Allen-- Plumley-- Allen-- Plumley-- ADIO PROGRAM PHYSICAL EDUCATION FOR HEALTH December 2, 1937. "BASKETBALL AND ITS EFFECTS UPON HEALTH." Is league competitive basketball beneficial or detrimental to the health of the growing boy? The majority of research investigators concur that competitive play is injurious to the junior high school boy as it affects detrimentally both the physical and nervous systems of the youngstor. However for the senior high school athlete and for the college competitor in good physical condition the game seems to improve the strength of the heart and the blood vascular systems as well as its closely allied neigh- bor, the nervous system. When an athlete has finished his four years of college competition and continues to play so-called amateur or independent basketball for any length of timo, the nervous system and the kidneys then show unmistakably the wear and tear of this very strenuous game. Basket~ ball has been blessed by many professorial investigating minds which have determined both its present and its future. Throughout the years we have had such men as Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of the game, Dre Josoph Raycroft, formorly of the University of Chicago and now at Princeton, Mr. L. We Ste John, of Ohio State University, William McKinley Barber of Yalco University, Dr. John Brown of the Y.M.C.A. of New York City, George T. Hepbron and E. A. Metzdorf, of Brooklyn, E. Je Hickox of Springfield College, Oswald Tower of Andover, Masse, and Floyd A. Rowe: of the Cleve- land Public Schools to nurture and to guide the destinies of the game. Some of the younger men who have made a definite contribution are John VW, Bunn of Stanford University, and He V. Porter, secretary of the Illinois High School Athletic Association. In pure research the investigator will attack any problem anywhere thet appeals to his fancy, and he is not con- cerned as to whether his findings will or will not have a practical use for humanity. In practical research the investigator narrows his fiold to the selection of practical problems. These problems must be submitted to the scrutinies of the investigator in order that in the end there may be an improvement of conditions. Dr. Allen, what augmented these investigations? Thore must have been much criticism of basketball before these research mon went to work. Just what caused this research activity and whet were the findings? Well, Jay, some years ago Dre J» H. McCurdy, of Springficld College, Spring- field, Mass. conducted a series of critical investigations upon his Spring- field College athletes, and the findings showed that 87% of the players had traces of heart and kidney straine Yes, Dr. Allen, but isn't it true that these Springfield College men, or most of them, had already played high school and college basketball? Most of them graduated from colleges giving the A.B. degree and then matricu- lated at Springfield College where physical directors and athletic coaches are trained. Wasn't Springfield College one of the first pioneers in A- merican training of physical directors?