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Show ! SPEAKING OF I SPORTS iji By ROBERT McSHANE I (lmd by WatUm Ntwtpapw Unfc v 17HEN Ogden D. Miller, new " chairman of the athletic council coun-cil at Yale, put commercialized big-time big-time football on the pan he merely added fuel to an argument which has been waging for the past 15 years. Fresh from witnessing Old Eli's recent 50 to 7 defeat by Penn, Miller told the New York Football Writers association that "college athletics and even school athletics in my opinion are at a critical stage . . . Intercollegiate football is now reaching reach-ing a peak of emphasis In many colleges col-leges which it reached elsewhere many years ago." The opinion expressed by Miller is receiving much serious thought from a majority of those individuals in the gridiron business. Most of them admit ad-mit that there is entirely too much proselyting, recruiting and paying for good players. Miller's ideas aren't new. Robert Hutchins, president presi-dent of the University of Chicago-one Chicago-one of the nation's outstanding educational edu-cational mills gave voice to the same thoughts last year when he announced that his institution was withdrawing from football competition competi-tion in the Big Ten conference. Two-Sided Question To be sure, the paying of football players is not condemned unanimously. unani-mously. Many ask, "Why shouldn't a poor boy who can play football have his way paid through college especially when gate receipts may total more than $200,000 per game?" Perhaps the big-time football player play-er should be paid, especially If the college feels that way about it. But those colleges should play among themselves. The play-for-pay athlete ath-lete is one of the top-notchers in his line. Otherwise he wouldn't be drawing a salary. But obviously it is unfair to match a semi-pro team against a team selected from a simon-pure student body. That kind of competition is beneficial to neither party. The kind and amount of help given giv-en players varies tremendously. The player may be granted an alumni "loan" or he may be given a block of tickets to sell for each game. A wealthy and influential grad may get him a summer job at a salary sufficient to care for expenses during dur-ing the academic year. Tangled Deals It is no exaggeration to state that at least two-thirds of the better players play-ers belong to the proselyted group, one way or another. The coach or the college itself may have had nothing noth-ing to do with the financial dealings. deal-ings. Indeed, in many cases they might be in complete ignorance of the transactions. The deal may have been made with the boy or with his father, neither of whom would be likely to talk about it. College football Is big time. In two months it draws far more spectators spec-tators than big league baseball does in a season three times as long. Baseball teams can lose dozens of games and still draw customers. College teams must win consistently consistent-ly to keep the turnstiles clicking. With so many enormous stadia dotting dot-ting the nation's landscape, it is obvious ob-vious that there are bills to be paid. Winning football teams can pay those bills. Hired football players help insure winning teams. No college wants to pay its players. play-ers. And because of that the solution solu-tion may come automatically. Part of the answer is in conference schedules. sched-ules. The Ivy league stays close to its own boundaries. The Big Ten gets around considerably more, but manages to play colleges with the same scholastic ranking and a similar simi-lar code of ethics. Retaliation Some colleges have seen fit to retaliate re-taliate against the Southeastern conference con-ference for its realistic attitude on the problems of recruiting and subsidization. sub-sidization. Notre Dame, for instance, is dropping its game with Georgia Tech next year. Dartmouth canceled can-celed a game with Georgia on the ground that it could provide no suitable suit-able place to play in late season. There would be little soiled linen washed publicly if teams with about the same scholastic ranking and ethics eth-ics played among themselves. Then, If one conference believed in the open subsidization of players, there would be no one to shriek "unfair." By the same token,- those schools completely free from professionalism professional-ism would be matched more evenly. There is little doubt but that conference con-ference supervisors will exert more authority in the future. It will be up to them to see that schools within their circuit obey both the spirit and letter of regulations. When that situation sit-uation arrives, collegiate football no longer will be subject to the numerous numer-ous attacks now directed against it Sport Shorts All Bauman, Northwestern university univer-sity tackle, who played 56 minutes against Ohio State, came out of the game weighing 13 pounds less than when he started . . . The Marquette Mar-quette university Hilltoppers, In Milwaukee, Mil-waukee, named schafskopf as their favorite card game ... A football record book credits the longest kick to Al Braga of the University of San Francisco 89 yards, in 1937 . . . Bob Friedlund, Michigan State's right end. is a talented pianist. |