John R. Tunis, in Second Publicity Bid in Six Months, Calls Harvard's Football Team "Semi-Pro" in Current Mercury

Footballs are golden eggs, "shamateurism" is rampant in American football, and Harvard's eleven is semi-pro, according to the Class of 1911's tennis expert, John Roberts Tunis, who writes in the current issue of the American Mercury.

Mr. Tunis' second bid for publicity in six months, his first being the book "Was College Worth While," which caused a considerable uproar last summer, the current article "More Pay for College Football stars" claims that Harvard, along with others, subsidized teams to make its athletic corporations pay. His only concession to the "semipros" is that for the most part even the hired football players have to pass their examinations and take a degree.

Other colleges listed along with Harvard include Army, Boston University, Dartmouth's, Navy, Penn, and Yale. Under the heading of "Professionals," however, come such colleges as Princeton, Boston College, Duke, Ohio State, Stanford, Southern California, and Western Maryland.

The "Amateurs," pure and simple, are labeled as small colleges and include such institutions as Brown, Chicago, Lehigh, Tufts, Virgin is, and Williams.

The article opens with a reference to Yale's contract with the Atlantic Refining Company for the sale of football broadcasting rights, saying that this act brought out into the open the whole question of professionalism. The next step is judged to be the direct payment of players by the oil company.

Mr. Tunis seen no reason why football players should not be paid their due salary, and insists that if the word amateurism is to mean anything, then the amateur teams must play in their own league, Professional teams, or those who claim they are amateurs but are really pro or semi-pro, should openly confess that they hire players. Games could then he played in a professional league. "For God's sake, a little logic." is the parting pies.

William J. Ringham '16, director of Athletics, when interviewed last night concerning the condemnation of Harvard merely stated that he refused to comment on the article in question.