COLLEGE ATHLETICS ATTACKED

Dr. Dudley A Sargent, director of physical education at the University, created a sensation at the annual meeting of the Athletic Research Society at the Hotel Astor, New York, on December 27, when he declared that for the past 25 years both Harvard and Yale have conducted their athletic training along the wrong lines. He said that he was proud of the athletes who have been sent into the Army, but that he was not proud of many more who have been sent but who are not physically fit, giving as the reason for this the fact that the colleges have had athletics for only a few instead of letting everyone into the game.

Part of Dr. Sargent's statement is as follows:

"It seems to me that the greatest boon the war has already given to us in America is a realization that our men must all be physically fit. I cannot look back at the record made at Harvard and at Yale, with both of which institutions I am familiar, being a graduate of one and officially connected with the other, without feeling that for 25 years our athletic training has been on the wrong track. But I am glad to say that we are seeing the light and that we are coming around.

"Get everybody into the game,' that's our slogan now, and it should have been so for years back. It has taken the war to make us see things right. When I look back and think of the fine specimens of physical manhood who have gone across the seas to fight out battles my heart swells with pride, but when I think of those other men, the great majority, in fact, who were not such fine specimens I do not feel so glad.

"I have no fear for the star athlete, the cream of our young men, who have gone, but I do fear for the men who were discouraged because they could not make the first team, and sank back to become athletic slackers when they were in college because they thought they were not good nough. They consider themselves good enough to go and fight their country's battles, however, and we, with our old system of athletics, in which we placed the premium on the specialized expert, have really denied them the physical training that they find so necessary now. Why should they sacrifice their lives if their lack of fitness makes the sacrifice not worth while?

"We must have athletic for all in the colleges now, and I know that at Harvard and Yale that is the trend of the day. You can hear it on all sides and you can see that the students want it by reading their college papers. Everybody should be out playing, building up his body. We shouldn't spend our time developing a man to jump six feet when we have a thousand men who can't jump four feet. One thousand men who can jump four feet are worth a dozen men who can jump six feet today. What good is you man if he can't get out of a trench by himself, and every man must be able to do that. We have men who cannot pull themselves up once on a horizontal bar, and we have those who can't raise themselves once on a parallel bar. And these are our potential soldiers. They must be trained and each of us must share the burden!