SUCH POPULARITY

If college executives and professors would realize the futility of decrying the overemphasis of college athletics in the newspapers of today and would stop their protests they would come to a happy conclusion. The state of affairs is that college sports receive a big emphasis--not as much as some would make us believe, perhaps--and that they probably will keep on getting this prominence in the press of today. The Yale News, in the accompanying press clipping, recognizes the impossibility of bettering by much the present situation and shows that the popularity of athletics justifies their place in the sun.

Popularity is the fundamental reason for sports prominence, but not the most ostentatious one. The situation today is colored by a commercial tinge, but one not wholly unjustifiable. College sports made the newspapers to a certain extent into the organizations that they are today. A generation ago sport pages of the press were thin and amateur and college sport news was hardly mentioned. But with the addition of this news, the news that the average person was making and was interested in, came more subscriptions, and more advertising, and with increased advertising came the growth of the paper.

But in this way the press has also aided college sports--from a financial standpoint, at least. Publicity fills the stadiums, then stories of the game sell the papers. Newspapers are of passing interest, and so is athletic news. They complement each other: why not let them go, hand in hand?