Everybody an Athlete

Department of Recreational Activities

INTRAMURAL ACTIVITIES

While to the outside world, "college athletics" means onlya cheering stadium-full, or a system whereby noted athletes are raised to 'pinnacles of newspaper fame, the term hascome to mean something far different within the collegeitself. In an earlier number Director Delehanty of the department of Recreational Activities told of the work done inorganizing sports as a curriculum subject within the freshman and sophomore classes, and in this number Mr.Sampson tells of the highly competitive competitions thattake place between campus organizations, dormitories, fraternities and sectional groups. The success of intramuralathletics at the College has been noteworthy this year and atthe time of writing, the store windows are filled with silvertrophies awarded to groups and individuals for winningperformances. As entries in these activities are purelyvoluntary and since varsity performers are debarred, thewhole competition is on an even plane. There are nocheering galleries nor. display of colors, for the simplereason that all persons who love sport are actually on thefield of play.

WHAT is this infant progeny of the athletic world and why is it maturing so rapidly? The term has generally become accepted as the proper designation for all competitive sport which takes place "within the walls" of a particular school. That is, activities indulged in by individuals or teams of any college that compete among themselves are intramural activities. They may be representative of any group of the college, but not representative of the college proper.

Not until comparatively recent times has inter-group competition been placed on any definite basis, and its greatest development has come since the war, fostered largely by the realization that athletic needs of the masses is as essential as the needs of a hand-picked few.

• For some time there has existed in all schools fraternal or class organizations that have attempted to foster intergroup activities and their achievements have generally been marked with success, in some instances the movement assuming such proportion that it needed a much stronger and centralized authority. Athletic associations, which had been permitting the use of their fields and facilities for this type of student exercise, saw that it was necessary for them to step in and exert some degree of control.

MOVEMENT BEGAN IN WEST

Probably the first step in this direction was made by the colleges and universities of the Middle West, and now Departments of Intramural Athletics with a oneman head, who is expected to handle demands for competition in the various leading sports, is a well established adjunct to numerous schools throughout the country.

This move towards a unified system of conducting student athletic actions was of importance to the athletic associations in more ways than one. It permitted the latter direct control over their fields, equipment, etc., which had previously been loaned to various organizations which wished to use them. This control meant that courts and fields could be assigned impartially and without confusion; that games were better supervised, and that responsibility for equipment could be delegated to responsible parties.

The associations also found that the promotion of intramural activities stifled much severe criticism from people who opposed varsity athletics on the ground that it favored only a few skilled performers.

As well as providing an outlet for athletic proclivities of undergraduates, at Dartmouth we find that intramurals offer a gratification for the "carry over" interest of the students. That is, in the required physical work of the first two years a student may and does become interested in someone activity above others, and generally the sport is one which he may be active in after leaving college, such as tennis, swimming, handball, skating, skiing, or gymnastic activities.

It must be borne in mind, however, that intramural activities should be regarded in a recreative aspect, consuming the student leisure time in a wholesome way. They cannot be successfully conducted if organization reaches a stage where tedious training is necessary and fun is entirely eliminated from the program. The mere participation must be an enjoyable experience.

LIKE OLD-TIME SPORTS

One may readily conceive of the old-time interclass contest as being a modified forerunner of the present day intramural sports. Of course, the primary object was an outlet for interclass rivalry, but in some instances the originators were the entire college body, as the introduction of baseball in 1865 first as a private club and spreading through the entire college with organized class teams. The Dartmouth Boating Club was formed in 1872, and found such enthusiastic response that in the following fall, boating eclipsed all other activities.

Track was instituted in 1875, and under the initiative of Lewis Parkhurst a meet was held in October of that year. Besides races, the program had twenty-one other events. In conjunction with the class boat races on the river, both events materialized into a three-day sports festival.

During the 60's the prevailing method of expending excess energy was through interclass football contests, which were finally abandoned on order of the faculty to prohibit certain evils which had crept into the conduct of the contests. The student body pledged themselves to better deportment, and the ban was lifted. In 1875 the "rope pull" was inaugurated, and remained in vogue for many years.

The background upon which intramurals were established at Dartmouth has proven very effective for a sudden and advantageous development of the newer member of the athletic family. The interclass baseball series conducted every fall had a very definite place in campus activities, and the annual Freshman-Sophomore basketball game was a no-ending source of entertainment for the red-blooded undergraduates of those days. Our interfraternity council has conducted for years an interfraternity baseball and basketball tournament and donated loving cups to the winning teams. These activities, as well as the relay, are still retained on the program of the present intramural council.

IN HANDS OF STUDENTS

This council was tentatively organized two years ago and by quiet and resourceful measures has become a recognized entity on the campus. It is composed of a representative from the fraternities, one from the dormitories, one from the classes, one from the Outing Club, together with the director of recreation and the intramural manager, the latter being an athletic heeler assigned from the athletic council for this particular work.

With only two years of existence it has been found desirable to place two of the athletic heelers (a far cry from the days of the Rake and Roll) at the disposal of the Intramural Council to handle the maze of organization detail, such as, conducting games, arranging schedules, supervising officials, taking care of equipment, etc. For the Council is primarily a committee of organization and not of participation.

Its scope has extended to interclass activities embracing touch football, gym meets, swimming meets; interdormitory activities embracing touch football, basketball, handball, baseball and track meets; and interfraternity activities embracing touch football, basketball, swimming, baseball, and track relay.

Last fall in the interfraternity touch football series, twenty-three of the twenty-six fraternities had representative teams, and in the interdormitory series seventeen of the twenty groups were represented and played through the entire schedule. This division also took in the off-campus students as an entity in themselves, they having their group manager and captain as did the dormitories.

The basketball series, now being played, has interested the entire group of fraternities and the twenty dormitories as well have responded a hundred per cent for the championships. Figures for the touch football series are not available, but it is estimated that over two hundred twenty-five men are participating in the interfraternity basketball league, and about one hundred fifty in the interdormitory league.

HOCKEY IS ADDED

The nation-wide interest in hockey is well depicted on Faculty pond when the interclass contests are conducted during January and February; some of the games going to four overtime periods, and being played before an impromptu gallery of two hundred enthusiastic spectators.

In evolving a scoring system and eligibility rules for our intramural activities, it seemed advisable not to accept any definite standard but to devise a system and rules most pertinent to our needs and conditions.

Each group entering a series of games is given ten (10) points, five (5) points more for game won, and one (1) point for game played, all competition being on a point basis rather than elimination. At the end of the year the largest total of points for competition in all of the athletic activities determines the winner of the cup awards in each of the groups.

Through the athletic and interfraternity councils and private donations it will be possible to give cups and prizes to the winners and runners up of the class, fraternity, and dormitory divisions.

The eligibility of men playing in any intramural contest is based mainly on the inexperience of men in college athletic competition which (a) bars all men from a sport in which they have won a letter; (b) bars all men from a sport if they are retained on the varsity or freshman squad after a stipulated date; (c) bars all professionals from a sport in which they have become a pro, but admits (a) of no scholastic standard and (b) all students registered as undergraduates unless barred by the first three rules.

If the present situation, as far as interest and the number of men and organizations participating, is any criterion, we believe that intramurals have a very definite place in the athletic program of the college, and offer an admirable supplement to the required physical work.

THE ART OF EQUILIBRIUM Pat Kaney takes as much pride in his "Amateurs" as in his varsity men,

THEY LEARN STARTS

BASKETBALL for FUN