COLLEGE ATHLETICS. 



PROFESSIONALISM IN ATHLETIC EVENTS. 



\V. H. MAXWELL, JR. 



With this issue, Recreation enters a new 

 field, and will deal with college athletics in 

 the same manner as it treats of other 

 branches of sport. Nothing can be suc- 

 cessful unless it has a definite aim, and the 

 aim of " College Athletics " will be to pro- 

 mote in every possible way the best inter- 

 ests of all the athletics of the collegiate 

 world. 



That Recreation has done more to pro- 

 tect the game of this country from indis- 

 criminate slaughter than any other magazine 

 or any individual is acknowledged by all. 

 In the same way it will do its best to keep 

 professionalism of every kind out of college 

 athletics, and to preserve their purely ama- 

 teur character. Professionalism in any sport 

 lowers everyone and everything connected 

 with it. 



An amateur takes up a thing because he 

 loves it. A professional enters a contest for 

 the money there is in it, and reduces it to 

 his own sordid commercial basis. It is an 

 open secret that some of the most promi- 

 nent colleges and universities have at times 

 not only given free tuition to well-known 

 athletes in order to have them entered un- 

 der their banners, but have through the 

 various athletic associations of these institu- 

 tions even paid their living expenses, and 

 given them salaries, charging the whole ex- 

 pense up to advertising. Then American 

 athletes wonder why Englishmen refuse to 

 enter contests with us. The men who are 

 willing to hire out as athletes are usually 

 not quite up to the general standard of the 

 amateur college athlete. The professional 

 has nothing to raise him above his com- 

 mercial interests, and in entering him in a 

 contest his university insults every college 

 with which it competes. 



Except in a few isolated cases it seems 

 impossible for any college to procure the 

 services of a purely amateur coach. This is 

 a hard reality which we Americans have to 

 face, for we have not a large leisure class, 

 as England has. who are willing to give up 

 their time without money compensation, for 

 the advancement of sport. No man who has 

 business interests at stake can afford to 

 spend the time necessary for training a crew 

 or a foot ball team. Every sport has been 

 reduced to a science, and to whip any team 

 into shape, in a thoroughly up-to-date man- 

 ner, a coach must give his days and nights 

 to the work. For the present at least we are 

 forced to put up with professional coaches, 

 but the time is coming when these will be 

 looked down on as are professional con- 

 testants at the present time. 



As Recreation appears but once a month 

 it will be impossible for it to give more than 



criticisms of past contests, and announce- 

 ments of coming events. In criticising it will 

 endeavor to be just and impartial. It will 

 say only what it believes to be for the good 

 of athletics, and will be fair to all. 



If Recreation can be the means of unit- 

 ing all our colleges and universities in a 

 movement tending toward the downfall of 

 professionalism in athletics it wiH consider 

 its purpose well accomplished. Every move 

 it makes will be in this direction, and it 

 invites the co-operation and aid of all to 

 reach this end. 



HOW ABOUT THE '99 BOAT RACES. . 



At the present writing it seems there are 

 to be 2 boat races this season, one at New 

 London, between Yale and Harvard, and the 

 other at Poughkeepsie, between Cornell, 

 Columbia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If 

 Yale does not recede from her position, 

 which is hardly a creditable one, this ar- 

 rangement will surely take effect. 



Coach Courtney of Cornell has made it 

 known, in no uncertain terms, that he will 

 not coach a crew for 2 races to be rowed un- 

 der conditions approaching those of last 

 year. He has also said his crew shall not 

 pull 2 hard races in the same season. This 

 last decision he would probably reconsider 

 if the place for the race could be satisfactorily 

 arranged. Be that as it may, the Cornell 

 coach is right in the stand he has taken, and 

 it is to be hoped nothing may make him 

 recede from that position. If those having 

 Cornell's aquatic arrangements in charge are 

 as weak this year as they were last, and 

 if they yield to other influences, the in- 

 terests of good sport demand that Air. 

 Courtney save them from their folly. When 

 the Ithacan diplomats realize that they are 

 confronted with the alternative of losing 

 Courtney or of rowing one race they will 

 probably screw up their courage to the point 

 of the enforcement of Cornell's demands. 



Without exception the undergraduates of 

 all the rowing universities would like to see 

 one large regatta held, on a fair course. Yale 

 seems to be the only college standing out 

 against such an arrangement. This plan if 

 carried through would show the relative 

 merits of the different crews, but it need not 

 be called a championship contest. Yale has 

 said Harvard is the only antagonist whose 

 scalp she seeks. Such may be the case, but 

 would it not be more sportsmanlike for 

 Yale, in view of her defeats during the past 

 2 years, to give way and withdraw her ob- 

 jections to a 6 cornered race? Harvard 

 would make no objection as she wants to 

 win such a contest. 



It is hard to say just who is to blame for 

 the muddled state of the intercollegiate row- 

 ing situation. If Yale and Cornell can only 



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