Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-03

teur sport in the year of 1872 I
holds much for those who in
4 addition to loving contests
we'll fought have a philosoph-
ical. If not more vital, interest in fol
lowing the devious trends of athletic
politics as we'll as the various mani
festations of human nature, collective
and Individual, which mark the COM
petitive as we'll as the diplomatic as
poets of national pursuits on field,
track and stream.
DEVELOPMENTS in the relationship
of the colleges which made up the
Big Three of the East will be well
worth watching. AS the situation
stands. Yale will be called upon to
balance Harvard and Princeton, While
Nassau and the Crimson will be able
to proceed without reference one TO
the other and yet be commonly joined
in their allegiance to Yale.
1t would not be surprising IL the
year saw changes in the triple agree
ment under which athletics were con-
Quoted at New Haven, Princeton and
Cambridge. For one thing, the alb
surdity of expecting foot ball play
ers to report for practice on Septem-
Der Is and then in October face the
sort of opposition they are called
upon to meet is likely to be recog'
nized. Permission for an extra week
of preliminary practice may well re-
suit.
In the matter of schedules a point
may come up in which Yale may feel
it fair and just to her two ancient
rivals to decide whether she shall con-
tinue to play her last game OF the
year with Harvard or have the final
contest alternate between Harvard
and Princeton. Nothing is likely to
be termined this year, and in the
end the character of opposition which
the Ellis come to expect from their two
great rivals may be the decisive
factor.
In the Middle West the forthcom
ing convention of the Big Ten presi-
dents, athletic directors and coaches
may result in some radical changes
in the practical conduct as well as
the spirit of this organization. The
question of intersectional games will
in particular be a very important
issue. So will the matter of schedules.
Down South the decision of the
Southern Conference to continue the
foot ball season to the middle of De-
cember, with important, not to say
crucial, games coming after Thanks
giving day, will give Dixie foot ball
new significance, and critics from the
East and West will not overlook these
struggles. Upon the way the inno-
walton works out will depend whether
the season will be carried to Christ
mas in 1928.
The fate of the lawn tennis play
ers who turned professional may have
rather a pathetic cast when Spring
comes and all the good little amateurs
are foregathering under the kindly
and generous aegis of the United
States Lawn Tennis Association. Pro
tennis. with Mile. Lenglen here, has
by no means been an unqualified sue
cess in the late Fall and Winter, and
what 1t will be when she returns home
is not difficult to determine. There
will be plenty of thrill to the amateur
JOURNEYS. and while Richards and
Kinsey and Mary Browne will be
missed, their absence will not affect
the game at all.
Preparations for the Olympic games
in 1928 in Holland will be going for
ward. of course. Just how effective
they will be, now that the National
Amateur Athletic Federation and the
National Collegiate Association have
withdrawn from the Olympic body,
remains to be seen. We shall see, In
an probability, conflicts of dates and
more than little bad temper. If as
net result American athletes make
comparatively poor showing in the
great international meeting in 1928 it
will be no more than the so-called
fathers of track and field sport in this
country deserve. Partisan politics and
national causes are not happy COM
bination.
Some of the promoters of profess
sional foot ball in 1925, even those
who lost huge sums of money, are
holding a gamely defiant stance just
now, In spite of their losses they are
going ahead with the game next Fall,
they say. If they do they are likely
to find that the market for college
players is extremely tight, since 1t
now appears that bond selling and
other pursuits are more stable If not
so quickly productive in a financial
way Ton paper than mercenary foot
ball.
In golf there will be an interesting
test OF the ability of the British open
to stand up with pristine prestige, in
spite of the absence of star American
pros and amateurs. For the first time
since American golf amounted to
anything, the dates of the English
and American open Journeys practi-
cally coincide, and if the reports COM
ing from England represent the gen
eral attitude over there, this fact is
not viewed with equanimity by the
golf1ng enthusiasts of the tight little
isle.
Probably the United States Golf AS
ISOLATION had the best of reasons for
its action in setting the open at an
early date, but 1t does seem that any
thing that interrupts the splendid
athletic relations between the United
States and England which recent
years have seen should be viewed in
tolerantly as nothing short of per-
nicious.
Alabama showed her class from the
standpoint of national foot ball in the
game she played against the strong
Stanford team at Pasadena on Satur-