Daily Kennebec journal., 1926-05-11
FOOTBALL THOUGHT VALUABLE
BY COLLEGE HEADS BUT
SOME THINK REFORMS ARE NEEDED

BOSTON, May 0.-WF-NcW 6uB
land collge presidents as a rule are
heartily in favor Of college football
Some Of them feel that reforms are
needed but the majority believe. as
one of them put it, that "the good
far outweighs the bad.
This is made clear in the state
ments given to The Associated Press
with relation to the recent football
report by committee Of the
American Association of University
Professors. The report condemned
certain features of the game and
suggested adoption of either the
Wesleyan Farley plan for a four
game schedule or the Fauver plan
to limit a student to one year OF in
tercollegiate football. After its pub
lication President Ernest M. Hop
kins Of Dartmouth and President
George D. Olds of Amherst publicly
|Ndefended football.
The only New England college
head who harshly criticiZes present
day football is President Howard
Edwards of Rhode Island State.
President A. Lawrence Lowell of
Harvard departed from his custom
ary rule against making statements
for the press in order to outline HIS
view that "the remedy is to be
sought not in decreasing athletics
but in stimulating interest in
scholarship" Athletics makes good
scholars" "A valuable sport. "Ath-
letics a constructive force in char
acter building, Football not a
menace to the fundamental purposes
of the college," are phrases used by
other presidents.
President Lowell said:
II consider that in their proper
sphere athletics, including intercol-
legiate football. tend to promote the
health, physical and moral OF the
student body. The exaggerated i'm
portance of games is on the part of
the alumni and public rather than
of the students.
$50 far as Athletics may draw
away attention from scholarship, the
remedy is to be sought not in de-
creasing athletics. but in stimulating
interest in scholarship. To attempt
the former would be like trying to
force appreciation Of music in a
community by abolishing all other
diversions. Colleges are trying, and
in some cases with notable success,
10 llCI6dSc OCIOldL AhtSACoN S-ANA
ambition by raising that object, not
by pulling down some other. Col
leges exist primarily for the intel
lectual life. Il they cannot make 1t
so appear to their students, they
had better go out Of business"
President Edwards expressed this
view:
II am in thorough sympathy with
the moving purpose of the recon-
mendations made by the Association
of University Professors. From the
viewpoint of rounded college train
ing for life and citizenship the en-
phasis placed on intercollegiate foot
ball is grossly disproportionate.
Under the competitive conditions
existing the game is no longer a
sport, but rather business full OF
weighty and even tragic conse-
quences. Success in it becomes the
great significant thing, dwarfing all
other considerations.
1.-The great arenas, the enormous
multitudes. the large money-inter-
ests involved, the primitive mass
emotions stalking naked and un-
ashamed, the extravagant newspaper
publicity, all focused on a group OF
immature and susceptible under
graduates. create a cubiStic distor-
ton of human values unhealthy both
for students and for the general
public and lend hypocrisy to the
word amateur. The scene of a
great college football game has
many of the implications Of the
Roman gladiatorial combats or the
Spanish bull-fghts.
whether the recommendations
proposed as a remedy for a situation
of recognizably sinister import are
best fitted to bring about desired
reforms, have not had opportunity
definitely to decide in my own mind.
/ am pinning my faith to more
definite absorption of athletics as
such into the rounded scheme of
college training and the development
of a type of college coach CO.
ordinate in preparation. character,
responsibilities and ideals with the
personnel of other university facul-
ties"
Other comments are:
President Ralph Earle Worcester
Polytechnic Institute: "Our eligi-
bility rules are strictly enforced and
from which a deduction can be made
that failure in study is due to foot
ball. Marked success in studies
often can be attributed to athletics
with quite as much justice as can be
failure. 1 had rather put it that I
consider athletics makes good schol-
ars. There is no harm in making
heroes of individual players, as the
hero worship of football stars slack
ems with the final game of the season
and ends shortly afterwards.
/ consider that many attributes of
a man are acquired on the athletic
field, such as nerve, confidence, team
play, loyalty, honesty, concentration.
physical fitness, quick and correct
thinking in a crisis. leadership. pres
ence of mind, keen and alert vision.
do not believe that football of
itself encourages betting and there
has not come to my attention a
single case of an athletic being hired