732 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



player, however fair-minded he may be, makes a good umpire. A 

 man without experience as a player, but yet possessing a quick 

 eye, a decisive will, and a knowledge of the rules of the game, 

 might be a better umpire than the most famous player. 



As to interference by the faculties in the way of measures 

 limiting the game, I have already hinted at one, namely, the re- 

 quiring a certificate of physical soundness for every candidate for 

 athletic honors. I would also limit teams to undergraduates. 

 This measure would bring the teams better under the control of 

 faculty supervision, and would besides put a certain limit to com- 

 petition. In the first place, the professional schools do not exer- 

 cise a strict personal supervision over the students. They assume, 

 and rightly, that a man who commences the study of a profession 

 has begun the serious business of life, and is capable of directing 

 his own time. He may be absent from every exercise of the school 

 except the examinations. Passing those, he can still be a member 

 of the school in good and regular standing. Such a student, when 

 in competition for a place on the team with a member of the under- 

 graduate department, who is held up to attendance on daily exer- 

 cises, has a great advantage over him. His freedom from restraint 

 exercises a pernicious influence on the man who is subject to re- 

 straint. Concert of action between the faculties of undergraduate 

 departments and those of graduate and professional schools in the 

 way of control of any sport is almost impossible from the very 

 circumstances of the case. 



Instead of appointing committees to act with the students in 

 the regulation of the sports, a better way to control them would 

 be the appointment of a director of athletics to a seat in the under- 

 graduate faculty, who should be the medium of communication 

 between the students and the instructors. Such a man ought to 

 have the confidence of the students and be in sympathy with them. 

 He ought also to be a gentleman and a scholar, a graduate of the 

 college, and a man holding its best traditions of righteousness and 

 scholarship sacred. Such a man would be alive to the responsi- 

 bilities of both sides of the scholarship side as represented by the 

 instructors, and of the healthy boy side of student life. I would 

 not have the mangement of athletics taken by him out of the 

 hands of the students, but I would have him help them with ad- 

 vice and with instruction, too, if necessary. I would have him 

 attend the practice games and the races, oversee the coaches and 

 trainers, and watch the players and students. He could prevent, 

 without recourse to " reporting to the faculty," repetitions of 

 mistakes and follies on the part of the students. He could keep 

 out bad men from the list of trainers. He could prevent many a 

 promising lad from wrecking himself by making the excitement 

 of college sport the be-all and end-all of his existence. By his 



