23
x My reply to T/Sct. Bell Was Os followss

"I do not know what I an ‘letting myself in on when I answer your quorry of
o& recent date.

"First, I think that it is a general conception that athletes as a whole
are dumber than non-athletes, However, it must be considered that an athlete sponds
two hours a day on intensive training which neny times fatigues him and makes hin less
comprehensive on intensive study. An athlete in order to be eligible for the. varsity
teams must be passing in more than the average hours carried by a non-athleto.

Wet AsUs, I itiauctneae with a number of other educators on tho toxt by
Ginn & Company, Wit her Education in america," my chapter being on Organization and
Administration of Physical Education and Athletics. May I quote from phases of ny
contribution on pages 592 and 593, ,

“tile Hod ets of the thousands of athletes who have: praduated and
have taken their places as worthy citizens, but we hear much about the
undesirable athletes who sift into the institutions and bring then no
credit. Many mon graduate from college and become prominent in the pro-
fessions and in business because of their athlotie inclinations. JAth-
letics and the urge to: play kept them in high school and led them to
college. Even though such a primary motive is insufficiont, in many in-
stances it helps the boy to the PEGP§ larger vision and truer motives.

‘of other undesirable students who matriculate and fail to live up to
college standards, howover,we hear very little. A recent survey was .
_ conducted in one of our Ilid-Western universitios to determine what per- —
. centage of the student body was eligible for athletic competition under >
‘the present ruling of twenty-seven hours of passing work the preceding seme-
sters. The findings were interesting. Out of a total onrollment of 4,082
students, 2,197.were found to be cligible and 1,992 ineligible. But it
was the average of the wonen in class standing that brought | the ‘average of
the student body a little past the 50 percent mark, - Of the! rien. students,
1,240 were eligible and.1,461 were ineligible; of the women, 957 wero eli-
gible, and 531 weré ineligible. Perhaps it is unjust to the athlete to
focus so much attention upon the undesirable reflection that he brings upon
his school when his class grades ronder hin ineligible. for intercollegiate
competition.

"In spite of a mass of such statistics which night be compiled there are
those who see no remedy for theevils of the systen except the abolition of
intercollegiate athletics and the establishnent of an extensive system of
intramurals which will engage the entire student body in a program of play
in their stead. The organization of thé American college is such that a
spirit of rivalry in intranurals could not be ‘sufficiontly aroused to take
the place of intercollogiate: competition, In spite of the fact that nature

‘has endowod us with wonderful powors of substitution, we should have diffi+
culty in finding sonething else to take the place of our great tean games as
‘they are not enshrined in our competitive civilization. Intramurals will al+
“ways be moro or less “fooling ‘play." Competitive athletics will always be
serious play. Even if intranurals could supply, in the physical education
program, the need for recreation, and at tho sane tine buiid up the physical
body so thit it can successfully'mect life's demands, with tnerevenuo fron
athlotics taken away, there would be small chance for an appreciable systen
of intranurals to exist. The sole source of revenue for athletic and play
‘purposes in many of our colleges is from the gate receipts of football ganes.
Especially is this sacar inal true. in. the, ablloges of” the: Souths Et seems