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Show BETTER ACTION ASKED OF FANS AthPt;c Eircctors Want to Keep Football Clean. Athletic directors of the ten west era cont'cri nee universities have issued is-sued a joint letter calling on funs to keep their pari of football as clean and sincere as the players keep theirs Gambling, ticket scalping and vio lation of the laws must be banished ft om football, at least in the confer ence, the letter declares. Football, it goes on, must be freed from t lie criticism criti-cism that has been leveled against it i'ii these scores, and that will still be leveled against it if they continue, whether the wrongdoers are students or. us is oftener the case, nonsludent n.oi ers. ".ntercollegiate football has been criticise' d considerably in recent years because of evils incident in the tremendous tre-mendous public interest in the sport," the joint letter states. "Football in the weitcrn conference, as well as football elsewhere, has recently been subjected to attack. "More specilieally, objection has been taken to making big college football foot-ball games the occasion for gambling and betting on the games and for ticket scalping. These lapses seem to he most evident at homecoming and other important contests involving the travel of considerable numbers of. followers fol-lowers of one or both teams. "It goes almost without saying that no genuinely loyi.1 follower of western conference football would, consciously do anything to injure the prestige it has rightfully enjoyed, and the conference, con-ference, on its part, is anxious to do everything in its power to maintain the high -standards it has set, and to improve them where possible. "Appeal is being made, therefore, by the ten directors of athletics on behalf of the western conference and all that it stands for that the hun-dredj hun-dredj of thousands of loyal followers of its football and other sports will see their opportunity to help keep intercollegiate athletics on the highest high-est possible plane. Such support of high character from students, alumni and the public is just as essential to intercollegiate athletics as is honorable honor-able and sportsmanlike conduct on the playing Held." |