Mf ao [ 4 PURTHER TRENDS IN SUBSIDIZED ATHLETICS 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 it." Athletics in the American colleges are paradoxical. They are the most severely oriticizsed activity of college life, and they are the most loved. They axe the most rational chamel into which to direct the energies of youth, and they are, when improperly administered, the most dangerous and diseased. ‘They are the most vulnerable activity of the Anorioan college life, and they are one of the most vital. Perhaps it is because we love them that wo ill-treat 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 themselves. College professors steeped in habits of mind-training and herd work see them largely as miaspent effort, Herein are the two extremes in over~evaluation ~. youth in an over-evaluation of athletios, and middle age in an over-evaluation of academic training. These two extremes are | 0422 far apart. The problem of the modern administrator is to find middle ground, Thirty-five yoars ago, when intercollegiate football] was on trial because of physical dangers to the partioipants, 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 apiritual dangers, there is need of another great leader to point the way ahead. The game should be lifted up and out of its distortions inte its truer plane of inspiration and effectiveness in college life. In reality there is little of serious fe issue with athletios in the colleges themselves. The disease starts from without + among the men whose interest is misguided. But also conflicting purposes arise in the mind of youth regarding school and vollege., Many eonches 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 classroom. The intelligent athlete will not sell hie academic birthright for a mess of pottage (the pay-off). ‘This athlete will protest his forthe right freedom the sane as the Anerioan voter protects his ballet. But naturally the bey desires to compete in gemes of combat and contest. The game of football as a morale builder and as a builder of men perhaps has nO equal. Above the door of the gymnasium at the United States Military Acadeny at West Point, Nee, are those words of Major Koehler, out in stone; Ses Sea ee ros Se 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 deaths These psoudo-friends of football are the gamblers, the sub- Bidisors, the proselytors, and the “pollyannas" who state that "football at the present ie enjoying sound health and ia becoming more of an amateur I stated last winter thet subsidized football and basketball had but ten years to live. I revised this estimate dowward somewhat this fail, depending on the part that we play in this second World War which wo are now in. Replying to my long-time friend, Mejor John Le Oriffith, Commissioner of the Big Ten, may I say that I base my deductions on the ae following fast developing fasts set up for the period of ow National fee fenge Emorgoreys Living costs will be at lenet 25% higher sometime in 1942, and et least 50% higher in 1968. The Federal income tax payments ef the people drawing salaries fram $2,000.00 to $7,000.00 will be more than trebleds ‘axes are rising faster than corporaticn sarnings, which meang that the proportion available for dividends te stockholders is ehrinke ings Profite during war will marrow further. Congrese will be asked to vote the draft age redustion to eighteen years of age when the time is ripes The signal has already been sounded by General Hercheye It 4s an open secret in Weshingten military circles that there are plans for en American Exe peditionary Force when American bombers end fighter planes ean be manufactured in euffielent quantities to control the sir and to protect the conveys from therefore, my I repeat that taxes and Living costs will be eo exsessively high that big time athletes who are not then in the service will not be carried on the state's yayrell the year round, during the tine while they are attending college as well as on the state's highmy department during the eummer vacations State legislators will not be giving fros | legislative scholarships to big tine athletes granting them free tuition (Gt the etate universities. In sone of our state universities at the present time this practice ie followed, but it dees not exist in Kansas, But the State of Sanene ie also a happy hunting cround for the athletic headehuntors from the Big Ten, the Southwest and Yacifie Coast conferencess Coaches and athletic officials, or their enissarios, of sone schools of each of these conferences annually pay profitable visite to Kaneas and make away with wach of our cholee high school athletic material. ote Corporations will not be financially eble to mke goodewill donations to these athletic slugh funds, nor will frateraities and sororities be willing to feed an extre athletic mouth for the glory of good old Sighs Father and mother will not be able to foot the billse The vital business of whipping Hitler wil) be paramount to cur overe indulgense of glorified publicity and fimansial dieplay, neither of which are worthy lessons for youth to learn, Participation in athletics for the “mngigoe WALL be enghasised.s Our gate receipts will fall off and of necessity there will be © consequent deminution in the members of our highpriced Great throngs jam our football stadia each Saturday afternoon im the falle reat crowds stimulate nvewl interest and excitement. Seno followers back their athletic Savorites by plecing bete to show their questionable loyaltys Many times more than double the money that 4e bet on horse races in this country te gambled on football games each year in the United States. The profeseiom ganbling racknteere' “take” on foote ball parlaye whieh they put out eash Saturday afternoon is nearly 40%, aitumtion ie not the fault of the colleges, nevertheless the filthy hand of the reclateer hag not edified these intercollegiate games which were the losing coach of che college team is the object of a vielows attack by the “yelpers” who have lest their moneys Yet when these gablere win « tet of course thoy put their money inte their am pooketss vambling on games onies for instability ani’ Ulefeeling against the conshese Se 4 high eehool or college teacher desires security and good will tho sane ae does the manual laborers A tencher of young men desires seourity, an athletic couch desires security, but there can be no eeourity under the present plan with subsidised football and basketball because the followere of subsidised athleties demand a sureefire winner every tines Sowealled athletic boosters pay their oubeidised money into a secret fund _ to ineure thise Every conch in the same conference cannot win the chanpe fonship for hie team, Winning « ebamplenehip is very uncertains And when athletic booster demands a change in the coaching personnels Five years is considered a long-term contract in football or “bashetheld eosehings But five years ie 0 short while in « lifetine of Goachinge The mortality table shows that three years 4e the average tenure of a coach before changing pooitionss The present hypereritical subsldising of college athletes worke against the seourity of a coach's longer tenures — Gy Sherman, eporte writer and newspaper man at Linooln, ligbragin, in hie sports colum, “sraes Tacks", sayss "The founders of football and all college sports, for that untter, gave thought only te the idea that athleties should be conducted strictly on a baeie of pure euntowrien, but corrupting influences unquestionably have been permitted to intrude their sliny presence, thus to make « mockery of the amateur pretenses e*¢eeo low then cam 4 tangible plan be worked out to save the gridiron game from the fate which certain individuals have foreseen? The problem 4@ one whieh thie oolum passes to the heads of the National Collegiate Athletic Aesooiation, the body which has the means and methods in ite eo bande, but in the past + more's the pity « it hee failed, either through insipidity or comrdice, to uses" Certainly from as etalwart on enthusiast for football ae is Cy Sherman this i¢ umistakably an open confeseion that he and all other citi Nie eins aks Wiican acum acer ytors and gubsidisers works — When @ gardener trimes exeose branches from o grapevine he deen it te improve the fruit. by lopping off many of the football barmecles, football could be saved. And so could basketball, for that untters But the way it is going et the present time causes people to wonder whether the men who male meney out of football will permit it to be savede ‘nother observation is worth while; namely, the future erop of eeashoe in both football and basketball who will of necessity come fron & group of men who are outgtending in the spert fron the angle of toohnieal skill. hig ie their college laboratory work to show thet they are expertse These men, by and large, are gone of the athletes who are receiving either their beard, room, tuition, becks, and go forth, or @ large part of that, and some are men whe positively leave schecl with a larger bank escount than they entered withs How in the worl4 can many of these future questiomble builders of character challenge a boy to enroll in the university except by the same and only method they know. that is the pay cheglte : the undergraduate newspaper ounce} of New York University, an organisation composed of editors and eporte editors of the four university papers, recently called on the school authorities to subsidize the lew York University football team. The request printed on the froat pages of the four newspapers expressed the view thet subsidisation ie generally on om accept todays — | 7 ae The students et the University of Chicago recently asked the authorities te permit then to adopt the Chicago Bears, professional foot- Wall teen, ee their team and t: make arrangements with the professional management Go that they sight be afaitted to the Beare hens gamed on on athletic activity fee basis, The Chicago students wanted to cheer for a winner. | ooG | SeuEga, cane out for subsidisation of Kanes athletics, especially foot- The petition of the lew York University students offered three policies: (1) The abolishuent of football as un intercollegiate sport; (2) The arrenging of o sohedule 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, ond the University authorities admitted their inability to arrange a suit~ able schedule to fit the ability of the players, Thus, they concluded Gubsidization was the only alternative. I% seams that the student bodies of achoole with losing teans aro in favor of subsidigation, feeling that most of the successful big Sine teas are adequately subsidized. I¢ is an open secret. When certain ?acific Coast athletes wore declared ineligible vy Conesioner Atherton these sume students entered another university not fiw the Paelfie Coast Conference. I certainly have no objection to a boy receiving a subsidy for playing, beomuse that thing is happening in a great many of our American universities at the present time, but on a sub-rosa basia, But when colleges resort to subsidization they have moved to outright pro- Dae fessionalien, and the spirit of the colleges will be identica] with that of the New York Yankees or the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the players are apt te be booed for mistakes as are the professionals. ‘The cheers and the here worship will go only to those euper-athletes, as to Joe Ditiaggio who deciding to make such a steps ‘Tt would be far healthier for our athleties if we could come out in the open and eay to the public that definitely we are subsidising these athletes. The richer schools or the schools with wealthier alumni would raise the ante and tho seme situation that obteing now would obtain in the future. : : ‘Unless inflexible laws for college conferences, with sharp, biting teeth in thom, are enaoted, the laws would be broken in this case | the sane as they have been in the prosent end the past. Subsidisation ould be adequately enforced by the colleges employing a super~esar, or & high commlaesioner of athletics for the United States, to serve all eonferences, with vested authority in hin the cam as is crambed Judge landig in professional baseball. This high commissioner would have player, or to prescribe certain rules of condust for any athletic board, or even go so fur as to demnd the renoval of certain menbers of any sollece athletic board. kash conferees would agree on the price to pay their athletes, Only mouber schools subscribing to such a plan would be eligible to belong to sueh a conference. And only conferences subserib- ~ ing te this arrangement would permit their schools to schedule genes with school belonging. No games could be scheduledwith any non-members in the United States. Of course, non-menbers could play with non-members, ~On For ell practioal purposes now many intercollegiate conferences could be divided intoa"big pocketbook league” and a-femall pocketbook League". The “big pocketbook league” members are generally the ohempionship wirmers, end the “small pocketbook league” members are the consolation winners. | ‘This high conmissioner would have authority to ronove any eamiseioner of any conference who did not enforce the law. of necessity this high commissioner would be a man the type of Judge Landis. The Disek Sox seandal imperiled the reputation and confidence of pro- feunional baseball. ly wise administration and fearless action Judge Landis hag again rebuilt confidence in the geome. A great and fearless character in this high offices could again stabilise this magnitieent aport of football and again create a confidence in America's greatest sollege game. |