DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 67 



REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL CULTURE. 



To the President: 



Sir — I have the honor to present the following report of the depart- 

 ment of physical culture for the year just closed, 190o-G. 



The work has been carried on along the two lines, athletics and gen- 

 eral gymnasium work. 



In athletics, the usual teams, baseball, football, basket-ball, track, 

 relay, tennis, wrestling and tumbling, were developed for intercollegiate 

 competition. All of these teams had successful seasons; those in track, 

 football, basket-ball, relay and indoor winning their respective cham- 

 pionships while the baseball and tumbling teams won second and the 

 tennis team third in the yearly competition with the other state col- 

 leges. In order to reach a larger number of men in this branch of the 

 work, class teams in nearly all of these sports were also organized and 

 a regular schedule of interclass games played in each. 



The general gymnasium work of the winter months consisted of regu- 

 lar class work in the armory with the Indian clubs, dumb-bells, bar- 

 bells, free arm exercises as well as the indoor sports of basket-ball, 

 hand-ball, indoor baseball, indoor track athletics, wrestling, tumbling 

 and apparatus work. A class, meeting three times a week, for short 

 course students only, was also offered and about seventy-five of those 

 students took advantage of the opportunity. 



The department promoted and held, on May 19th, on the athletic 

 field an inter-high school field and track meet. Invitations were sent 

 to all the schools of central Michigan, a large number of which ac- 

 cepted and some 500 high school students were in attendance the day 

 of the meet. It is planned to make this meet an annual affair at the 

 college. 



The annual Michigan inter-collegiate field day also was again held 

 on our field. All of the state colleges, which are members of the asso- 

 ciation, entered into the competition and a large crowd of visitors was 

 in attendance during the two days of the meet. 



An effort has been made during the year to reach as large a number 

 of the students as possible. The work offered has been open to all and 

 varied, as far as possible, so that all classes of students might take ad- 

 vantage of some of it. The total enrollment for the year has exceeded 

 700 which, allowing for duplications, gives 300 individuals, a good 

 proportion when it is taken into consideration that the work is entirely 

 optional on the part of the students. 



It is unfortunate, as I mentioned in a previous report, that a large 

 number, in fact a large majority of the physically weak students who 

 need the work most, have not elected to take any of it. The remedy is 

 to require physical examinations and gymnasium work or its equivalent 

 of all students for a certain length of time. This change will be very 



