ATHLETICS FOR ALL

SOMEWHERE in the minutes of the Physical Education Department is written this cardinal legend "The Department of Physical Education institutes the following requirement for credit in recreational activities :

"That all undergraduates, who are physically fit, be required to elect one team game and one individual activity at different periods during the college year.

"Those who are all-year members of intercollegiate squads may be expected.

"Participation in intercollegiate games or individual contests may be substituted for the above requirements."

Translated freely and succinctly, those lines carry one very distinct message, viz., athletics for all. And organized participation in athletics is made possible to undergraduates of Dartmouth College through three separate and distinct channels.

1. Intercollegiate competition.

2. Required recreational activities for freshmen and sophomores.

3. Intramural activities open to members of all classes.

The primary purpose of this discussion centers around the latter two phases of organized athletics at Dartmouth.

How well the policy of athletics for all is being carried out by the Physical Education Department is borne out by statistics compiled by Mr. Robert J. Delahanty, director of recreational activities and intramural sports, for the fall term of the college year. According to these figures, 1,963 of the total of 2,298 undergraduates—or exactly 85% of the students comprising the four classes —are engaged in one type of organized athletics or another. A survey conducted by Mr. Delahanty shows this total of 1,963 undergraduates to be divided into the following four groups:

Number participating in required recreational activities 997 Number participating in freshman athletics 218 Number participating in varsity athletics.. 300 Number of juniors and seniors participating in intramural activities 448

In this day and age of modern conveniences, comforts and inexpensive automobiles, the general tendency may be to consider an athletic plant nothing short of a sweat shop. This conception is fundamentally incorrect. The idea of the Physical Education Department in outlining and carrying forward this program is not for perspiration, for removing surplus avoirdupois, for aiding peristaltic action or for making a so-called star out of any individual (although it is a means to an end). On the contrary, the object of such a program is six-fold, as this writer sees it. There are no less than half a dozen angles to be considered in discussing the values of organized recreational and intramural activities. They are the educational, the social, the physical, the mental, the technical, and the appreciational.

With reference to the educational value of such a program, the theory of modern educators is being carried out here, namely, the opportunity for one to excel in a sport to which he is best adapted. And the field from which selections can be made by Dartmouth undergraduates is wide and varied, indeed. For example, the sports listed under individual activities include cross country, gymnasium, tumbling, track, swimming, winter sports (skating, skiing and snowshoeing), golf, handball, squash, tennis, boxing, fencing, and wrestling; while the team games include baseball, basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo. Under the heading of educational value must be listed the knowledge of the game one may acquire by participating in whatever activity is selected. Then too, there is the opportunity of acquiring a "carry-over" activity for leisure time in post-college days.

From a social standpoint, there are the advantages accruing from contact games and team games, to say nothing of the opportunity to learn how to talk and understand the language of any particular sport..

The advantages athletics provide in aiding physical development and stimulating mental activity need not be discussed. They speak for themselves—and speak loudly.

Granted that referees, umpires, field judges and players are not,infallible (aren't we all?), perhaps one of the most distressing, disturbing and nauseating elements connected with watching an athletic contest is provided by that individual who resorts to the very questionable procedure of booing decisions and players. Not only do tactics such as this one constitute a violation of the laws of sportsmanship, but they overtly demonstrate the offending spectator's ignorance of the rules of the game. A case at hand is the spectator at a hockey game who boos the referee for calling back a play after a player standing in the attacking zone has received a pass from a teammate skating in the center zone—not to mention unsportsmanlike demonstrations evident at some of the basketball games. One of the fundamental aims of recreational and intramural activities is to obviate such situations by providing a ground course in the rules of a game.

' And how does participation in athletics add to the appreciational value of sports? I should like to cite one specific example. Time was when I couldn't offer much consolation to the swimmer who crossed the finish line a lap or two behind the winner in the 440-yard event. But then I took up recreational swimming and please believe that it is quite an arduous task to swim even 50 yards—and swim that distance in the approved fashion. Before he almost gave it up as a bad job, Sid Hazelton taught me that there is an art to swimming. For instance, there is the matter of proper breathing, full leg action, stroke and coordination, to mention a few of the fundamentals. Needless to say, I have learned to appreciate the efforts of even the man who places last in the 440-yard event.

The same applies to other sports. How often have you heard a spectator say, with reference to the performance of an athlete, "I could do better than that myself." True—as long as that particular individual remains in the stands and imagines it thus.

All of us cannot be stars. But we can learn the game, we can know the game, we can talk the game, we can appreciate the game, and we can play the game.

Athletics are part and parcel of modern education in these United States. Figures show that Dartmouth College is having no difficulty in keeping up with the trend, because it has a well-outlined plan for recreational and intramural activities.

We are realizing that there is much significance attached to that phrase—athletics for all.