Evening star., 1942-01-30
Program Brings
Practically All
Into oPastimes
De-emphusis Step Seen
As ReuI Solution for
Smaller Institutions
By HENDRIX CHANDLER,
Wide World Sports Writer.

CONWAY, Ark, Jan. 30.-Any
college looking for way to remold
its athletic program because Uncle
Sam is getting its fleetest and
brawnieSt can take q few pointers
from little Hendrix College, which
de-emphasized intercollegiate sports
experimentally a year ago.
With an enlarged intramural pro-
gram, this Methodist institution of
some 500 enrolment has increased
student participation in sports from
So to SO per cent for men and from
80 to 86 per cent for women, while
its sports deficit reached no more
than the usual 5000 a year.
And, war or no war, Athletic Di-
rector Ivan H. Grove believes the
de-emphasis program was coming
anyhow for the smaller colleges.
"The smallest colleges simply
can't carry the load" said this vet
eran of 16 years coaching expert
ence at Hendrix
Nearly all the smaller schools
have been losing money. and even
some of the larger colleges and uni
versities have been having a hard
go of it. The intercollegiate sport
simply is too expensive for the re-
turns you get"
Football Loses 500.
The Hendrix experiment involved
dropping intercollegiate football,
which lost something over 500 in
1910, although it produced AGO of
the institutions sports revenue. In
come from the grid sport came
largely from a pro-rata share Of
student activity fees.
Measuring the returns from STU
dent participation in football alone,
the figures are five to one in favor
of intramurals. There were q men
on the 1910 football squad, which
played a 1O-game intercollegiate
schedule, while 120 were active in
six-man intramural football In
1941-42.
And what was the reaction in a
student body that annually steamed
itself up over games with such grid
mighties as the Universities Of Mis-
sissippi and Arkansas?
Here's Groves observation:
81 believe there's really more
enthusiasm and interest in sports on
the part of the student body than
before. I'd just like you to see the
school get worked up over the an
nual freshman-sophomore football
game and some Of these intramural
basket ball games.
Il have heard over and over again
this statement, You know, We don't
miss football like I thought we
would Another statement voiced
by many is, I've really enjoyed
Hendrix more this year because I
feel that I'm more a part of the
college than I was last year."
Research Precedes Change.
Hendrix didn't rush into the de-
emphasis program Grove said the
college undertook the change after
three years of study and research
on the part of the institutions
Policy-Making Committee.
The purpose in adopting the new
plan, said Hendrix President j. H.
Reynolds, was to provide "a more
wholesome and stimulating program
than the old spectator sports type,
in which only a small number Of
onfiroIx, 70
The intramural program Is all
inclusive. Students are assigned to
classes suited to their individual
needs and interests, as shown in
observations during a physical train
ing program required during the
first two years. In these courses,
certain skills are taught for group
and individual sports.
If a student is eliminated from
active physical training classes by
some deficiency, then remedial and
corrective classes are provided.
Sports on the 1912 program in
clude tennis, basket ball, six-man
football, roller hockey, volley ball,
table tennis, golf, tug-o'-war, track,
softball, bait casting, pocket billiards,
wrestling, boxing, horseshoes, hand
ball, touch football, tumbling,
badminton and weight lifting.
All in all, there are no regrets
for abolishing intercollegiate foot
ball, Grove summed up. "The
faculty is sold on the need and the
value OF the new program, the stu
dents definitely are making the most
OF it and the faculty respects the
wisdom -of the change and is CO.
operating wholeheartedly."