututionS-the education of men and
women to the end that they may be bet
ter citizens and after leaving college to
lead others to be better citizens When
athletlcs fails to help the college presi-
cent and faculty TO attain this end then
d
should be supplied with something that
Will junction as a compass.
CoIlege~ presidents in the South have
come TO the conclusion that the best
way to keep athletics on the right road
Is to get in closer collective touch with
those directly responsible for athletics
and see that those men are familiar
with the aims and ideals and funda-
mental purposes of college life.
In other words, when the athletic au-
thorities of the many colleges and uni
versIttes realize that the ultimate aim
of their institution is their aim and that
their whole purpose should be ia con-
duct their departments so that that aim
may be accomplished in the shortest
possible time, then the troubles of in
tereollegiate athletics will be very no.
ticeable by their absence.
Action by the president and deans
of the University of Minnesota in
recommending, and apparently going
to the mat in a fight to carry through
their recommendation to the board of
regents of the university, that Bill
Spaulding be retained as head foot
ball coach, Notwithstanding that many
alumni and students were calling for
his scalp because of his failure to de-
Nelop as much winning foot ball as
, they desired, probably will be hailed
. with delight by coaches all over the
country. So far as known, it is the
first time that a foot ball coach who
has failed to measure up to winning
demands of alumni and students has
been offered a new contract mainly
because of his willingness to work in
cooperation with the faculty and to
place standards of scholarship ahead
of his desire to win games.
Evidently Spaulding did not think
during his three-year tenure that the
University OF Minnesota was organ
lied for the sole purpose of putting
on the field d winning foot ball team,
and the president of that university
and the deans of that institution
rightly and wisely gave him their
earnest support when the time came
to determine whether or not he was
TO be re-employed. At present the
measure of success for a foot ball
coach is the number of games he
wins, and coaches everywhere will
be glad that the movement has begun
that, gaining momentum, eventually
VIII cause his Work to be measured
with u different yardstick.
GeOrgetown's track and field games
to be held February p, are of Just
the opposite nature to those sch eduled
by Hopkins. Where Hopkins is lay
ing accent on the special event,
Georgetown is placing all its compe-
titionS wide open, excepting five spe-
Gals. Both types of meet have their
advantages, and one can be just as
successful as the other
For the general run of athletes the
kind of meet Georgetown is to hold is
much better liked. In open handicap
events the average athlete, in big
numbers, has a chance to win a medal
and score a few points for the col
lege or club he represents. In the
meet featured by special races, the
average athlete has little chance:
even the good athletes in this sec
ton are up against it, because such
a course means that the event is
practically closed to three or four
or half dozen runners, all of whom
will start from scratch.
In competition of this kind the
average athlete has little show to see
his name in the paper the next
morning.
Georgetown has scheduled open
events of all distances, almost. af-
fording all types of runners oppor-
tunittes to compete in races of their
liking. A 600-yard run for novices,
60-yard dash and 1,000-yard run for
high and prep school men, 5O-yard
dash open handicap and a 45-yard
hurdle race, 440-yard run, SS0-yard
run, 1mtle run. 2-mile run, pole
vault, running high jump, running
broad jump and 16-pound shotput OF
the same nature lligive almost every
athlete an opportunity to show what
he can do.
Special events will be dashes at