ALI athletic contests are a throwback fron the Gane of Tar, Fighting du
au honcnank where great masses of men are aggregated in camps and cantonments. It is x
& perfectly natural thing to expect games of combat and contact from these 8
enlisted mene In track a throw of the javelin simulates the use of the :
sper; in baseball the dewahafhne ball similates the early day hurling
of the rocks and the swinging of the bat simulates the club in the strong
right arm of the elemental man who swung vielously to fell the nine, to p
the food which was so necessary for the caveman tables
Boxing and wrestling hac the individuals in close contact
with each others Through the hundreds and thousands of years that men
have been clutshing at eavh other's throats in mortal combat, this game of
contest and conquest has been going ome The man who wrote the rules of
the game merely put in some thoueshall-noteinhi biti ons. ast We cali ._
gladiatorial combats fice cea” “OF “tt4 < sabpregatia erp.
The fellow who observes these ‘is a's a sportsman, so to apents the
men who does not is a mucker,. So we have veneered civilized society with a
inhibitions, and in our society we have said that the man who does not follow
these rules is not a good sportsmane He does not belongs The man who follows
these rules we cheer for hime The athlete who breakes these rules we jeer
at him or shun hime |
Why do we cheer for an athlete who executes an exceptional feat of
skill? Simply because through these hundreds and thousands of years that
men have been struggling we admire this struggle to such a degree that we
struggle with theme We admire it besause whee we sit on the sideline we are

playing the game in our own mind's eye in the same manner as are the men on a
the fields The spectator is a participant because he takes gidese His cheering ‘ |
and partisanship is a sure symptom that he is in the games