Lawson:

Allens

Lawson:

Allens

woe

Well, Dre Allon, of course you aro teaching a competitive sport,
and you naturally want to win = and you have won far more than your
sharee But in doing so I want to kmow if your boys have onjoyod
playing, or if they have had to sacrifice this to the necessity of
winninge I have wonderod sometimos, too, if you have not had to
demand too much of your boys in exccssive physical strains ond in
excessive time for practice at tho oxpense of other school work and
social obligations, And there arc same people who question whether
competitive sports build charactor as much as you fecl they doe

Dean Lawson, in all of my teaching of basketball, my paramount
intcrest has been the building of morale, and you cannot build
moralo unless you teach education fundamentally. Those fundamentals
are loyalty to the institution, loyalty to tho group, sclf-abstin-
ence from the things that injure the body machine. I often tcll my
players what Maude Royden, the great English sociologist, onco saids
"You carmot break Nature's laws, but you can break yourself against
Nature's lawse" Of course, we first loarn fundamentals, and the
fundamentals of basketball are eamparable to the fundomontals of
livinge Onc must have a buoyant, adventurous spirit to attack any
problome Such spirit gives yoise for doing a thing superblye This
ability, our modern culture prizese These modern skills executed
in on oxceptional way will give the individunl an opportunity under
trained leadership to soc and to appreciate both his own unique
physical strength and weaknesses, and gives him a method whereby he
can plan to usc this knowledgo throughout life.

Well, Dre Allon, in reply to that I want to say something you
don't know I'm going to say. Ian glad to state that in my judgnent
you have been tremendously successful in doing what you say is your
chiof aim in teaching baskotball = nancly, to build character, In
spite of the time your boys must put on basketball to win the cone
tinuous championships they do, I am proud to note that by and large
they are good students, and the grades of your squads are sanething
you may take pride in, in addition to thoir championshipse Besides,
I an proud of tho standards of personal behavior and social respon-
sibility which your teams down through the yoars have possossede I
have learned by personal contact, in a nuabor of individual cases,
that you have taught your boys that the way to solve life's diffi-
cultics is not to run away from thom but to look thom in the eyo and
faco thom. Conscquontly, you have been able to help boys not only
to win an uphill fight in a championship race, but also have made
some of these same boys determined to win an uphill fight whon
scholastic and financial and personal problems have socmod too greate

Thank you very much, Dean Lawson. This last statomcent of yours
was wholly a surprise to mo. However, I do want you to mow that I
genuinely appreciate your romarks, I want you to Imow that I learn
as much from my boys, perhaps, as I endeavor to toaeh theme An
incident came up in our championship game with Oklahona at Norman
this past seasonthat I shall never forgete Sylvester Schmidt,
honor student and our coscaptain, was assigned the god of beating