Evening star., 1945-01-21
Better Student
Games Than in
IA Are Seen
Coaches Not Worrying
About Monpower Nor
Fading Of Quality
BY HAROLD HARRISON,
Associated Press Sports Writer.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 20.-De-
spite uncertainty over the status of
AIS, there is no pessimism among
the Nations athletic heads as to the
prospects for intercollegiate sports
this year. AS for after the war, their
enthusiasm just knows no bounds.
The recent conventions of the
National Football Coaches Associa-
ton and the National Collegiate
Athletic Association offered a good
Icross-section opinion as to the future
OF college sports II there was
Gloomy Gus" in the crowd, he was
well hidden.
The only question mark raised as
to the ability of college sports to
continue during the war applied to
the small colleges
Robert fPete) Vaughan, veteran
coach and athletic director at Wa
bash College in Charlottesville, Ind,
expressed the sentiments of most of
the small-college coaches when he
said:
I'VE have naval unit at Wabash,
but if and when that is withdrawn.
I'm not sure what we could do. But
the manpower problem is particu-
larly acute in schools such as ours. !"
"Out of Woods" Crisler Says.
indicative of the feeling among
the coaches, however, was a state
ment by Fritz Crisler, athletic direc-
tor at the University of Michigan,
when he said. college sports are out
of the woods"
Crisler even predicted an improve
ment in the caliber of sports played
in l945 over that of 1914, and he is
one who says he can see little diff
ference in the quality of wartime
sports from that of prewar days.
Harry Stuhldreher, athletic direc-
tor at the University of Wisconsin,
had the same idea.
college athletics have passed the
critical period" he said.
AS matter of fact, the biggest
worries of the men who direct COL
lege sports are not manpower and
slumping quality, but commercial-
zation Of athletics and a resultant
increase in gambling and possible
inroads by professional football.
Charley Bachman of Michigan
State insisted college football should
attempt to match the pro leagues
job of selling" their brand of foot
ball to the public.
Greatest Era Due After War.
The gambling problem was taken
up at length by the NCAA and a
drive was started to halt betting on
college contests.
I'm convinced We'll see the
greatest era of sports in history
after the war" said Prof. Philip o.
Badger of New York University, who
retired as president of the NCAA.
That seemed to be every ones
thought, and there was practically a
unanimous idea, too, that the sports
base would have to be broadened in
order to give more boys an oppor-
tunity to compete.
"We must get away from the crit
icism that has been leveled at us
and justly-that too few boys en-
gage in athletics" said Crisler.
To meet that criticism Crisler
proposed that, in football particu-
larly, there be junior varsity, l50-
pound and freshman teams in ad-
dition to the varsity.
Stuhldreher and others proposed
colleges support more types of
sports-lacrosse, hockey and many
others.
H. c. Willett, mathematics pro-
fessor at the University of South
ern California, urged the NCAA to
take the lead in preventing boys
just out of high school from being
completely lost in the shuttle when
they have to compete with and
against mature men who have two
or three years of military service.