MEETING THE PROBLEM OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS
In response to an open invitation to discuss the problem of scholarship and undergraduate sentiment toward those who achieve in scholarship, kindly issued in a recent number of THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE, permit me to offer two uplift theories in which I feel all the more confidence since I have enjoyed an opportunity to compare the conditions which obtain at an English university with those at Dartmouth.
First, we are slow in meeting effectively the problem offered by the intensified interest in varsity athletics. As long as a few men are delegated to do the playing for the many there is sure to be an amount of indolence which begets false values. Let the many do the playing, and you will see how quickly the evil is lessened. When twelve or twenty teams are playing football in the fall and the other men are doing cross country running, or playing lacrosse or field hockey, the excitement over varsity games will become normal. Of course, normal means large, and, I hope, always will; but a large interest in sport is perfectly consistent with high scholarship. The excitement of a game played is a brain stimulant; the excitement of a game watched is a narcotic. At Dartmouth one of .our greatest needs is more playing space. The Alumni Oval is as inadequate for eleven hundred men as was the old gymnasium. Any one of Oxford's thirty colleges would consider itself poorly equipped with our field. And besides the land sports of the English college there is the rowing, in which many take part. I believe it is fair to say that nine out of ten Oxford men take a hand in some organized sport five days in the week. My first suggestion is that we should increase the facilities for play and decrease intensity by encouraging quantity.
It is easy to hear every brother alumnus saying, "The mere existence of playing fields will not create twelve or twenty football teams."
When I began this article it was not my intention to offer the plan of organizing such an athletic system, one which would bring the whole College into the games; because it is doubtful whether the time is ripe for such a move. But an article published in the current" number of the Harvard, Alumni Bulletin, April 26, 1911 entitled "Suggestions About Football," and written by R. A. Derby, Harvard 1905, makes it desirable that our alumni should be informed about future possibilities in an institution whose athletic policy might affect Dartmouth's policy. Mr. Derby does not mention Andover in his article ; yet the system which he suggests as a future possibility for Harvard was adopted at Andover in December, 1910, explained in detail in the Phillips Bulletin, January, 1911, and commented upon by the Boston newspapers shortly afterward. A part of the announcement which was printed at Andover in January reads as follows:
"At the beginning of a season there will be no specialized group of players calleYl a "varsity" squad. ' Instead, there will be formed of all the fellows who desire to play (in football this year there were 257) four class squads. Each squad will have three or four teams using the same signals. During the first six weeks of the season, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, a series of games will be played between these teams. At the end of this series the players who have excelled will be promoted to form a "varsity" team. This team will then play one or two freshman teams before opposing Exeter. During the entire season the coaching will be under the supervision of the regular faculty coach, as heretofore; he will spend one day a week with each squad. The development of the separate squads will be in the hands of additional faculty coaches, men who have already assisted the head coach and are familiar with his methods, and the captain of the Andover team elected at the close of the preceding sea son."
Compare with this Mr. Derby's "Suggestion:" "As a remedy I would suggest that an agreement be made between three or four leading American universities, say between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, to postpone the selection of university football squads until November 1; that a system of clubs be inaugurated at the three universities similar in general outline, among which a series of intra-fraternity games would be played throughout October; that after this series was completed the university squads should be selected and the inter university games be held in November as usual.
The interest of the university squad coaches would be diffused over these clubs ; the individual coach would aid the club to which he belonged while in college and at the same time would look out for possible university squad material for November.
The players would have the. stimulus of the club rivalry and the opportunity of playing on a team with university players and of deriving the benefit of university coaching; and, above all, there would be tilt possibility of being selected for the university squad and playing against Yale and Princeton."
This is the Andover plan in its every detail. It will be put into operation next, fall with only one detail lacking—that is Exeter's cooperation. Exeter is not prepared to adopt a system which depends upon the active interest of several members of its faculty, and will continue its previous method of training a "varsity" team,from the first clay of the season under the supervision of an outside professional coach. So the next annual match will offer a contrast between the old and new systems which will demonstrate the possibility, or impossibility, or acquiring the necessary team-work in football during a period of time much reduced.
As a last word in my first suggestion, which I have shown to be not borrowed from Mr. Derby of Harvard, let me ask for a consideration of what the difference between his "three" and his "four" (or our four) colleges would mean. His "three" means Harvard, Yale, and Princeton,—an odd number, very awkward to schedule in a final series, but the "four" might include Dartmouth. And then we should have four healthy athletic systems which would produce saner athletic interest and better scholarship.
In introducing a second suggestion let me ask for a careful consideration of one great factor in the English situation which has remained unemphasized during the recent comparisons and criticisms of the standing made by our American Rhodes Scholars. An English undergraduate has a tremendous incentive in the opportunities offered by the Civil List. A man who wins academic honors in the English universities may obtain through his superior intellectual efficiency a position of honor and emolument under the government in one of many fields where promotion is sure to follow attainment. While a college degree is not specifically set down as a requirement for those who take these examinations, the tests .are so broad and deep that none but a college man or a man highly tutored stands a chance of success. The succescful candidates enter into their life work ranked in position and salary according to their standing in the examinations.
Is it too much of a theorist's dream to hope that some day we may offer to our undergraduates—citizens of the best and worst democracy in the world—some such reward for intellectual achievement as that given to their British cousins.' To avoid beating the air, I must point to one possibility, although it may not be the best. There is one branch of the national service which is in sad need of reorganization and financing. In the reorganization of the diplomatic service, which ought to come soon, would it not be possible to have the service recruited from a national school of diplomacy, just as the army is officered by West Point graduates? And would it not be possible to have the entrance to this school of diplomacy depend upon competitive examinations which would require broad training—training equivalent to a four-years' college course ? This would mean that a man who excelled in college work would be on his way to a position of great respect as well as being on his way to a gold key and a cum laude. A large reward will always secure keen competition. The academic honor is respected on Commencement Day, but it is not so effective as would be a scholarship achievement which meant that the winner had an enviable future practically assured. If you prefer the Consular service, or a national banking service, as a better field, the idea remains the same—government positions of honor for men of brains.
One would have to be as much of a visionary as Shelley to forget the bitter fight that always precedes the chopping down of a political plum tree. But in the organizing of alumni now taking place in all our great American colleges it is easy to observe the marshalling of an army which should be undaunted at the prospects of such a fight. Here is pipe-pondering for all the recruits.
