#7 wr. John R. Tunis.
February 27, 1955

the alleged over emphasis on football nothing constructive to
date has been aécomplished by the publication of this famous
bulletin. It did not act as a deflationary instrument on sport
nor is it of any potent constructive force at present.

May I quote the words of President
Angell of Yale University when he said, "We must believe in all
sincerity, as I am sure many of us do not, that physical educa-
tion, including competitive sports, is an essential part of the
obligation of the college and in no sense a mere excrescence. to
be confided to the casual outsider or to the transient apprentice.
We must recognize that it stands in the closest possible relation
to moral education, which we often pronounce as one of the prime
duties of the college, if not, indeed, the very first. We must
believe unreservedly in sports for the whole college community,
and competitive gpoup sports as far as possible, If, then, ~
sical education in the largest sense is an intrinsic part of the
work of the college, why should there longer be hesitation in
recognizing that fact, and accepting the full responsibilities
that go with it." “ :

Thirty years ago Exepresident Theodore
Roosevelt saved the game of football for the good that he thought
4t possessed. The disease of the gridiron starts from without,
among the men whose interest is misguided, The games of fod ball
an@ basket ball will imerease in player and spectator interest
because they are contact and combat games that appeal to the red-
blooded youth of America. fh |

: _ Of course, attendance in sport fell off
with the decline in earning power during the depression starting
in 1930. Exhibitionisms or attendance sports may have been on :
the decline the last few years but the real Golden Era of attend-
ance sports will reach its peak in 1939, and, Mr. Tunis, your
article as of December 1934, will be in the same relationship of
antiquity regarding propheey as was your Mr. Jones’ abundant in-
terest concerning sport. All stadia will be overflowing, our |
playgrounds, public and private courses will be filled to capacity
with the return of prosperity. The depression deflated sport as
4t did all super-aectivities, so shall boom days again return the
milk and honey to the land of athletic phenty.

With all sincerfty tty, I am
Very cordially yours,

PCA :IW | Director.