COMMERCIALISM IN FOOTBALL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12550, 13 July 1905, Page 7

COMMERCIALISM IN FOOTBALL.

It is not at all a pleasant picture that is drawn for us in "McClure s Magazine" of the commercialism which has become associated with college athletics, .and particularly college'lootb all . .in the United States. Some few years ago representatives of the great college.! met and drew up stringent rules ti prevent professionalism of any sort, ii, being laid down as a canon of amateur sport that the practice of assisting young men through college, in order that they might strengthen the athletic teams, was degrading. Yet these resolutions have proved of little-use, and a loyal Yale man has said that "college athletics aro honeycombed with commercialism." Take for instance the case of Columbia University. It was weak in football a few years ago, and it was determined to set the game on a better footing, and the first step taken wa< to secure the services of a "coach from ono of the other colleges, by paying him ?. salary which would have satisfied a University professor. This person could not find eleven suitable players among all tho 2100 students at W Columbia, so he engaged some outside "jr "stars," and with their help the team | beat Yale. There was trouble over this rank dishonesty, and the manager of tho team had to leaye college, but the "coach") stayed on at a salary of 5000 "' , dollarjs. " Then' the Colombia team ' "/- ',' licked"'Princeton, and there was an- " ' other scandal, but still the "coach" remained, and it jyas only after Pennsylvania, was beaten that he was dismissed. These "coaches" are really at the bottom of tho trouble. If their teams do not win, their employers ask inconvenient questions, so they make up deficiencies by importations. Players are assisted through college in various v.ays, simply because they are good footballers; some of them no doubt niako good use of their time there, but tho fact remains that they undoubtedly break the rates laid down by the conference. A watchful eye is kept on the schools, and a promising boy may re■ceivo offers from several colleges which are anxious for his services. "There are several positions for next year's football team vacant," ran a letter received by one youth, "and I have in rund certain men to fill them. If you are in need of financial aid, there are plenty of scholarships here to be had for tho asking. There are good jobs about town, and no money matters will worry anybody." The Princeton captain,'in 1903, spent five days in making a tour of tho preparatory schools, and the agent of another college once esestablished a regular "recruiting" office in a hotel near a school, and canvassed openly among the boys. A youth who ■entered a University in an unprepared state intellectually, was asked how he camo there, and his~ reply was that he wrote his weight (2051b) on the corner of his paper, put on a "sweater" with ; tho letter of his school on it, and walk- i ed in front of the proctor several times! Tho writer deplores the effect of all this on the boys, in that it tends to foster, instead of discourage, that comJ merciai spirit which flourishes all too vigorously in American private and public life. _____^ '