Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-18
FLORIDA IS LEADER
IN SOBR|ETY MOVE
Gator Presidents Action Is
Followed by Georgia at
Tulane Tilt.
BY LAWRENCE PERRY.

"A
~ The presence of specta-
"A tors at foot ball games
whose natural enthusiasm
for one or another contending
colleges is exceeded only by their
enthusiasm for hard liquor has
everywhere been accepted as an
evil that has to be endured. In
a spectacle involving the pride of
strong, clean bodies clashing in
game that involves courage, self
sacrifice, fortitude and discipline,
certain manifestations in the
stands have stood out as anon
alous, to say the least. In the
stands not only, but in many
places elsewhere before and after
the game has been played.
Spectators of sensibilities are called
upon to submit to the proximity of in
toxicated boys whose hands, holding
the whisky TASKS they brandish, were
not so long ago holding nursing bot
ties Their witless jocularities, their
profanities, their rough-and-tumble
battle are voiced, and regardless of de-
cent men and women who have the
misfortune to be seated near them.
And the rollicking alumnus of
certain stripe sets the youngsters no
good example. Indeed, in certain places
where public drunkenness has been
placed on the undergraduate index as
something that is not done" the old
grad has the field to himself.
Tigent Starts Attack.
It is Joyous to note that In the South
they are beginning to establish the fact
that a foot ball arena is for foot ball
and not for public display of inebriety,
thanks chiefly to DR.. Tigent, the presi
dent of the University of Florida. Now,
DR.. Tigent is man of definite opinions.
and the physique and moral strength
to back them up. He played varsity
foot ball for Vanderbilt, and played it
well.
First of all, he put through the build
ing of handsome stadium at Gaines
vile. But in difference to feeling in
Jacksonville he permitted one or more
games to be played there last october.
The Florida team played Auburn there,
and the condition, the language, the
actions of some Of the spectators in
spired in him the determination to
foot ball games could be played and
enjoyed by lovers of the game without
attendant incidents of a disagreeable
nature which everywhere had been so
long condoned.
So when Georgia came to Gainesville
later in the month official word went
cut that intoxicated persons would be
elected from the field. 1T will be- DR..
Tigent announced through the press,
cas- dry q game as we can make it."
Well there was not much drinking
and few who advertised their condi-
ton were removed from the scene with
promptneSs and aplomb. After the
game DR.. Tigent wrote to the mayor of
Jacksonville, telling him what had been
done and contrasting the situation at
Gainesville in the Georgia game and
at Jacksonville in the Auburn game,
very much TO the discredit Of the latter
contest.
Mayor Is Annoyed.
The mayor, irate, published the let
ter-a private one-in the Jacksonville
newspapers, and as q consequence the
president of the State University is not
popular there. But he has a sheaf of
congratulatory letters approving his
stand.
Following suit, the University of
Georgia in preparing for the Tulane
contest issued public statements that
persons who were intoxicated or were
carrying liquor would be denied aEmis-
sion to the stadium, their money to be
refunded. 1t was further announced
that any drunken person in the field
would be elected, and that any TASKS
or bottles displayed in the rest rooms or
elsewhere would be seized and broken.
To support the order 80 policemen,
some imported from Augusta, Atlanta
and Macon as adjuncts to the local
police, were placed on duty.
They worked well, and the efficient
dispatch with which some 80 noisy and
obstreperous persons were removed
from the ball game and the gallons
seized and poured to the ground be-
tween halves added. much to the pleas
ure Of those who had paid good money
to see the contest
They are going on with the good
work at Gainesville and Athens, and
1t is morally certain the idea will spread
not only throughout the South but
elsewhere.