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Show I Seeiy and Morri&Sfar Football Players. lSFvc University. Uni-versity. i $ ACULTY IS CONFRONTED :' WITH "ATHLETIC H0B0;;.j i . j Players Travel About Country; : as .Students lo Play Fool- . i ' ; I ! ! C. C. Socly and Tfcd ' ' Morris, two of i he center trio of t lie university foot- ( ball squad of 1907. have dropped out ; , of school within the past week. Their j i action in doiiip this has rained the same j i question which was raised a year apto , I.IL I III; llllll 11311,1 , limn . I a substitute halfback on the varsity squad, left the .school hoc loris after i the football season had ended. This action' by football men. who have plavcd an important part in, the career of ihe school on the uridirnn, has apain revived the discussion on -the eligibility, rules enforced bv the faculty of the university, the feature of tho rule being its stringency, dunncr the football season and its absolute failure ro operate during- the period while a man is not playing ov trying out lor a position on an athletic ream. The. eligibility rule enforced by the jiicultv tf the univeinity requires that a student Shall carrv at least ton hours of school work successfully, o.r.in case, In- carries- over lift ecu hours of work. that at least two-thirds of that work , shall bo above a passing grade. A gen- oral understanding with schools of the. , intcrnuniufnin country is that a man 1 shall not. play more than four years oi football as 'a college student. . i 1 The rule enforced by the faculty oi ' the University of Utah with regard to carrying a prescribed amount of work ; I is said to bo one of the most stringent ; t enforced by any af the Western niii- 1 i crsities. 'Stringent as it is. it must I necessarily work a hardship on the foot- ' ; bail man." for it requires that during, that period when ho 13 putting forth j ' his most strenuous phyaieul olTort that he must aho be putting forth stn-nu- ' vs mental effort. The rule soems a 1 little unfair to the athlete as well as ; 1 be professor in that a gauge of the , mau s standing must bo made every j week or two -iust preceding a big coii-il test, aud during such a period when thc.i nervous tcn-ion is highest, -it might be : fair to the man to permit him to allow' his studies to slide a little until his nervous strain had been relieved. ' IEulc Is Unfair. Pill flier, the rule does not treat the man who is participatyig in athletics hi the same manner that tho ordinary student, is -treated. The athlete must pass muster at any minute, while tho ordinary student ir. only brought, into the limelight when his work is exceptionally ex-ceptionally poor, or about twice in a contest cr wVn an 'in c-Gtigulio.ii is made of the standing of all students in the school. - Besides working a hardship 011 tho H' athlete the rule as it now stands does H, not protect the school in the manner B. that It in intended to. There is noth- BH ing in tho rule that will prevent tho . HB, "athletic hobo" from joiuing the foot- BHj ball squad, so long as he shall do his ' BH school wo.k .iiinny tho football season. 1 BK There' is nothing iu the rule which will I BHl prevent a student from taking the same 1 BH work over each year so Jong as he ahull BB pass muster during that particular part BH of the season in 'which his athletic BH' events occur, BBt The. faculty of tho university has rea- BBfj lizcd this defect in it, ruin and it has BB also recognized the fact that tho clig- BH ibility rule wna too stringunt, hence an BH' effort 12 now Ixiing made to change the BBjli rule toy tncct . Die oue-condition, while j action in tho past has beon toward a ! liberal interpretation of the rule so that its spirit has been put into effect more I than its literal meaning. Owing to the fact thai until Coach , I Joe Ma'ddock took hold of athletics. I there was little about the school which ' would attract outside athletes, and also I owing to the fact that there has been I no possible source of money for which athletes with other than a purely amateur ama-teur purposes could come there has been little of the "athletic hobo" manifest about-the school. There are but two instances 111 tho history of the school that taud out in a peculiar light. These cases are those of 15. Ti, McKonna ; and C. C. Seely. Both were good foot- ball men who "drifted in from nowhere ' and us son as the football season was I over drifted out again. Both mcu ful-I ful-I filled the eligibility rules iu force by I doing the prescribed work, care hnv-j hnv-j iiig been made by thorn previously to take extremely easy courses, en that with little exertion they could toe the ' mark. But both men left school, tho j one a-few houiH after the football sea-1 sea-1 son ended, and the other a few weeks j later. ! The only explanation oflered for their 1 leaving is the fat that students who aro not athletes drop out. of school right aloug aiid that because a football man llrbps out. 110 particular attention should be called to" the fact. Sitrh action by men in leaving school works a hardship on oth,cr athletes whose motives mo-tives arc entirely difforcut. The most striking instanci of this occurred last fall, when a vigorous article on university uni-versity football was published in one of the school papers. Subsequent in- , vestigution and developments have shown that the article titled sScely perfectly, per-fectly, but "Dad" Conville, to whom ; many also believed the article re- 1 ferml. was mado to suffer by the at- tai-k. His electioii as captain of tho ! 190S football team has, however. Served ; to vindicate him. One method of solving the eligibility question has so far been suggested by . members of the univeisity faculty. Professor Overstrom and Or. Merrill, members of the athletic council of the university, have conic forward with -a plan, which,' though original with both I covers much the same ground. The rule ' which -they will urge when the commit- tee 011 student affairs files its .tindings is that students shall bo pornrittod to 1 represent tho school for one semester tm4Ii.mi( 'in.- rnf.iil"T- iliTi.rPi.TV.Tiiin in-n. 1 vided that during the previous semester , which the studenl attended school, ho must have attained a passing grade in j a prescribed amount of work, and fur-j fur-j ther that the record of every candidate for anv athletic position shall be inves-j inves-j ligated at the opening of tho season j when that student shall present his 'Scholastic record for the approval of ! the university faculty. |
