Intercollegiate Interim

Beyond question the past year has marked a strange interlude in the realm of intercollegiate sport. Inevitably it must, since so many college populations have undergone a sea-change the country over, under the stress of war. None the less it is evident that these new conditions have by no means killed, though they may have impaired the fertility of, the intercollegiate seed. Football games throughout the country certainly did not have their ancient zest. The crowds that used to flock to witness them dwindled to a mere trickle of humanity where of old there was a raging flood.

Naturally this must be where college teams were made up from 50 to go per cent of men previously famed as players somewhere else. Vaguely it must be felt that this was not the Real Thing. But it remains to be added that somehow, even if in attenuated form, intercollegiate sport still lived. For once, no one could well say it was overstressed.

The real question is whether anybody has honestly liked it as well as one liked the overstressed brand. It is not rather probable that, after this year or two of deprivation, the old lust for over-emphasized athletics in the colleges will revive and possibly exceed its former volume? In any case it seems certain that intercollegiate athletics is due for a glorious resurrection, once teams are made up of more or less bona fide student players, instead of players who are where they are only because of a government decree.