Evening star., 1925-09-04

players it has to hnd Jobs and sChol;
Here's a school which last year had
stadium which seated 40, 600 persons.
This year it has a stadium which seats
l10 900. Bonds have been sold for the
building of the stadium. and II has TO
pay. At about this stage foot ball be-
gins to take on many of the adjuncts
and appurtenances of big business.
Building big stadia has become
sort of epidemic in America. The
total investment in these structures
runs into an astounding number of
millions.
There is more or less standard
formula in getting them under way.
The first move is to tap some million
aire, after whom the field will be
named, for a big donation. Perhaps
a memorial gate. bearing the name of
the donor. will yield big slice of the
construction funds. Then begins
drive for funds organized as scien-
tifically as a liberty bond drive. The
community is, of course. aware of the
advertising value of a big stadium, and
business and professional men are
carefully run down. The undergrad
uate body is drained dry. There Is a
patriotic fervor in the enterprise. The
town and college rise up and put 1t
across" even IL they have scraped the
Death Valley.
Ushers for Big Games.
Fortunately. the fire department al
ways requires a big squad of ushers
for the new stadium. This enables US
to take care of good many boys. All
the ushers are chosen from the under
graduates. There is a head usher,
with an assistant for each of, say,
about Is sections, in the average sta
dunn In addition. there are three
ushers at large. These boys get their
lunch. a half dozen tickets and from
SIS to $40 for each game. Thus. eight
games figure about S160. That's a lot
for a college boy. These jobs usually
go to track or base ball or basket ball
athletes who need a little lift over the
grade.
In addition, there are from 100 to
$50 general ushering jobs. They rate
one lunch. one ticket and 81. These
small bones are usually tossed TO the
greasy grinders Beta kappas
and others.
Usually a big stadium. in being
projected, built and maintained, may
be depended upon to get the college
milling around in some kind of row
with the local politicians. 1 remem-
ber the case of a big Eastern uni
versity where, after the college sta
dunn had been proposed, it was an
nounced that the city was going to
build a big stadium directly across
the street. This. of course. would have
been fatal to the college enterprise.
The graduate manager. as a part of
| his job. had kept close in with the
members of the City Council. Through
one of his political allies on the coun-
Gil, he learned that the city had not
procured the land on which it in
tended 10 build, but that it was pre-
pairing to get options. The graduate
manager moved in quickly, optioned
the ground and eventually succeeded
! in driving the municipal stadium to
remote section of the city.
A lack of similar alertness on the
part of the college management al
| lowed a city stadium to go up in the
vicinity of the campus of big West
ern university. / am told that the
university has suffered a great deal
from this competition.
AS | was writing this, l was inter
rupted by telephone cali from
| councillor" in one of our Summer
camps. This brings to mind bit of
managerial enterprise of interest to
the readers of this series. which l
might otherwise have overlooked.
Jobs i'm Summer Camps.
1t is part of a graduate managers
| job to organize one or more Summer
camps. These camps are in part self
supporting, and in part financed by
wealthy men-usually alumni. Boys
of well-to-do families, usually lads in
the grammar grades, are sent to the
camps. The cost is around $3.50 for
each boy, for the ten-week period
We-that is, the foot ball manage
| ment-head in with supply of "coun-
cilors."
These councillors are high school or
| college boys who must be supplied
with pleasant jobs or-and this is
often of much greater Importance
kept under cover during the Summer
| season. Their work is to help main
tain the general morale of the camps
and train the smaller boys in the
usual routine of athletics and outdoor
exercise.
The Summer camp is a useful. al
most indispensable, institution for a
| graduate manager At the end of the
school year there is a desperate drive
| by competing colleges for the out
standing high school athletes. You
never can be sure when you have a
man landed. Unfortunately, you do
not have him actually roped and hog
tied until you get his name on the
registration blank in the Fall. 1t isn't
| like getting an option on a piece of
| land and then taking 1t up when
| YOU get ready. There is that danger