UPHOLDS OUTSIDE GAMES FOR FRESHMAN ATHLETICS

"The claim that athletics are being overemphasized is usually made against a group that nobody ever seems able to identify," said Major Fred W. Moore, '93, when a CRIMSON reporter inquired his opinion regarding the proposal of Dr. J. Duncan Spaeth of Princeton to substitute intramural sports for Freshmen instead of the present system of first-year intercollegiate competition.

Dr. Spaeth, who is a Professor of English and Director of Rowing at Princeton lists the present excessive cost of a Freshman football season, the subordination of studies to athletics, and the strictly limited number of men who participate, as disadvantages of the present system. He feels that while there would be a strong opposition from the undergraduates at first, once the system was installed it would successfully replace the present method of intercollegiate sports and prove highly beneficial to the students

Says Athletics do not Cause Failures

Major Moore opposed Dr. Spaeth's suggestion vigorously, claiming that statistics show clearly the football men have grades well above the average. He pointed out that practically the entire first Freshman crew is on probation, although most of the oarsmen have not engaged in any Freshman activity up to the present time. As another illustration of the fallacy of blaming athletics for failures in college work, he said that the Yale gymnastic team, thinking it had a match with the University this year, had written asking to cancel it because all their men were on probation. "Here is an activity", said Major Moore, "that does not take the time and effort in training that is required in most major sports, and yet the result is disastrous. My contention is that the blame cannot be placed upon athletics."

Thinks Present System Brings Discipline

"If intra-mural sports were substituted entirely for the present system of intercollegiate competition," he continued, "there would not be the training which is such an important factor in the system in vogue today. Indifference about practice and training would be the inevitable aftermath of such an innovation, and we would lose the outstanding feature--discipline Furthermore, in the event that five or six of the best players were quartered in the same dormitory, the competition would be obviously unfair I maintain that intercollegiate contests with Yale are necessary in order to maintain a standard of discipline and training which we can get in no other way."

The two final general criticisms of the present system are the cost of maintenance of freshman teams under the present system, and their being overemphasized. "Our budget reaches no such proportions," said Major Moors when the reporter quoted from $20,000 to $40,000 as the reported figure of the cost for a season, "for outside of the Princeton trip there is no large item which would not exist in intra-mural competition. The coaching would not be so varied and intensive perhaps, but under the present system men are prepared in the same manner as candidates for the University squad. Skilled supervision such as we give is distinctly to the advantage of men as a means of instilling discipline and training."