FURTHER TRENDS IN SUBSIDIZED ATELE?ICS Dre Forrest C. Allen University of Kansas. Speaking antithetically of Mark Antony's famous funeral oration, permit me to say that "I came to praise football, not to bury ite" : Athletics in the American colleges are paradoxical. They are the most severely criticized activity of college life, and they are the most lovede They are the most rational channel into which to direct the energies of youth, and they are, when improperly administered, the most dangerous and diseasede They are the most vulnerable activity of. the American college life, and they are one of the m@ést vital. Perhaps it is because “6 love them that we illetreat and punish them. The inherent Anglo-Saxon love of conquest and combat in the sports and games endangers the very object of its lovee. College students view athletics as an si in themselvese College professors steeped in habits of mind-training and hard work see them largely as misspent efforte Herein are the two extremes in over-evaluation = youth in an over-evaluation ab athistios, and middle age in an over-evaluation of academic traininge These two extremes are still far apart. The problem of the modern administrator is to find a middle grounde Thirty-five years ago, when intercollegiate football was on trial because of physical dangers to the participants, the late Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President of the United States, saved the game for the good that he thought it possessed. Today, with the game on trial again, this time because of alleged moral and spiritual dangers, there is need of another great leader to point the way aheade The game should be lifted up and out of its distortions into its truer plane of inspiration and effectiveness in college lifee In reality there is little of serious \a2 ow issue with athletics in the colleges themselves. The disease starts from without - among the men whose interest is etait But also conflicting purposes arise in the mind of youth regarding school and college. (Many coaches hold up to the boy the glory of conquest on the athletic field as the most important activity of college life rather than the all important thing of acquiring durable satisfactions in the classroome The intelligent athlete will not sell his academic birthright for a mess of pottage (the pay-off). This athlete will protect his forth- right freedom the same as the American voter protects his ballote But naturally the boy desires to compete in games of combat and contact. The game of football as a morale builder and as a builder of men perhaps has no equale Above the door of the gymnasium at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., are these words of Major Koehler, cut in stone; "Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields in other years are borne the fruits of victory." Football would never die, but would continue to thrive, were it not for the football followers of Brutus who have stabbed the sport to near deathe These pseudo-friends of football are the gamblers, the sub- sidizers, the proselytors, and the "pollyannas" who state that "football at the present is enjoying sound health and is becoming more of an amateur sport all the time". I stated last winter that subsidized football and basketball had but ten years to lives I revised this estimate downward somewhat this fall, depending on the part that we play in this second World War which we are now ine Replying to my long-time friend, Major John L. Griffith, Commissioner of the Big Ten, may I say that I base my deductions on the ale following fast developing facts set up for the period of our National De- fense Emergencye Living costs will be at least 25% higher sometime in 1942, and at least 50% higher in 1943. The Federal income tax payments of the people drawing salaries from $2,000.00 to $7,000.00 will be more than treblede Taxes are rising faster than corporation earnings, which means that the proportion available for dividends to stockholders is shrinke inge Profits during war will narrow further. Congress will be asked to vote the draft age reduction to eighteen years of age when the time is ripe. The signal has already been sounded by General Hershey. It is an open secret in Washington military circles that there are plans for an American Ex-= peditionary Force when American bombers and fighter planes can be manufactured in sufficient quantities to control the air and to protect the convoys from Mazi submarines. Therefore, may I repeat that taxes and living costs will be so excessively high that big time athletes who are not then in the service will not be carried on the state's payroll the year round, during the time while they are attending college as well as on the state's highway department during the summer vacatione State legislators will not be giving free legislative scholarships to big time athletes granting them free tuition at the state universities. In some of our state universities at the present time this practice is followed, but it does not exist in Kansas. But the State of Kansas is also a happy hunting ground for the athletic head-hunters from the Big Ten, the Southwest and Pacific Coast conferences. Coaches and athletic officials, or their emissaries, of some schools of each of these conferences annually pay profitable visits to Kansas and make away with - much of our choice high school athletic material. Corporations will not be financially able to make good-will donations to these athletic slush funds, nor will fraternities and sororities be willing to feed an extra athletic mouth for the glory of good old Siwashs Father and mother will not be able to foot the bills. The vital business of whipping Hitler will be paramount to our over- indulgence of glorified publicity and financial display, neither of which are worthy lessons for youth to learne Participation in athletics for the masses will be emphasized. Our gate receipts will fall off and of necessity there will be a consequent diminution in the numbers of our highpriced college coaching staffs now holding jobs. The so=called illegal athletic scholarship carries many scars far beyond dig santana hallse Great throngs jam our football stadia each Saturday afternoon in the fall. Great crowds stimulate unusiial interest and excitement. Some followers back their athletic favorites by placing bets to show their questionable loyalty Many times more than double the money that is bet on horse races in this country is gambled on football games each year in the United States. The professional gambling rackateers' "take" on foot- ball parlays which they put out each Saturday afternoon is nearly 40%, leaving the easily hood=winked public the suckers' share. While this situation is not the fault of the colleges, nevertheless the filthy hand of the rackateer has not edified these intercollegiate games which were once academice The losing coach of the college team is the object of a vicious attack by the "yelpers" who have lost their money. Yet when these gamblers win a bet of course they put their money into their own pockets. Gambling on games makes for instability and ill-feeling against the coaches. =5e= A high school or college teacher desires security and good will the same as does the manual laborer. A teacher of young men desires . security, an athletic coach desires security, but there can be no simi under the present plan with subsidized football and basketball because the followers of subsidized athletics demand a sure-fire winner every timée So-called athletic boosters pay their subsidized money into a secret fund to insure thise Every coach in the same conference cannot win the champ= ionship for he Sets Winning a championship is very uncertain. And when successive losses accumulate, shes the emotional frenzy of the disappointed athletic booster demands a change in the coaching personnel. Five years is considered a long-term contract in football or basketball snus But five years is a short while in a lifetime of coachinge The mortality table shows that three years is the average tenure of a coach before changing positions. The present hypercritical subsidizing of college athletes works against the security of . coach 's longer tenures Cy Sherman, sports writer and newspaper man at Lincoln, ‘Nebraska, in his sports colum, "Brass Tacks", says: “The founders of football and all college sports, for that matter, gave thought only to the idea that athletics should be conducted strictly on a basis of pure amateurism, but corrupting influences unquestionably have been permitted to intrude their slimy presence, thus to make a mockery of the amateur pretense. ce eee How then can a tangible plan be worked out to save the gridiron game from the fate which certain individuals have foreseen? The problem is one which this column passes to the heads of the Neti onal Collegiate Athletic Association, the body which has the means and methods in its nh oo hands, but in the past ~ iain the pity - it has failed, either through insipidity or cowardice, to useé" Certainly from as stalwart an enthusiast for football as is Cy Sherman this is unmistalably an open confession that he and all other insiders know the mockery that is now being practiced under the guise of character building in a major sport = especially when big time prosel~ ytors and subsidizers worke When a gardener trims excessive branches from a grapevine he does it to improve the fruit. By lopping off many of the football barnacles, football could be savede And so could basketball, for that matter. But the way it is going at the present time causes people to wonder whether the men who make money out of football will permit it to be savede Another observation is worth while; namely, the future crop of coaches in both football and basketball who will of necessity come from a group of men who are outstanding in the sport from the angle of technical skill. This is their college laboratory work to show that they are expertse These men, by wit large, are some of the athletes who are receiving either their board, room, tuition, books, and so forth, or 4 large part of that, and some are men who positively leave school with a larger bank account than they entered with. How in the world can many of these future questionable builders of character challenge a boy to enroll in the university except by the same and only method they know - that is the pay checke The undergraduate newspaper council of New York University, an organization composed of editors and sports editors of the four university papers, recently called on the school authorities to subsidize the New York University football team. The request orfutea on the eid pages of the four newspapers expressed the view that subsidization is generally accepted today. The students at the University of Chicago recently asked the authorities to permit them to adopt the Chicago Bears, professional foot- -ball team, as their team and to mke arrangements with the professional management so that they might be admitted to the Bears home games on an athletic activity fee basise The Chicago students wanted to cheer for a winner e Last week the University Daily Kansan sports editor, Clint Kanaga, came out for subsidization of Kansas athletics, especially foot- balle The petition of the New York University students offered three policies: (1) The abolishment of football as an intercollegiate sport; (2) The arranging of a schedule to fit the ability of the players; and (3) Open subsidization. The first two propositions were considered untenable by the students as the students did not want football abolished, and the University authorities admitted their inability to arrange a suite able schedule to fit the ability of the players. Thus, they concluded subsidization was the-only alternativee It seems that the student bodies of schools with losing teams are in favor of subsidization, feeling that most of the successful big time teams are adequately subsidizede It is an open secret. When certain Pacific Coast athbetes were declared ineligible by Commissioner Atherton these same students entered another university +or in the Pacific Coast Conference. I certainly have no objection to a boy receiving a subsidy for playing, because that thing is happening in a great many of our American universities at the present time, but on a sub=-rosa basise But when colleges resort to subsidization they have moved to outright pro- == fessionalism, and the spirit of the colleges will be identical with that of the New York Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the players are apt to be booed for mistakes as are the professionals. The cheers and the hero worship will go only to those super-athletes, as to Joe Dilfaggio who outdoes everybody else. But upon this question we should ponder before deciding to make such a ste@pe | It would be far healthier for our athletics if we could come out in the open and say to the public that definitely we are subsidizing these athletes. The richer schools or the schools with wealthier alumni would ratae the ante and the same situation that obtains now would obtain in the future. Unless inflexible laws for college conferences, with sharp, biting teeth in them, are enacted, the laws would be broken in this case the same as they have been in the present and the paste Subsidization could be adequately enforced by the colleges employing a super-czar, or a high commissioner of athletics for the United States, to serve all conferences, with vested authority in him the same as is granted Judge Landis in professional baseball. This high commissioner would have absolute authority to discharge any coach, to declare ineligible any player, or to prescribe certain rules of conduct for any athletic board, or even go so far as to demand the removal of certain members of any college athletic board. Each conference would agree on the price to pay their athletes. Only member ieee subscribing to such a sie would be eligible to belong to such a conference. And only conferences subscrib= ing to this arrangement would permit their schools to schedule games with schools belonginge No games could be scheduled with any non-members in the United States. Of course, non-members could play with non-members. won =Gee ow For all practical purposes jmany intercollegiate conferences could be divided into a “big pocketbook league" and a "small pocketbook League". The "big pocketbook league" members are generally the championship : winners, and the "small pocketbook league" members are the consolation winnerse This high commissioner would have authority to remove any commissioner of any conference who did not enforce dae tae Of necessity this high commissioner would be a man the type of Judge Landis. — The Black Sox scandal imperiled the reputation and confidence of pro~ fessional baseball. By wise administration and fearless action Judge Landis has again rebuilt confidence in the games & great and fearless character in this high office could again stabilize this magnificent sport x again create a confidence in America's greatest college gamee do intial, (coPY) October 10, 1941 Lt. Col. W.H. Browne, QuC 110th QM Regiment AoP oO. 35 Camp Robinson, Arkansas Dear Brownie, I have a real good joke on myself and I want to pass it on to you. Your letter arrived Saturday morning just — prior to the Kansas-Washington football game. I hurriedly scanned over the first part of your letter and paid very 14ttl16 attention to the first three paragraphs. Then I read your fourth paragraph which starts out - "Now for the real reason this message is written". By overlooking the third paragraph and not answering it I committed the greatest blunder of all my corresponding ex- perience, In that paragraph you presented the very same argument that I had presented to the students at William Jewell = that these boys played football for the sheer fun of it, and that they do not have to have commercialized football to play for the fun of it. And w + € lized the bad features are Sen po a the good Zz If I ever needed a friend to argue my pint, you certainly did it most emphatically and without any rebuttal. So, Brownie, read your own paragraph again and see if that isn't right in line with my argument, You said, “They are their own officials, and the ball changes side with very little other than a kidding dissent". Therefore, the college presidents of America will see the educational value of play, sid by adjustments upon the state and by the students they will | develop an intramural system which will satisfy the play in- stinects of the students without the big time stuff that i2 | not a part of the educational institutions. Brownie, I surely do like your letter. Very sincerely yours, \ 1 \ Director of Physical Education and Recreation FCA/pg Varsity Basketball. Coach \ Tues. Sept. 30, 1941 (In the woods near I really have intended to write you leomg before this, but something has popped up to take precedence. My family will feel like they should have priority at this time when they hear I've written to you, and only sent them a convenient one-cent post card. However, should they learn the content eof this letter, 1 know they will te in harmony with the thought and spirit of this epistle as they are not only ardent fans of all sports, but firm believers in the advantages afforded by a training in our competitive sports. Our Regiment is in Sivouss 1) miles west of Mensfield, la. , for the purpose . of rest, personal and clothing cieaniiness, and to give the necessary attention te some 200 vehicles before starting Byisave to our sssembly area for troop movement back to Camp Robinson. As I sit at my. improvised desk and office here in the m dst of some of Louisiana's pine trees completing .a few of my duties as the Executive Officer, 1 can see a sight thet is good for my Kind of. sore. eyes--I am sure you will appreciate the point aa I try te develepe it in these~- iN hastily written lines. About 200 yards across the fields to a clearing where our vehicles are properly lined in « motor pool, and all drivers and assistant drivers are supposed to be busily engaged in what we call Ist and 2nd Echelon of Maintenange, I see this sight. There are sone 40 men in nonedescript uniforms, and of all things, playe ing football. They have hastily organized sides, use a huddle, give some kind of instructions, jump out of that huddle with a spirit, speed, and enthusiasm that would do justice to a major eleven. The bell (yes, a football) is snapped and a smash off tackle or an end rum wes never enjoyed more. The tackling is fair, there is no flinching when the ball carrier rams the line, and the pile-up is one effervescing enthusiasm and pleasure. Fumbles, bad passes from center, poor peoenenee ete., are greatly in evidence. That dees not matter--it is the game, and spirit of the contest that they are enjoying. They ere their own officials, and the ball changes side with ver little other than a kidding dissent. I know, . jusist on a return te duty, but I also kmow they are not in dondition to stand the "gaff" and that in a very short time they will return to their duties refreshed end in a better frame of mind. The field is rough, and the weeds are waist high, and a poorer place to pley could hardly be found. Therefore if they a without any serious injuries I'll be glad and feel the laxity in duty justi- ed. Now for the real reason this message ‘is written, I have before me an A-F. stor quoting our good friend Phog Allen on the “~ ef Intercollegiate football, ll at a football dinner at Wm. Jewell College. on GWEC of the fact some individuals desire publicity, whether favorable or needlicbds as long as their name is kept before the public. Sometimes in seeking this publicity some individuals really do not believe what they say, and issue statements that will be challenged for the above stated reasons. Therefore it would be good logic to let their stories die a natural death and let the facts speak for themselves. However, I had an uncontrollable desire to “come back" and feel as tho' I'm entitled to be a com mentator on the game this year in as much as 1! ekmnat poartieigate a4 I love to deo, in coaching the lai The scene before : me of young mon ete, and Dr, Allen's challenge, Was too » much, hence the following reflections. =e You can't kill, or legislate out a spirit. Football represents so much of a spirit of a game where mental, physical, and emotional expressions have a wholesome out- let that youth will demand, and have, in one way or another. Therefore, It would be folly for our colleges te attempt to kill the game. Histery of the sport tells us Kings have tried to kill the game by making it punishable by death fer anyone found guilty of starting a game ef football. In our own nation, in not so many years back, State Legislatures have ruled the game out. Many Colleges tried to kill the sport, but found it to be a leech that hung on in spité ef all opposition. Nearly all college Presidents in the early years washed their hands of the game. Later the game was tolerated, and, yet frowned upon by educators largely because they did not understand the game, and were afraid of the administration of se powerful an influence in the Colleges. I believe, sincerely, that the majority of College Administrators today see in this game that has so great an incentive and influence over student and spectator alike an adjunct to education that can- not be duplicated enywhere in the Academic life. All coaches should rise up in erms and ostracise one of their own member who brands this fine group of men as “Beagle Hounds out sniffing the bushes fer athletes to be given salaries for doing no work", Likewise, all prefessors should resent the snap course idea, and fear of flunking an athlete, if a minimum of work has not been completed. The Coaching Prefession is heartily in accord with the University Administrators controlling the Athletic situation to such an extent that the department is in harmony with the aims and ideals of the institution of which it is a part. The prefessions is net in harmony with the idea that the program is not an educational ene and decidedly not worth while because it is a “money leser"®. The question of its value cannot be measured in dollars and cents. We should be glad that 80 of the 640 Universities did make a profit out of an educational feature. The proe= fession does not condone any institution or individual who violates the ethics of the game and profession. It is hardly in keeping with intelligent thinking for all Coaches to be branded as "Beagle Hounds", or all Colleges to be accused ef paying players, and all Professors to be accused of giving free rides, any more than it would be rational thinking te say all Doctors were quacks and without ethics be- cause a few of their profession were found guilty. I have enjoyed some 20 years of association with athletics and the teacher of these sports, and have found very little ground for such rash statements as made by "Phog". It is regrettable when one who has earned his livlihood from the athletic progrem for so many years to turn out to be unworthy of the respect of his fellow coaches. Such logic can only come from emotional judgment rather than rationalizing the facts to be had. I for one could not sit by and allow such statements to go un-= challenged. Hence this lengthy expression to you ef the view point of one who has given many years to coaching and is leoking forward to the time when he can again be a part of the great game of football, and allied coaching duties. When all Coaches will put their shoulder to the wheel and push in trying to eliminate the evils that are apparent to all, rabher than being a drag te a worth while program. Then and only then, will we achieve fully the benefits that can and should be a part of our intercollegiate contests and especially football in our American Democratic Schools and Colleges. P.S.-A copy has been sent Kindest regards to the Dector in his lair at K.U. (Signed) W.H. Browne Lt. Col Q.M.C. 110 Q.M. Regiment Camp Rebinson, Arkansas A.P.0=55 (COPY) October 4, 1941 Lt. Col. W.H. Browne, QNC 110th QM Regiment Camp Robinson, Arkensas A.P.0. 35 Dear Brownie, Your very lengthy epistle addressed to Frederick Ware, a carbon copy of which has been sent to me, is hereby acknowledged. I also enjoyed the postscrip, "A copy has been sent to the Doctor in his lair at K.U." I was greatly interested in your activities and enjoyed the description of your environment in Mansfield, La., which you have given Fred Ware, our mutual friend. However, I feel that I should come to the point and reply to your real reason for writing the message to Fred. I have tried to analyse carefully your arguments that you present in your letter to Fred. First, I might say to you that I have spoken on two occasions to football men wherein the newspapers have seen fit to give perhaps undue publicity. Last fall I spoke to the allestar Kansas City, Kansas, high school football men where Rotary was their host. This fall I spoke before the William Jewell College football team and three hundred students at a "football kick-off" dinner rally. I spoke to these boys directly and all the remarks that were made were prompted by a desire to present the true picture of “big time" football as it is now being conducted in a great many of our American colleges. I coached football, Brownie, perhaps before you played it, and I believe I know the strong and the weak points of the game as I have officiated and followed it closely ever since. The game as a morale buil as @ builder of men-has no equal. Cetainly I am not ex- cepting basketball in this inclusion. But many sports at one time can be fine, and then they can become so distorted that they can be utterly ruined and useless instead of being a morale builder they can become @ morale destroyer. In my mind's eye I ran over a great number of former coaches and present coaches, and have asked this question: Are these coaches' sons playing football? I thought of Chet Brewer, who has a son at the Univ= ersity of Missouri, Henry Schulte, Bernie Bierman, Dana Bible, Major Jones, Harold Browne, "Phog" Allen, Bill Hargiss, and a great host of others. Now, I realize that neither your son nor Dana Bible's son are old enough to be in a university, but I will watch with a great deal of interest and see how many sons of coaches will play football in college. ole The warp end woof of the average football player at the present time 4s too rough end tough for the ons of coaches to compete against. Per- haps I should have said that we would rather have a son of ours major in a profession, and not in football as it is now conducted. True, there are exceptions, but it is the rule that I rather omphasise. Regarding your statement eneerning publicity, favorable or other wise, I want to essure you that I have never sold my face for a banana ad, or Grape-nuts, or Luckies, or what-not. Nor have I endeavored to keep my mamb before the public unless I thought I had something to say. And I do think definitely that I have something to say and will continue to say it, not as basketball coach but as the head of the department of Physical Education at the University of Kansas. (For your information, Brewmie, I have never drawn as much salary for coaching basketbell as I heve as direotor of athletics and physical education. ) / There are so many young fellows thet are being misguided by the so~- ‘ galled big shot coach in athletios that I think it is high time for /_gomebody to be et least half way honest with these youngsters. Stories “jay die naturel deaths, but facts never will. The fact that we have » gonference rules whichare being broken more then they are being kept 4s a fact and you know it. Your own Cy Sherman, the argosy of footbell hopes, in his colum "“trass Tacks", says: "whe founders of football and all college sports, for that matter’, gave thought only to the idea that athletica should be conducted strictly on a basis of pure amateurism, but corrupting influences | unquestionsbly have been permitted to imtrude their slimy presence thus to make a mockery of the amateun pretense. the head professor of basketball et Kensas U. apparently prefers to lop off the head of the chicken rather than exterminate ita lice, _“fhet proposal conveys no appeal to this colum. Football is a sport so wholesome, $0 desirable especially in a time of a naticnal crisis, as to merit a definite place in the educational scheme. pe 2 “How then, can a tangible plan be worked out to save the gridiron game from the fate wi-is> t-ef esa Allen end others, too, have fore- seen? The problem is one which this column passes to che heads of De the National Collegiate Athletic association, the body which has the means end methods in its hands, but in the past - more's the pity - it has failed, either through insipidity or cowardice, to uses" ce ‘ ” Canal sAl Certainly from as stalwert ‘enthusiast for football Ps Cy B, _ unmistakably an open confession that he and all other insiders know wh the mockery thet is now being practised under the guise of character } building in a major sport ~ especially when big time ED this is 4 Wee “ee 4 “Se Cy says that apparently we prefer to lop off the head of the chicken | rather than to de-louse it. Certainly I do not believe in lopping off the head of such a fine sport as football. I merely pointed out to thes high school and college players that these coaches and the so-called friends of football are the ones who are killing it, and the yelp that — the coaches emit shows that they lure been struck by missiles which | hit the mark. When a gardener trims excessive branches from a grapevine he does it to improve the fruit. il | Brownie? By lopping off many of the football barnacles, football could be saved. And so could basketball, for that matter. But the wey it is going at the present/ime causes people to wonder whether the men who make money out of football will permit it to be saved. football and basketball will of necessity come from a group of men who are outstanding inthe sport from the angle of technical skill. laboratory work }o,show that they are experts. These men, by and large, ar etes who awe receiving either their board, room tuition, béoks, and so forth, or a large part of it, and some are men who positively leave school with a ! then they entered with. How in the world canrthese cese\ t of character challenge a boy to enroll in the university exe game and only method they know ~ that is the pay cheok. [ May I meke another observation? The future crop of coaches in both \ 5 er eeenernneraccenenegniatnnar \ : These major spectacular sports are nothing but a rachet, or a business racket tied to the tail of the university or college. The boy is maite | to feel that that is the most important thing in his existence, when all of us know that it is not by amy manner of means the most important. wecause-it—is an_incentive which should drive him on to the durable things of life, wrt hot is the thing that 6 Glassroom and in the contact with his fellows. Jue that he is nothing more than a paid profes _ p fe stetys, the wed play ve no quarrel with you when ao much of a spirit of a game where mental, physical, and emotional SN expressions have a wholesome outlet that youth will demand, and have, im one way or another." Again I say, let's have it in the right way, and not in the way it is being omducted in the "big time”. Again I want to say that I do not «n> ta kill football, »ut I want to point to the boy who is paaying it the danger of following wandering fires lest in the quagmire. Brownie, I have never worried much about ostracism. I find that I make a few friends end lose a few, but when I characterize a group of coaches as "beagle hounds out sniffing the bushes for athletes to be given saleries for doing no work", I state correctly what I know and what you know, Of course, some big time schools have someone else to do their beagle-hounding for them, and they sit back as re- spectable individuals while the dirty work is done by the less important beagle hounds. Had I not talked to so many professors who tell me the pressure they feel from the advance agent for so many of these flunking athletes, then I might say that some of them might resent it. But I know this game from all the intricacies as you do. And these professors do not resent this snap course idea because they know how many of the wise boys hunt for them. ae $ cts Ae pl A ieee J ie ata A ome Ne, Bik as seas rs Le ara. > ee eS eee ie Sap OG Bs ASRS ae mde This part of your letter makes me laugh. "The coaching profession is heartily in accord with the University Administrators controlling the athletic situation to such an extent that the department is in harmony with the aims and ideals of the institution of which it is a part.” What ideals do you speak of when there are certain assistant athletic directors in large institutions who are paid for nothing else than to handle the athletes, definitely paying large sums of money to keep th them in school so that they may be eligible for athletic teams? I say that this is no part of an ideal. I have coached 34 years and in my association with athletics and with the coaches of these sports I find-a growing tendency to spend more but to cover up more skilfully. I have always tried to put more into physical education and athletics than I have gotten out of it, and I will continue to do so, but my standard in dealing with these boys will be, so far as possible, the standard that I use in dealing with my own sons. Certainly I would not want my son to sell his academic birthright for a mess of athletic pottage such as is being peddled around by "big time" promoting athletic coaches. You will understand, Brownie, that there are a lot of descent coaches and a lot of coaches that are not doing the things that I mention, but there are a lot of “big time” coaches who are doing this and they are doing it to the detriment of both football and basketball. Doubtless you realize that before I said this thing I knew exactly what a great number of individuals would say to me and about me. I said it last fall and I said it again, so don't you realize that from my first experience I could maturely judge what might come again? It was not an emotional outburst, but it was a thing planned and studied, debunking a lot of the junk that goes on in "big time" athletics. You state that “coaches will put their shoulders to the wheel and push in trying to eliminate the evils. « You know bloomin well that if the coaches wanted to meet this situation they could eliminate and cure it over one season of play. But, you say, they are doing it. How can I stop it? And in fact there are some coaches that I know of who couldn't turn out a championshpp team unless they got better material than the other coaches. Therefore, instead of working, they attempt to buy the team. To show you that I was not spoofing you about football but that I also meant basketball in this charge, I am sending you a carbon copy of a letter that I received on October 2nd from a coach of national reputation who has had nationally known teams. I am also sending you a carbon copy of a letter that Iwrote this coach. A boy who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 188 pounds, and who comes highly recommended by an expert coach, might do some team good under the basket, you cannot fail to admit. And doubtless you will say that these coaches are character builders instead of athletic beagle hounds. This coach said, "T picked him up". That is why I call him a beagle hound rather than a bird doge Be Nee Calis es inet on a a ices aimee a This boy in question has nothing. He needs board, room, tuition, books, clothes, spending money, medical expenses, and what have you. If a coach does it for one he is forced to do it for the others. Then multiply this amount that is necessary to take care of this boy by the number of men on the first squad and you have the answer to the cost of basketball. Brownie, I have enough data to prove my points conclusively. Yu and I both know a young star athlete from Kansas who matriculated at Nebraska and was wet~nursed, hauled in taxicabs to his classes because he would not walk to them, and implorations were made to him in a most disgusting fashion just because he was anathlete. Tyme, his ineligibility casued him not to play at Nebraska, but the disgusting example set be this chap and by the people who endeavored to get him eligible created a sickening stench among those who were on the inside of such a situation. Similar situations have happened on the compus of most every college in the United States that has tried to keep such men eligible only for their athletic ability. There was no other consideration involved in handling this young boy with strong gastronnemius muscles who could peddle a ball forward. And still we talk about ideals. The name was not a long one. The first letter is Be Thanking you for sending me this pleasant epistle to Fred, and wishing you and the great Army of the United States Godspeed, I am Sincerely yours, Director of Physical Education and Recreation FCA/AH Varsity Basketball and Baseball Coach Enc. (COPY) October 2, 1941 Mr. Basketball Coach University of Dear Coach, Thank you very much for sending me your letter regarding the good basketball player who is ineligible to play in your Conference. | I appreciate your kindness in writing, but since we have out of state tuition, which is treble that of our local tuition, there is no way that we have of handlin: such a young man. We do not even have scholarships, nor do we have locrative jobs that would enable him to make more than $20.00 a month. The authorities here figure that that is all any boy can work and still carry a full load of academic subjects. I am sorry that this young man became ineligible for you by playing one year at college. Again thanking you and wishing you every success, I am Very sincerely yours, Director of Physical Education and Recreation FCA/pg Varsity Basketball Coach Sie anieiiciMiacaies inate: Naeem erat. t: seeps i it oh tice cSoa NRE Rik se Eola (COPY) September 30, 1941 Dr. Forrest C. Allen Director of Physical Education University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas Dear Dr. Allen: I am writing you about a boy who is enrolled here at the University. j He came in yesterday and tol¥ us that he had enrolled at a last year and has played in several freshmen games. That, of q course, makes him ineligible to play in our conference. We have a ruling here in our conference that if a boy has matriculated in any other institution and has participated in one game he is ineligible to participate in a Conference szhool. I have followed this boy with a great deal of interest and picked him up in an N.Y.A. camp in Tennessee. He is six feet, five inches tall end weighs 188 pounds stripped. a comes from a family that is very poor and he has no means of attenting school whatever. Since we have scholarships here in basketball we thought enough of his ability to offer him a freshman scholarship. He has unusual ability 4 and I felt he would make us an outstanding center. He has played a lot of ball and he is a boy of unusually fine habits. He passed our entrance examinations here in good shape and I do not believe that he would ever give you any trouble in regard to his studies. Is there any way that you could use him at all? I am interested in sending him to you as he requested me to write this letter and I also feel that I would like to send you someone semetime that might.do you some good. Naturally, if this boy were eligible to play here I would have kept him. I would appreciate hearing from you as he would be interested in enrolling there the second semester. I understand your register has closed for the first semester. Sincerely yours, -le : I QG/ “7 Speaking antithetically of Mark Antony's famous funeral eration, permit me to say that "I came to praise football, not to bury it." Athletics in the American colleges are paradoxical. They are the most severely criticized activity of college life, and they are the most leved. They are the most rational channel into which to direct the ener- gies of youth, and they are, when improperly administered, the most danger- ous and diseased. They are the most vulnerable activity of the American college life, and they are one of the most vital. Perhaps it is because we love them that we illtreat and punish them. The inherent Anglo-Saxon love of conquest and combat in the sports and games endangers the very object of its love. College students view athletics as an end in them- selves. College professors steeped in habits of mind-training and hard work see them largely as misspent effort. Herein are the two extremes in over- Evaluation, - youth in an overvetentells athletics, and middle age in an overvaluation of academic training. These two extremes are still far apart. The problem of the modern administrator is to find a middle grounds Thirty-five years ago, when intercollegiate football was on trial be- cause of physical dangers to the participants, the late Theodore Roosevelt, ex-president of the United States, saved the game for the good that he thought it possessed. Today, with the game on trial again, this time be= cause of alleged moral and spiritual dangers, there is need of another great leader to point the way ahead. The game should be lifted up and out of its distortions ‘ane its truer plane of inspiration and effectiveness in college life. In reality there is little of serious issue with athletics in the colleges themselves. The disease starts from without, - among the men whose interest is misguided. tin hit A = p Many coaches hold up to the boy the glory of conquest on the athletic rreraas te moa actirky, a ,. $ pall ems a parle ; f ALY wih rich, Astirfaclioun tu her CLaed i Upon the fieldKof friendly strife are sown the seeds that dn other dane ates the fruits of victory. “ — fields The intelligent athlete will not sell his academic birthright for -a@mess of pottage (the pay-off). This athlete will protect his forth- right freedom the same as the American voter protects his ballot. aa & oZea Football would never die, but would continue to thrive, were it not for the football followers of Brutus who have stabbed the sport to near death. These pseudo friends of football are the gamblers, the subsidizers, and the Pollyannas who state that, "football at the present, is enjoying sound health and is becoming more of an ameteur sport all the time”. I stated last winter that subsidized football and basketball had but 10 years to live. I revised this estimate downward somewhat this fall de- pending on the part that we play in this second World War which we are now in. Replying to my long-time friend, Major John L. Griffith, Commissioner of the Big Ten, may I say that I base my deductions on the follow — set up for the period of our National Defense Emergency. Living costs will be at least 25% higher sometime in 1942 and at least 50% higher in 1943. The Federal income tax payments of the people drawing salaries from $2000.00 to $7000.00 will be more then trebled. Taxes are rising faster than corporation earningawhich means that the proportion available for dividends to stock- holders is shrinking. Profits during war will narrow further. Congress will be asked to vote the draft age reduction to 18 years of age when the time is ripe. The signal nas “boot Sclinded by General Hershey. It is an open secret in Washington military circles that there are plans for an American Expeditionary Force when American bombers and fighter planes can be manu- factured in sufficient quantities to control the air and to protect the con= voys from Nazi submarines. Therefore may I repeat that taxes and living costs will be so excessively high that big time athletes who are not then in the service will not be carried on the state's payrotl the year around, - during the time "he# they are attending college as well as on the state's highway department during the summer vacation. State legislators will not be giving free legislative scholarships to big time athletes granting them free tuition at the state universities. In some of our state universities y\ ” each year,then is bet on Manet hiale races in ; «= -o< at the present time this practice is followed, but it does not exist in Kansas, Re S, se of Kansas is also a happy hunting ground for the athletic head-hunters from the Big Ten, the Southwest and Pacific Coast Conferences. Coaches and athletic officials, or their emissaries, ordome tel, these conferences annually pay profitable visits to Kansas and make away with much of our choice high school athletic materialf, Corporations will not be financially able to make good-will donations to these athletic slush funds nor will fraternities and sororities be willing to feed an extra athletic mewth for the glory of good old Siwash! Father and Mother will not be able to foot the bills. The vital business of whipping Hitler will be paramount to our over-indulgence of glorified publicity and financial display neither of which are worthy lessons for youth to learn. Participation in athletic once tasty the masses will be emphasizedg @S& Gur gate receipts will fall off an Oi: ere esters e a consequent dimbnution in the numbers of our high- is lia nem foe Many times we Laatidl than “CAtoe the money is oe on football games ._ ar | é ; ethesk™ ee. gl! Fn" | mal oy Yanwte geek or on football parlays which they put out each cateetag nearly 40% = leaving the easily hood-winked public the suckers share. While this situation is not the fault of the collegeg soeriaes, em felis of the rackateer has not edified these intercollegiate games which oD ou academic. aud quot A high school or college teacher: desires security, the goed voll as does the A manuel laborer. A teacher of young men desires secyrity - an athletic coach desires security, but there can be no security with subsidized football and basketball because the followers of subsidized athletics demand a sure-fire winner every time. So-called athletic: boosters pay their subsidized money into a secret fund to insure this. Every coach in the same conference cannot win the championship for his team. Winning a championship is very uncertain. And when successive losses accu™ulate then the emotional frenzy of the disae— ss Seen 7 SE ae =4= pointed athletic booster demands a change in coaching personnel. Five years is considered a long term contract in football or basketball coaching. But five years is a short while in a life-time of coaching. The mortality table shows that three years is the average tenure of a coach be- fore changing positions. the [subsidizing of college athletes works against eT 4 the security of a coaches longer tenure. New York University authorities resolution We Students offered three policies: 1. The abolishment of football as an intercollegiate sport (detriment of the school) 2. The arranging of a schedule to fit the ability of the players (University authorities admitted impossibility) 3. Open subsidization (only alternative) Chicago University students desired to adopt the Chicago Bears as their team and to make arrangements to be admitted to home games on an athletic activity fee basis.