Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-14

~ VIEW YORK, May I4.-Rumor OF
N very definite character Is 60
ing the rounds that more than
one university which eXcels in
athletics. particularly in foot
ball, is going to be panned in the report
of the Carnegie Foundation investiga-
ton into the conduct of intercollegiate
athletes in this country.
Particular stress. it is said. will be
laid upon the methods of securing var
sity material which alurani employ
Every one, of course. knows that alumni
of. every UP and coming foot ball col
lese direct playing fodder into their
universities; otherwise they would not
be up and coming. They would be play
ing foot ball in an environment of
wooden stands, or small privately built
concrete stadia and the development
of intramural sports would be in pa
thetic state of malnutrition.
But that the universities have any
concrete evidence that one boy. a per-
fectly good student, who is studying
hard and playing a cracking game of
foot ball. is in college under different
circumstances than another boy who
also is up in his classes and also play
ing foot ball, or different from still an
other boy who isn't playing foot ball at
And when it comes down to that-with
all due respect to the Carnegie Founda-
ton for the advancement of teaching
what If he is, granted the student is
fulfilling his scholastic duties in a sat-
tsfactory manner.
1t is perhaps a sad commentary upon
the pampered sons of wealthy or at least
well-to-do families, but the fact remains
that majority of foot ball players in
almost any college is made up of boys
who through necessity have been ac-
customed to self-sacrifice all their lives
to the giving and taking of hard
knocks. One has strengthened their
will, the other their bodies. They want
to be educated, and If in return they
are willing to go out and die for dear
old SiwaSh what is so reprehensible
about that, from the standpoint of the
boy or, for that matter, of the college
which is shaping his life career? What
has the boy done? He has probably
gone to preparatory school where he
has had scholarship. He has per-
formed manualswork in return for board.
food and lodging: has had to buy his
own clothes and provide his own spend
ing money.
Going to college. he has means placed
In his way of earning funds for board
anu IL lie rs really ElNulR a
fair return in the way of service-and
the single responsibility for the college
authorities is to see that he is doing
this-if he is doing well in his studies.
then it would be college indeed dead to
athletic prestige which would set a de-
tective upon him to ascertain whether
some one argued him into going to ST.
wash instead of Culpepper or vice
versa. Let lis not be Pharisees
If, on the other hand, the Carnegie
report shall prove that alumni of vari-
Gus institutions are defraying expenses
of athletic studentS-that is to say, If it
Is proved that athletes are to all in
tents and purposes nothing more than
kept athletes-then will have been pro-
vided food adequate to feed the appe-
tite of sensationalism. And definite re-
suits may well follow.
One thing is certain. and that is that
since foot ball provides the sinews by
which all forms of intramural and most
forms Of intercollegiate sport are sup
ported, teams that win their due share
of victories on the gridiron are essen
tial. To have teams of that sort, ma
terial must be present And high-grade
foot ball material is highly specialized
here and is the nub of the whole situa-
ton.