Page 4,

 

The pre-season and post-season tests were taken under ideal conditions without the
emotional strain of a game. The post-season test shows that the boys' heart rates
are higher while their blood pressures are lower. The high heart rates and low
blood pressure indicate periods of fatigue that naturally pluce a strain on the = \
circulatory system. The authors are unebie tc say with any final degvee of
authority, but the probabilities are that if this type of strenuous cxeicis
practiced year after year during the adolescent-perici, it will produce a kes
“Circulatory sytem, which may develop into a handicap in later life, Thy co:.-
“clude that basketball as played under the present rvles is too strenuous for
aaior | lL boys unless several bo east one quarter of
the four_to rest in, participate in one game,. (3) Gheir conclusion is sub-

“stantiated by S., J. Morris, M.D. of the Health Unit of West Virginia University,
Sarthe cig
Lon Jourdet, basketball coach at the University of Pennsylvania, believes basket-
ball takes too great physical toll. Basketball rule-makers must return the center
jump to the game befors secondary school authorities legislate against the sport,
he declared recently,

 

 

 
   
 

 

Jourdet, whose Quaker teams have won eight Eastern Intercollegiate League titles
in fifteen years, saic the present rules not only are harmful to the players!
health, but that the high scoring now possible hurts spectator interest,

"The game as it is played today, " the Penn mentor added, "is a running contest
that takes too much of a toll physically from the youngsters who play it in high
and prep schools. The college boys, too, are finding the going a lot rougher
than it was a few years back when the center tap off was the vogue.

The speeding up of the game adds about six or seven minutes more of actual
scrimmage as compared with the game when we had the center tap off, Those few
minutes are inconsequential (in value) when the physical wear and tear on the

we
te players is taken into consideration,"

As for spectators, they can't even keep pace with the heavy scoring, Jourdet finds,
"Men who have followed basketball for many years as spectators say that the game

is too fast and not as enjoyable as in the old days," Jourdet explainea, "They
tell me that keeping up with the score is almost impossible, because of the
rapidity with which field goals are made."

 

“ "There has been too much meddling with the rules," he commented, "Return the
center jump and basketball will regain its sanity." (4)
What do basketball coaches think of the "speed-up"? Lew Andreas, Basketball
Coach at Syracuse University, who has kicked around this basketball game nearly
two decades, figures the time is coming when separate sets of rules will be drawn
for colleges and high schovuls to get away from some "horse-race" effects.

"This modern game, with the center jump eliminated," the veteran coach of Syracuse
basketball said, "is like watching a table tennis match, The ball is always going
back and forth with no stop, It's great to watch, but it puts a severe strain on
the youngsters. Physicians have told us that,"

 

(3) "Effects of Basketball on Junior High School Boys", A. B. Bowyer, M.D. and
N. S. Anderson, as abstracted in fhe Journal of the American Medicel Ass'n,
Vol. 112, No. 15, April 15, 1939, p. 1534.

(4) Buffalo Courier-Express, February 11, 1940,