OCR Text |
Show COLUMBIA 8S DEGENERATE IN SCHOLASTIC ATS1LETSCS NEW YORK, March 26. Tho ques- f tion is .being asked here whether Co- i lumbia will become a home for consumptives con-sumptives or a lounging place for all tho weaklings of tho cast side who boast of brain without accompanying muscle, j Why is there so much apathy at Columbia? Co-lumbia? Why are athletics so half dead at a unfvcrsily so large, numbering number-ing its student body in such big numbers? num-bers? , The latost announcement is that the bastkctball team has played its last game as representative of Columbia. Tnis was not unlookod for. Ti was, on tho other hand, expected. Finances arc at a low stato nt Columbia. Tho rule is that no sport shall be encouraged which does not pay for itself. There's the nub of the whole thing, expenses and finances. There was once a time when Colum bin was foremost among the colleges and universities of the United States in an athletic way. JTor football and baseball base-ball toams. her track men and her swim-j swim-j mors were among the verv best. Suc- cess smiled on Columbia and men spoke : her uame in whisper?. The regime of Foster Sanford. while bad in many respeets, worked wonders towards success. His football elevens held their own with the strongest in the land. Success turned the heads of Columbia Co-lumbia men. That's all they saw success, suc-cess, success, victory. The fair goddess god-dess shone iu.to their eyes until they were blinded. Men were imported into New York for her nthlotic toams. At least, such was the cry. Her elevens became practically prac-tically professional teams, according lo the critics. Football itself was in 0 bad way. The hue and crv by the unthinking un-thinking that it was brutalized bv the ; heavy mass plays made a decided impression im-pression upou tho head of the university univer-sity in Gotham, .and with one fell sw'oop folotball was wiped from the sralc at Columbia. Her elevens, good or bad, according to the way you look at it, became a mere mattor of university history. A 1- fill pnllnrrfic fnr!lmll 5c fhn coriAr of the minor sports. Look over all tho American colleges and universities and see the groat number of minor sports which are supported by football. Many a man would bo unable to engage in lacrosse, rowing, basketball! swimming, track sport, gymnastic exhibitions and many others of the minor sports, were it not for the varsity eleven. Football provides the money with which tho minor sports fire supported nt about all the colleges in this country. When Columbia abolished football she began on the downward path in other sports. The rule that the minor sports must start each year with clean fin an rial slate means a great deal more than appears. It means that many men. not built physically for football, must forego college athletics because they have not the money to keep their own sport alive. And that's .just the situation situa-tion nt Columbia. Instead of facing the situation and bettering it. Columbia did away with the difficulties. She should have faced football as did tho other colleees. Har vard wavered, so it is said, but finally took a hand in the reformation of the I Amoriean college's greatest outdoor sport, the ,oue game which enables the minor teams to exist. Today foothall never was in a healthier health-ier state. Tho wiso nion tinkered with the rules until now the game may be understood bv almost any one at all interested. The plays may be seen from beginning to end. ' No Harvard men today say that football is brutal. Tt isn't brutal, as a matter of fact. It is , a hard game, requiring participants who are built for it. to be sure; but it is not brutal. It is a man's game, to bo ployed by men. Columbia must bring -back her football foot-ball elevens if she is to remaiu in the athletic world. She must, again have her success on tho gridiron if she is to have baseball nines, crews on the water, basketball fives, fencing teams aud gymnastic squads. Columbia, is sit nated in a large city where college spirit, as generally understood suffers much From outside attractions. It is a hardship, too much of a hardship hard-ship to be overcome, to havo the students stu-dents digging down into their clothes every time there is a deficiency in the treasury ot some minor team. Yet that is the custom at; Columbia. The basketball team needs money; there is a collection. The crow needs monej'; there is a collection. The swimming swim-ming team needs money: there ,is a collection. With a football eleven playing the game as it is played today. Columbia athletics would flourish in no uncertain manner. It is bound to come, football at Columbia Tntorclnss games will surely be followed by intercollegiate contests. But it is to bo hoped that those intercollegiate contests will como before athletics are dead at Columbia from mere want of money. |