Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-30

THE present management of college
athletics reminds me just little
of the kind-hearted elephant
Il which, when the hen left the
nest, went and sat on the eggs.
If many more presidents and faculty
and directors and commissioners and
interested byStanderS sit on college ath-
leticS all that is likely to remain is a
few bits of shell.
Everybody knows that no boy can
attend a college as a paid athlete and
stay there without certain amount OF
connivance on the part of the faculty
alumni or athletic authorities Each
college should be, and is, responsible
for it's individual honor.
A wit has said that, in the old days,
a college was a log with student on
one end and teacher on the other, but
that in recent years the log has been
sawed into boards. The same thing has
happened to college athletics. They
started simply as amusements for the
students. They progressed to competi-
tons between colleges, because the boys
found that was more exciting and the
most fun. They have grown into huge
financial undertakings. The boys have
as little to do with intercollegiate sports
today as a private with the strategy OF
the world war.
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die
For Dear Old Goulash!"
In ordinary life, if you think golfer
doesn't count his strokes, you quietly
cease to play with him, but you do not
rush screaming from the course, to re-
turn with magistrate and wagon
full of policemen. If, unhappily, You
can prove that a member of your card
club is cheat, you take the matter to
the proper club officials, but they dc
not take it to the billboards.
Motives Are Questioned.
There is a suspicion in the land that
colleges might not be so sternly and
loudly outspoken concerning the mote
in a neighbours eye were it not for the
fact that 1t Is so profitable to win at
many forms of athletic endeavor. Is
the affection to vision so important
that it calls for removal with axes, har-
poems and crowbars, and call for the
fire and police departments? Is it al
ways great sense of duty and public
welfare which leads to exposure and
prosecution?
am as insistent upon clean sport as
any man. have preached it for years
INeTely 90 1lOL UCllCFC blldL yUu Cdll
| make SportSmen by law. Sportsman
ship is largely thing of the spirit
How far man, or a group OF men, will
go to win at sport Is an almost certain
indication of character. But believe
that the machinery of amateur sport
has grown to a ridiculous degree.
OF the Iowa case, now so prominent
know nothing beyond certain things
have been told. The Western Confer
ence plainly believes that Iowa has
| broken the rules. Such a charge can.
not be based on suspicion. The fact
that Iowa was suspended means thai
| the conference has what it regards as
proof. But in that case, why do thu
other colleges keep on playing Iowa
until January l, 1880? If Iowa is con.
sidered unfit for future competition, il
is not any more of a desirable opponent
today. If the charges are improved
Iowa has been done a lasting injustice
Paul E. Betting, held by some to bt
responsible for the action of the con-
| ference, is not an Iowa graduate. HI
was director of athletics at Iowa. prob.
ably selected partly because he is one
of the limited number of men in hi;
| line who holds the degree of doctor Of
physical education, but he was gradu-
ated from Illinois. Bert IngWerSen
Iowa foot ball coach, also came from
Illinois, where he once was Zuppke's
assistant. 1t is said-how truly I dc
not know-that the Iowa alumni in De-
Moines and other places have been &C.
; lively dissatisfied with these men fol