Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-26

I
of what has gone before.
! There Is, moreover, such an album
dance of matter Of one kind or anothsf
that selection Is imperative In tn"
| present inquiry the effort has been ~
assemble list Of books. articles ant
pamphlets and other material on diff
ferent aspects OF school and college
athletics from every conceivable source
avoiding duplication, yet striving to Civ
representation to variety of points o.
view. The slightly more than ,00u
titles in this publication constitute
about half the books and articles reat
in connection with the study and
comparatively small fraction of tn
total consulted"
One note runs through all the re-
| cent literature of school and colleg
athletics" says Prof. Ryan under tn
heading Athletics as Extraordinarily
acceptance of athletics as education. AT
first opposed, later tolerated as mor
or less necessary evil, athletics have
since been recognized as an importan
auxiliary and even as an integral par
Of the educational program. Indeed
Prof. Inglis wrote a few years ago In
his Principles of Secondary Education
that there is evidence that the stone
which the builders rejected may become
the head of the corner"
Writing on Scholarship and Ath-
letics," Prof. Ryan says:
Are athletics and scholarship in
compatible? Do athletes tend to have
poorer academic records than nom
athletes? Does the existence of organ
lied intercollegiate and interscholastir
competition interfere with the intel.
lectuaf life of an educational institu-
ton?
Intelligence Scores Compared.
Earlier attempts to answer these
questions scientifically rather than emo
tionally were in terms of scholarship
grades. In later studies intelligence
scores OF the students compared were
taken into account, and still more re-
Gently efforts have been made in con-
nection with the Carnegie Foundation
athletic inquiry to devise a standard
procedure whereby results among insti-
tutionS would be comparable.
ION the whole, the studies of all
three types that have been made fail to
bear out the oft-repeated' charge that
athletics interfere seriously with schol-
arshtp. QUESTIONABLE study made in
1913 reported large majority Of uni
versity presidents as believing that ath-
letes are naturally disinclined to study
and that men in training show q falling
on in scholarship, but much more typ
ical Of the results Of actual studies are
the findings of the special committee of
the Harvard faculty which. in 1921. in
vestigated the records of 1000 upper
claSSmen, 340 of whom we're particle
pants in one or more athletic sports
The committee found that athletes
make a reasonably good showing, not
up to the average, 1t is true, but high
enough to refute the generalization that
participation in major athletics is in
compatible with the doing of satisfac-
tory class room work.
THE Harvard study, made in 1923,
covered the records of 806 regularly
entering members of the class of '27
through 10 semesters. SOL of them
being clasSed as athletes and sos as
non-athletes. Generally speaking, says
the report, we find that athletes stay
longer in college, graduate more OF
their number, and do so in slightly less
time than do non-athletes.
"'On the other hand. non-atllletts
tend to obtain slightly higher grades.
Probation, number OF courses per semes-
ter and election OF hard and easy
courses show no difference between the
groups The investigators are careful
to point out however. that they have
no way of knowing that such differ
ences as are found are or are not
caused by athletics, and they conclude:
No indictment or laudation Of athletics
can fairly be based on this study"
Health Question Investigated.
In dealing with the health of ath-
letes Prof. Ryan finds that in modern
times the tradition that crew men or
foot ball stars are likely to die early
or feel in after life the effects Of COM
petition has been so persistent as to
call forth numbers of investigations.
THE earliest systematic attempt to
determine the length of life of univer-
sity athletes was that of John e. Nor
gan, who in his University Oars (l873)
vHW tnA klNA af 90 NJ
ford and Cambridge oarsmen between
1929 and 1869. Morgan's records showed
that crew men on the whole lived longer
than other people; later writer's, with
actuarial tables before them, have in
terpreted his data to show death rate
only Ga per cent as great as would
normally be expected.
I'm 1904 George l.. Meylan published
similarly favorable report on Harvard
University oarSmen. Studies of Yale
athletes shortly after by John M. Gaines
and Arthur Hunter gave figure Of 4.16
deaths a thousand, which was lower
than the rate for the mass of the popu-
lation. On the other hand, a compare
son of 625 United States Naval Academy
athletes Of the CLASSES from 1892 to 1911
with $50 non-athletes from the same
classes was less reassuring.
while the casualties in the two
groups we're not noticeably different in
IluilpcI N1z dAlOAiB LIle iOH-dLn1eJeS anu
81 among the athletes). it was found.
according to DR.. G. F. Stokes, that 'frcm
those diseases to which athletics have
a possible or probable causative relation,
there has been but one death In the
general group as compared with six for
the athletic group
Studies Made at Yale.
Recent studies of longevity have
tended to take more carefully into &C.
count the selective character Of the
college population in general and the
athletic teams in particular and the
effect of health supervision in keeping
risks to a minimum. Anderson's sCudy
of the longevity of Yale athletes Q0l6J
showed that the Yale athlete does not
die young The Y men he studied
members of crews, foot ball. base ball
and track teams-apparently had a
death rate not much over half of nor
NAL expectancy. He gives it as his
being pushed too far
"Greenway and Hiscock, in their
study OF the mortality of athletes and
other Yale graduates 1920, found a
death rate per 1000 for the non-Y men
of 3.72, for the Y men of 4.23 and for
all graduates combined 3.76. Compare
son of these rates with those of the
American men ultimate table shows
that the total number Of deaths for
non-Y men was SO per cent of the ex-
pected Deaths while the total for Y
men was 90 per cent of the expected
deaths. The low mortality rate, THERE
fore, Is characteristic of college stu
dents in general as selected group and
not specifically of athletes"
Among the graduates there we're
$3.50 deaths from the date Of gradua-