College Athletics

A QUARTER of a century ago the only indication at our colleges of interest in athletics was to be found in the roughand-tumble game of foot-ball and the annual boat-races. Athletic contests, in the narrow sense to which the phrase is technically limited, were unheard of. Systematic training at the gymnasium, for the purpose of uniform bodily development; organizations for the improvement of the various out-door games which are of interest to player and public; contests between teams or sets of players of different classes, or of different colleges; foot-races and similar exhibitions of individual prowess,— all were neglected, or were totally unknown. The admirable work done today at the gymnasium was then impossible, because much of the machinery now in use had not been invented. There were not sufficient numbers interested in the walking, running, and leaping contests between individual amateurs to bring forward either prizes or candidates for the annual competitions. Baseball and foot-ball as then played furnished only suggestions for the games of to-day. Lacrosse was unknown as a college game, and tennis had not become fashionable. In short, there has grown up at our colleges, during this period, a new department, which thrives in proportion to the encouragement given by the faculties, but which thrives even where it is discouraged by official frowns. This department is almost exclusively under the charge of the students, and the first tiling that strikes the attention of the investigator is its wonderful organization. Not only are the various crews, teams, and sets of players under the leadership of captains, but each game has its representative association, which in turn forms part of a comprehensive organization, whose function it is to supervise in a general way the affairs of all. This tendency is also shown in the systematic character of the gymnastic exercises, and in the wonderful contests, restrained by rule, and managed with generalship and strategy, which have crystallized out of the rude and boisterous games which boys formerly played for fun and for exercise.

These changes have been so great, the interest taken by the student and the public is so prominent, the influence exerted by them is so manifest, that the question to what extent college faculties should encourage athletic contests and intercollegiate games has become a subject for public discussion. Many participate in this discussion who know but little of the actual condition of athletics in our colleges, but who predicate their opinions upon college life as they formerly knew it; theorizing upon the effects which they believe to have been wrought by these changes. Possibly a more complete knowledge of the subject would not alter the preconceived notions of such disputants, but the attention given by the press to the games and the thousands who flock to see them testify to a public interest in the matter, which will welcome any contribution to the knowledge of these affairs. The gymnasium, with its ladders, bars, and swinging rings, its rowing, fencing, and sparring rooms, and perhaps also its bowling alleys, is today an essential part of a thoroughly equipped college. In charge of it is placed an educated man, — a member, perhaps, of the faculty, — whose duty it is to examine physically any student who may submit himself for the purpose, and to prescribe the amount and character of exercise desirable for the person thus examined. To accomplish the uniform development of all the muscles of the body, to counteract cases of abnormal development, and to overcome cases of abnormal weakness, movements of weights of various sizes, in every conceivable direction and from all sorts of attitudes, are prescribed.

The contestants in the various races and games find in the gymnasium, at all seasons of the year, the opportunity and the means to maintain the physical conditions essential for success. Here, also, the young man of sedentary habits can take the gentler exercise adapted to his condition ; and here, in friendly competition, the vigorous youth, who seeks only amusement in his exercise, can vault, and leap, and test his strength with many a willing competitor. Taken in hand in this manner, the gymnasium is of the same value to all the students, whatever their physical state. Only the best of results can follow from such intelligent exercise. This is especially true in the case of those whose habits of life are sedentary, and who are physically feeble. Encouraged and directed by competent authority, they take suitable exercise, and are restrained from competition with their more vigorous companions, which might prove equally disastrous with total neglect. If to the foregoing it be added that prizes are occasionally offered by apostles of muscular development for the student who shall show the greatest gain within a given period, it will be understood how important a position the gymnasium has assumed in the modern college.

Almost equally essential with the gymnasium is a field for games, large enough for a foot-ball, a base-ball, a lacrosse, and a cricket ground, and also for a number of lawn - tennis courts. Towards this field, each afternoon when the weather permits, the current of players will set from the college yard. Clad in the uniforms of their respective clubs, or as fancy dictates, the effect of the many-colored garments of the players upon the eye of the spectator is at once pleasing and attractive. Knickerbocker suits, bright-colored stockings, gaudy caps, white canvas shoes, and merino shirts or flannel blouses, either white or of the college colors, — such are the prevailing characteristics of the costumes of the players.

Rows of seats line the field, and so general is the interest in the contests that even when ordinary practice games are going on there is a fair sprinkling of spectators in these seats.

The most popular game, not only with the students, but also with the public, is base-ball. It of course needs no description, the game as played by the college nines being identical with that played by the professional clubs.

The intercollegiate contest which attracts the greatest attention, is the source of the greatest expense, and has been the most roundly abused, but in which, at the same time, the college pride is most conspicuously aroused, is the annual boat-race. The details of the races have for years been telegraphed over the country, and public attention has been so thoroughly called to them that many who never saw a shell can discuss the last Oxford and Cambridge or Harvard and Yale race.

Lawn tennis, although so recent a candidate for popular favor, has already won for itself a position from which it cannot easily be dislodged. It demands little strength from the player, but calls for dexterity in serving the ball, agility in receiving it, rapid decision in determining whether the service should be returned or will defeat itself by falling outside the court, and great restraint in batting, when under the excitement of quick play, so as to avoid sending the ball beyond the limits of the court. The advantage of the game is that the small size of the courts permits great numbers of them to be laid out without interfering with the other games ; and further, so few players are required for a set that games can be organized by those who are at liberty, and need the exercise, at hours when some of the members of the nines and elevens will be sure to be engaged in the recitation room.

Why lawn tennis should have slumbered so long, to be revived now with such vigor, it is difficult to say. Strutt asserts that tennis courts were common in the sixteenth century. He describes a picture of the game published in 1658, with players serving the ball over a line, and also says, “ We have undoubted authority to prove that Henry VII. was a tennis player. In a manuscript register of his expenditures, made in the thirteenth year of his reign, and preserved in the remembrancer’s office, this entry occurs : ' Item, for the king’s loss at tennis, twelvepence ; for the loss of balls, threepence.’ Hence we may infer that the game was played abroad, for the loss of the balls would hardly have happened in a tennis court.” In other words, the game was substantially the lawn tennis of to-day, and not the game with the covered court. The difference between the net and the rope is not essential to the game, as the rule in each case requires that the service shall be “over,” — a rule the infraction of which is inevitably disclosed by the net, but which might be avoided if a rope were used.

Lacrosse ¹ as a collegiate game is yet in its youth. It is of Indian origin, and henee has the right to claim that it is distinctively American.

Between the years 1760 and 1776, Alexander Henry, a trader, was engaged in traffic and travel in Canada and in the Indian territories. He thus describes the game of “ Baggatiway, called by the Canadians le jeu de la crosse : ” “ It is played with a bat and ball, the but being about four feet in length, curved, and terminated in a sort of racket. Two posts are placed in the ground a considerable distance from each other, say a mile or more. Each party has its post, and the game consists in throwing the ball up to the post of the adversary. At the beginning the ball is placed in the middle of the course, and each party endeavors as well to throw the ball out of the direction of his own post as into that of the adversary.” At the siege of Detroit, in May, 1763, Pontiac, according to Parkman, made use of a game of ball, “ the better to cover his designs.” That this game was lacrosse is evident from the account, given in a note, of a tradition that Pontiac himself gave an Ojibway girl, whom he suspected of having betrayed him, “ a severe beating with a species of racket such as the Indians used in ball play.” Henry was at Michillimackinac on the 4th of June, 1763, when the garrison of that fort was massacred; and although he did not see the game of Baggatiway, by means of which the Indians, under a chief named Minararana, lulled the suspicions of the soldiers and gained entrance to the fort, he gives a long account of how this was accomplished. “ Nothing could be less liable,” he says, “ to excite premature alarm than that the ball should be tossed over the pickets of the fort, nor that, having fallen there, it should be followed, on the instant, by all engaged in the game, as well the one party as the other, all eager, all struggling, all shouting, all in the unrestrained pursuit of a rude athletic exercise. Nothing could be less likely to excite premature alarm. Nothing could be more happily devised, under the circumstances, than a stratagem like this ; and this was in fact the stratagem which the Indians had employed, and by which they had obtained possession of the fort.”

special craze, which was to identify Indian customs with those of the ancients, devotes some pages, in his quaint and pedantic way, to prove that the game was nothing more nor less than one called by Pollux Episcyre.

Jonathan Carver, “ a captain of the provincial troops in America,” visited the spot in 1766, and in the book of travel which he published he gives an account of the surprise of the garrison. In his description of the game he says, “It is played by large companies, that sometimes consist of more than three hundred.” The posts are fixed in the ground, “about six hundred yards apart.” “ They ” — the Indians — “ are so exceedingly dexterous in this manly exercise that the ball is usually kept flying in different directions by the force of the rackets, without touching the ground during the whole contention.” Notwithstanding the fact that severe accidents frequently happen, they seem never to provoke spite. “ Nor,” he adds, “ do any disputes ever happen between the parties.”

As played to-day, the number of players on each side is limited to twelve. Crosses, similar to those described by Henry, are used for batting and throwing the ball. Two flag-staffs, six feet high and six feet apart, are planted at each end of the field, the length of which will vary with the skill of the players. The ball, which during the game cannot be touched by the hand, must be driven between these posts, in order to score a goal. The players are distributed over the field in such positions that each player is faced by an opponent. The game is opened by the ball being placed in the centre of the field, and the two men stationed there begin the struggle for its possession as soon as the game is called. The players acquire great dexterity in throwing and catching the ball with their rackets. To secure a throw during the game, when opposed by an adversary who is endeavoring by every means to dislodge the ball, requires great skill and self-control. The player must still shape the direction of its flight, even when compelled to wield his cross in a constrained or unnatural position. The way in which some players succeed in thus projecting the ball towards the desired goal, in spite of the efforts of their opponents to disturb them, is remarkable, and attracts the attention of the observer more, perhaps, than the neat way in which they catch it in their rackets, their adroit methods of picking it up with their crooks alone, or even the great distances which they are enabled to project it. Great skill is also requisite to retain the ball on the flat net of the racket, while running across the field over which the opposing force is scattered; but the capacity to do this is an element of good play. It is not improbable that this game will become popular among our collegians. It has not as yet had time to assert all its claims for approval. It is plain, however, that it calls for grace, skill, and agility in the player.

Why cricket should be so popular in England, and prove such a failure with our young men, is inexplicable; but, notwithstanding the organization of cricket elevens, and the attempts made from time to time to create an interest in the game, we do not seem to have been able as yet to develop good cricket players. Nevertheless, cricket clubs are kept up, and a languid interest in the game is maintained, which may at some future time develop into vigorous life.

Hare and hounds associations, either independently or under the management of the athletic associations, exist at many of our colleges. Their meets furnish an interesting run for the hares and the twenty or thirty hounds who pursue them, and the send-off is a pretty sight. The hares are given a suitable start. They carry with them bags filled with small bits of paper, from which, as they run, they sprinkle their path with pieces, to give a distinct clue to the hounds. When fairly out in the country they exercise the utmost ingenuity to perplex the pursuing hounds : choosing routes which lead through brush and bog; now in at the window of some barn or outhouse, and out at a hole in the side or floor ; over hedge and through ditch, across brook and river, until the spot is reached where the scent bags are abandoned, — the sign to the hounds that the run is over and that they can make their best time to the goal.

The interest in this sport is maintained not only by the general competition between hares and hounds, but also by the spirit of emulation which prevails among the hounds as to the order of their arrival at goal, on their return.

Bicycle clubs are to be found at most of the colleges. The number who have the taste for this form of exercise, and who can afford to purchase the expensive machines necessary for its indulgence, is limited. In the neighborhood of our colleges, wherever the roads are level, young men will be met, bestriding their bicycles, and with easy, gentle motion traversing the highways which penetrate the surrounding country. The interest taken in the bicycle clubs is not general, but to those who are in position to join them there is much pleasure to be derived from these afternoon excursions, and much benefit to be gained from the exercise.

The game which, next to base-ball, attracts the student is foot-ball : not the game prohibited in Great Britain by edict of Edward III., nor that of which Strutt quaintly remarks, “ When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each others’ shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs ; ” nor is it exactly like the game into which Tom Brown was plunged, so soon after his arrival at Rugby. Strutt would find very little kicking of shins in the game of to-day, — very little kicking, indeed, of any sort; and instead of the whole school mustering on the ground, Tom Brown would find only eleven on each side.

The game as played to-day requires generalship on the part of the captain, and discipline on the part of the team. Avoirdupois and strength are at a premium for rushing, blocking, and tackling ; fleetness of foot for running with the ball; and skill in kicking for sending the clumsy oval whirring through the air at the exact angle and line that shall carry it over the bar and between the posts of the adversary’s goal.

As the game progresses, a wise captain can detect the weak points in the opposing team, and can utilize his own forces so as to take advantage of them. He can, for a purpose, strengthen his rushers at the expense of weakening the defenses of his goal. He can, from time to time, change the tactics of his halfbacks; now urging them to run with the ball, and again, if he finds the tackling of his adversary so perfect that he can gain no ground by this, causing the ball to be punted before the kicker is menaced by a tackle. But while it is true that the influence of the captain in the previous training and in the management of the team during the game is necessarily great, and may be decisive, it is also true that there is no game played at the colleges which offers such opportunities for brilliant individual play as foot-ball. A successful run with the ball, a fortunate escape from an impending capture, a quick punt in the face of a threatened tackle, an adroit check of some disaster, perhaps the overthrow by a light weight of a heavy rusher, who is rapidly nearing the goal line with the ball in his arms, — all these are readily appreciated by the spectators, who watch the fluctuations of the game with as much interest as the players themselves, and who invariably greet a brilliant individual play in a match game with cheer upon cheer for the lucky player who has made it. A handsome check of an attempt to break through the line of rushers, in a scrimmage ; a successful tackle in the field ; a fortunate pass of the ball when running, beset by the opposing side; in short, any good play, whether by the team or by individuals in it, is recognized, and received with hearty, enthusiastic applause. Rewards of this nature make a position on the eleven desirable to the student; and were it not for the streak of brutality which has run through some of the matches, it might be doubted whether foot-ball would not usurp the present popularity of base-ball. If that element can ever be held in complete check by any system of rules, it may well be that the greater elasticity of the game, together with the chance that it affords for a display of tactics on the part of the leader, and for brilliant individual play on the part of the members of the team, will win for it the position in the affection of the students which it will then fairly deserve.

Hundreds who do not understand foot-ball flock to see the match games in the intercollegiate contests, and easily comprehend enough of their strategy and management to derive enjoyment from them. With a knowledge of the rules of the game, with a thorough understanding of the position of affairs as it moves along, and with an appreciation of what constitutes good play comes that livelier satisfaction and keener enjoyment which inspires the student to an enthusiasm in which even the disinterested spectator must participate.

Hazlitt quotes from a letter written in March, 1560, the following sentiment, which, when applied to our college matches, is equally true to-day : —

“ You may do well, if you have any idle time, to play the good fellow, and come and see our matches at foot-ball; for that and bowling will be our best entertainment.”

And so, too, in this nineteenth century, it may be well for some of the critics who denounce the policy of encouraging athletic sports in colleges; who charge to the debit of this policy many evils that fairly belong there, and some that do not; who find in these sports nothing but a wretched imitation of the habits of English collegians, — it may be well for some of them " to play the good fellow, and come and see some of our matches.” And not only the matches, but the daily outpouring of the students into the green fields, where they can breathe the pure air of outdoors, and for the moment forget their books, and with joyous excitement obtain that bodily exercise which all need, but many neglect. It would be well for those who criticise to remember that to achieve distinction in any of these sports is not consistent with a life of debauchery, or irregular habits of any sort, but that the members of teams and crews who enter upon a course of training voluntarily adopt methodical habits of life, content themselves with a simple diet, abandon all forms of indulgence which are condemned by sanitary authorities, keep early hours, and in general conform their lives to just the model that would be selected for them by their well-wishers. Nor do the hours adopted for their daily exercise necessarily interfere with the maintenance of a good standard of scholarship.

The daily routine work of the gymnasium is in itself a bore, which would soon drop into desuetude were it not for the companionship of the great numbers interested in athletics, whose buoyant health and overflowing spirits relieve the hour of its tedium, and convert a task into a pleasure.

If we admit, as we must, that there are young men who overdo the thing, whose ambition does not rise beyond a place in the University crew ; that the contests stimulate a tendency to back up the college by betting ; that the expenses of the various teams have to be paid by somebody, and that subscription papers are passed around for the purpose of raising such funds ; that the traveling about to play matches during term time interferes with the studies of those on the teams, and that the games ought to be so arranged as to prevent this, — if we admit all this, still the weight of these charges is partially offset by the stimulus which these games give to the great health-giving system of athletics, which keeps our young men boys for a year or two longer, and will lengthen the lives of many of them by a decade.

The young man whose sole ambition it is to row in the University crew, and who devotes his attention to this at the expense of his studies, would probably come to college if there were no crew, and his ambition would then be satisfied with some similar standard. If he gains nothing else, the nut-brown skin, the deep layers of muscles on chest and back and arm, are better than the pallid complexion and flaccid muscles which would come from late hours spent over the card table, in drinking and smoking. If there are some weak enough to gamble upon the results of these matches, and to think that loyalty to their Alma Mater compels them to back up her team or crew with money, shall we charge the whole of this offense to the account of these matches? Is not some part of this evil due to the fact that public opinion itself is at fault ? Look at the enormous volume of the transactions on margins and in futures in stocks, oil, cotton, tobacco, and grain at the exchanges in our cities,—transactions which are almost entirely outside the wants of legitimate trade, which are in their nature mere speculative ventures, and which are generally characterized as gambling. To judge of the effects of this upon a community, step into the narrow streets in Chicago, in the rear of the Exchange, and see the pool shops, where contingencies are sold at prices varying from ten dollars to ten cents, thus enabling even the street boot-blacks to take their little ventures. It can but be that this open defiance of the austere views upon the subject of gambling, held by a large portion of our people, must have its effect upon our collegians. If this be true, this lamentable failing on their part, which tends to bring disgrace upon intercollegiate games, should be charged, in part at least, to a debauched public sentiment. The games serve rather to disclose than to cause an evil, which, if it exists, will find indulgence even if the occasion for its display, the match game, be withdrawn. The billiard table, the private card table, and alas, too often, the public game of faro furnish constant opportunities for the gratification of this taste. The strength of mind that can resist the temptation within the college walls will not be severely tried in the open air, even under the excitement of the match game.

That young men who join the teams are sometimes put to extraordinary expenses, and that their fellows are occasionally appealed to in behalf of the teams, is true; and probably it is true that some are weak enough to subscribe who wish they had the strength of character to say no. But after all, is there any great harm in this ? One of the great lessons in life to the easy-going spirit is to learn when to say no. The very strength of this argument is its weakness. There are so many teams, there are so many occasions for subscription papers, that no young man with ordinary means can afford to put his name down to all. Therefore, all are obliged to decline some of the subscriptions, and each person can decline any that he chooses, with the certainty that he is not a special object of comment.

Even if all the charges brought against intercollegiate games are true, the fact that they stimulate athletics in our colleges must be passed to their credit. If the evils which follow in their train are all that they are asserted to be, still the good they bring is so plain that the effort should be not to prevent the games, but to regulate them so that the attendant evils shall be avoided, and all their good influences be exerted.

Again we say to the critics, “ Play the good fellow, and come and see our matches,” and join with us in urging the faculties to do nothing which shall check the growing taste for athletics in our colleges, but rather to put forth their efforts in giving the intercollegiate games such tone and form as shall relieve them from complaint and free them from possible criticism.

Andrew M. F. Davis.