Football Again

Some time has elapsed since President Hopkins made his proposals looking toward changes in football. The reception of the proposals varied from complete denunciation to whole-hearted acceptance. At first the majority of comments was critical but as sports writers and educators gave more time to reflection a tone of greater cordiality seemed evident in the comments. Few there were who advocated the adoption of all the recommendations but many were in accord on one point or another and the great majority expressed the opinion that such a conference as was proposed would be highly desirable.

The Magazine does not understand that President Hopkins assumes the relation of football to the colleges to be in a desperate state at the present time. Nor do we assume he would insist that the proposals made were necessarily the exact reforms that would eventually have to be applied if the game were to be preserved. We do gather, however, that he feels the trend in football to be alarming and hopes to arouse discussion that will eventually bring a change in attitude and a change of emphasis. And on this score he gets wide support among educators.

The proposals made are far-reaching and, indeed, radical. They cannot, however, be termed destructive nor can President Hopkins be regarded as any but a friend of athletics properly correlated with the college plan. His early experience as a graduate manager of athletics gave him qualifications for such an inquiry that few college administrators possess.

It is not the intention of the editors of this magazine to express an opinion at the present time of the advantages or disadvantages of the various specific proposals made. Comment from other sources is printed elsewhere in this issue. We would merely re-emphasize the selfevident truth that whatever retards the real purpose of the College is harmful and that in many of us our vision is not clear enough or we are too close to the scene of action to detect the tendencies.

We therefore hope that such a conference as President Hopkins has proposed may be held and while wishing to reserve judgment on details of the plan as proposed look hopefully for results that will be beneficial to the cause of education and incidentally to the game of football.