House Athletic Secretaries Vote, 6-3, To Keep Boxing as Intramural Sport

Intramural boxing will be retained as part of the Straus Cup competition, the director of Intramural Athletics said yesterday.

Floyd Wilson said that Robert B. Watson, director of Athletics, told him earlier this week that the decision of the House athletic secretaries to keep the sport, by a 6-3 vote March 6, will stand.

Watson said that the Faculty Athletic Committee will not be consulted, as previously planned.

In the end of February, the House secretaries voted 9-2 to drop boxing, but student protest was such that another vote was taken.

Injuries

Wilson said the secretaries considered eliminating boxing competition because of dwindling participation, and fear that athletes would be injured.

"The number of students participating has been dropping every year," Wilson said.

Last year 40 students signed up for the sport, and around 28 actually boxed, Wilson said. Injuries included bloody noses, and one student spent the night in the Stillman Infirmary.

Wilson compared the interest in boxing with wrestling, noting that yesterday around 70 students showed up for the intramural wrestling tournament.