Mr. Bingham Resigns

When William J. Bingham took office as Harvard's first athletic director, Harvard's varsity football team was one of the country's most respected. Because this proud boast cannot be made today, as Mr. Bingham prepares to retire from his post, many would term his career as athletic director a failure.

We believe, however, that a college's athletic program is not properly judged by the won and lost record of its varsity football team. And we believe that when proper criteria are used, Mr. Bingham will be seen to have made tremendous contributions to inter-collegiate sports in general, and to Harvard athletics in particular.

Mr. Bingham always felt that athletic problems should be viewed as problems in education, that a college's athletic program was part of its educational program. To him, sports existed not for gate receipts, but to aid in the education of the student. Thus it was that Mr. Bingham established Harvard's vast intra-mural program, with its emphasis on "athletics for all."

Mr. Bingham's uncompromising stand in favor of amateurism also stemmed from this belief that college athletics exist to fill an educational function. It athletics exist to educate the participating student, he felt, then colleges should let the students play, instead of fielding a professional team whose sole function was to make money.

Much of the vituperation that Mr. Bingham had heaped on him during his years as athletic director was because of this belief in amateurism. Alumni, subway and genuine, students, columnists, and colleges choosing the path of professionalism, all were blinded by football won and lost records and football gate receipts. Their insights into the role of college athletics went no further than the crowds in the stadiums Saturdays and the spectacle on the gridirons below. Mr. Bingham's insights went deeper, and he struggled, often almost alone, to preserve college athletics for the college student. The price he paid for voicing his convictions was violent abuse, but he never yielded in his battle for amateurism.

The CRIMSON has not always agreed with all of Mr. Bingham's policies as athletic director, and it voiced its criticisms when it felt he was wrong. But we believe that Mr. Bingham was right in his fundamental concept: that athletics exist in a college as part of a student's education. We trust that his resignation does not mean a change in the University's policy as to the role of college athletics. And, finally, we pay tribute to Mr. Bingham for his unflinching fight for amateur athletics and for all his contributions to athletics at Harvard.