THE MINOR SPORTS RENAISSANCE

The basketball team's record of sixteen games won, including two victories over Yale, is significant of this year's minor sport season, which presents a far different aspect from the previous one. In the past things have gone so uniformly badly with the minor sports, that Dean Briggs noted in his report last year one day on which the University suffered five defeats.

Even making allowance for the fact that basketball in that year had hardly reached more than an informal status, and swimming was fighting a losing battle against over whelming odds in the lack of a pool, there is no question that the present season marks a distinct upward trend in minor sport success. In the season just concluding, besides basketball's impressive record, the squash team was barely nosed out of a tie for the championship of the league and the fencing team is on its way to the intercollegiate title with a good prospect of success. The wrestling team, although severely handicapped in the loss of two successive captains, is giving a creditable account of itself, and the rifle team under capable management is finishing a well-contested season.

Even more important than the uniform success of the teams is the increased activity in minor sports throughout the University: which is not due to a sporadic burst of interest likely to drop with the end of the year, but can be directly traced to several sources. The minor sports council has been reorganized and together with a new lease of life is causing more atention to be paid to the needs, of the minor sports than in the past. A practical example of this is shown in the new rifle range under Smith Halls and the improved equipment and facilities afforded the other activities. Also the "weak sister", swimming, which has been holding back the other sports, has been dropped entirely, releasing men for other activities and removing what was becoming a permanent stain on the University's athletic record. With basketball's firm establishment and success has come greater publicity for all the minor sports, which has been a considerable factor in drawing new men into them.

Most important of all, the effects of the compulsory athletic system of Freshmen, now in its third year are being felt throughout the University. Men who have no particular ability in any of the major sports are turning to the minor sports to find exercise and competition.

Compulsory athletics, much maligned at the start, have been vindicated completely in the constantly increasing number of upperclassmen taking part in athletics, reflected in the demand for more squash courts and the organization of a boxing team, as well as in the renewed interest in minor sports already well-established. Nor is there any reason why this year's record should not be bettered next year, and the future of minor sports at the University considered more promising than it has been for some time.