FOREWORD

HE tremendous amount of statistical facts gathered for this
Loe would not have been possible without the kindly effi-
cient cooperation of very many wonderful people. The research
is based upon sound established physiological facts. It required
severe exhaustive physical efforts and intense prolonged periods of
clerical work to correlate those figures.

The methods were developed first with the students at the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh. They were confirmed in many nearby Junior
and Senior high schools. Later, they were utilized by College and
University basketball teams to set up this work. The Aircrew
students at Pitt in their conditioning program offered a rare oppor-
tunity in nearly perfect controls. Sound technical advice was
offered by capable medical men. The actual direction of the tests
was done by athletic men, skeptical but efficient in their operations.
The clerks handled an infinite number of figures. Without the
help in editing, and the advice and execution of illustrations, this
work would never have been published.

We would like to thank here, by name, everyone who helped, but
that would be an impossibility. We trust that the men inadvertently
missed will feel that they have helped in a big way to discount
some of the superficial and unfounded criticisms of aggressive
competitive athletics.

Some of the men who conducted these strenuous tests in sec-
ondary schools and graciously reported names and figures include
the following: Dan Rice of Braddock, Jim Klein of Herron Hill
Junior High, Clifford Wells of Logansport, Indiana, Robert Baierl
of Munhall, Walter West of Wilmerding, Captain William Palmer
and F. Walter Jones of Shadyside Academy. The clerks who
handled the statistics of the above tests were former students and
basketball players at Pitt and are now in the armed services. They
include Captain Mel-*Port, Lt. Edward Strall, Lt. Edwin Masten
and Lt. Larry Paffrath.

Medical advisers included associate doctors George Kowallis,
Howard Bolton, Joseph Staley and Paul Zehfuss of the Men’s
Student Health Service at the University of Pittsburgh. Nurses
Lorena Dobrick, Ethel Woomer, Jane McConnell and Dolores