Old Crimson Star Urges Salary For Football Players

"It is not nice to see our great educational institutions running one of the biggest rackets in the country . . . Football is the milch cow of college athletics." So writes Charles J. Hubbard '24, former Harvard grid star, in an article in the current issue of Liberty entitled "Why Not Pay the Football Players?"

The reading time is listed as nine minutes and 25 seconds.

Decrying the introduction of big business methods into college football, Hubbard writes, "The men who do all the work get nothing, while the sport as a whole is just as professional as it is possible to make it."

Recalls "Good Old Days"

With a combination of nostalgia and sarcasm, he recalls the good old days when "we had 'fight talks' before every game and between the halves. We were pumped full of it, till we were ready to go out and die for dear old alma mater."

But Hubbard still has a soft spot for his old alma mammy. After discussing subsidization of players, he writes, "Some colleges are very sensitive on this point--Harvard for instance. They have a rule that no coach is allowed to speak at any preparatory school. They scrutinize every aplication for admission.

Fear Criticism

"They are so afraid of criticism that they discriminate against athletes as though they were all brainless chumps who had no right to be educated. Is there anything wrong with giving a few athletes an education?"

Hubbard doesn't object to professionalization as such. "The only thing which is really wrong is that football is a professional business which pretends to be amateur," he admits. His solution is open subsidization of players. "Some of the money, at least, would go where it ought to go--to the men who earn it," he concludes.