a few instances professors and governing bodies have been corrupted by 

 the overweening desire to win at all costs, and winked at, or even 

 actively promoted, these questionable practices. One professor in a uni- 

 versity with no great reputation, save in athletics, frankly told me that, 

 in allotting scholarships, he gave them to the best football players. 

 When I asked him if that were not tantamount to professionalism, he 

 replied: "I don't care whether it is or not; I'm going to build up the 

 team." 



An abuse that was very hard to reach was the practice of rich alumni 

 in putting a boy through college and picking athletes as subjects of their 

 liberality. I know of one graduate of a small college who hired and paid 

 for almost the entire football squad and he got his money's worth, for 

 that team won all its games. However, when our committee was first 

 appointed, these evils had not shown themselves and they crept in upon 

 us before we had awakened to the possibility of such practices. For a 

 time, the wool was very successfully pulled over our eyes and we in- 

 dignantly denied accusations which afterwards turned out to be true, 

 much to our mortification. 



There were two features in student life at Princeton which lent them- 

 selves marvellously to athletic abuses, so much so that some of our 

 rivals refused to believe that they had not been instituted to facilitate 

 the evil practices. In truth, however, both of these features long ante- 

 dated organised athletics. The first of these was the system of eating 

 clubs, which were temporary affairs, changing every year, though 

 sometimes a club lasted through a student generation of four years. 

 An undergraduate would make a contract with a boarding house 

 keeper to form a club of so many members, who were each to pay so 

 much a week. The usual weekly price of board was from $3.00 to $3.50; 

 a rate of $4.00 was luxury and one of $5.00 princely extravagance. The 

 manager who formed and recruited the club received his board in 

 return for his services and boarding house keepers preferred athletes as 

 managers, for they were the best recruiting agents. 



The second feature, alluded to above, was that of "partial course" 

 students. Men who wished to spend a year or more at college, without 

 attempting to take a degree, were put in this class. Such men, after- 

 wards called "Special Students, not Candidates for a Degree," were 

 admitted without entrance examinations; they simply paid some small 

 fees and were enrolled without further ceremony. It can readily be seen 

 how easy it was to smuggle in "ringers" and "rounders" and other 

 athletic tramps, and how men who had already graduated could be 



