PAGE TWO

KENTUCKY KERNEL

ALUMNI PAGE
Editor W. C. Wilson, Alumni Secretary
Assistant Editor, Helen J. Osborne

CALENDAR
Buffnlo,
Louisville, November 7. (First
October 10. (Second
r)
luncheon, 1:15 Saturday - Regular) luncheon
at
p. m., Chamber of Commerce, cor- 1:16, Brown hotel.
ner Mnin nnd Scnccn streets.
Philadelphia, November 7.
luncheon
Detroit. October 30. (Last Friday-- (First Saturday-Regula- r)
Regular)
nt Dixielnnd at Engineers' Club, 1317 Spruce
dinner
Snturday-Regula-

street.

Inn.

HAVE COLLEGE ATHLETICS AN EDUCATIONAL VALUE?
(Address Delivered by Charles W. Kennedy, '02, nt the Annual Meeting of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association)
Gentlemen, may I express to you my appreciation of the honor you do
me in inviting mo to como here to join in your discussion of the many important problems connected with the administration of college athletics. I do
not know of any phase of university life that offers a larger responsibility
of a more fruitful field of service than belong to those who have authority
in developing and guiding college sport.
I have no hope that in, anything I may say today, any easy solutions or
panaceas will be offered for the many problems that confront us. What I
should like to suggest is rather a point of view or method of approach to
those problems which, I hope, may illuminate and clarify the problems and
possibly suggest solutions that may prove tenable. and sound.
It is a commonplace that we cannot deal wisely with any system, without a thorougli understanding, not merely of the facts we are dealing with,
but also of their implications. Now, it seems to me that one reason why
college athletics have been in the past three or four decades 'so debated,
and debatable, is that those most interested have not in all instances been
in agreement as to the significance and purpose of college sports. One approach
to the discussion of college athletics has been based on an assumption that
we are dealing with a system of physical training. Another approach has
been based upon an assumption that college sport is entirely analogous to the
informal, spontaneous play in which an individual indulges when he gives
a Saturday afternoon, for example, to golf. Both these assumptions seem
to me to be, in large part, false.
I think you will agree with me that if college athletics as at present
organized rest merely upon the basis of physical education and physical
system for accomplishing a
training, we have a very complex and
comparatively simple end. If the object of college sport is solely to keep men
in good physical condition, we are taking an extremely expensive and complicated route to reach that end. A gymnasium with chestweights and dumbequipment, and a few instructors, would acbells, a minimum of
complish that task quite as well and far more simply.
The other assumption that college sport represents the undergraduate's
informal and spontaneous love of play somewhat intensified because of the
assumption. The falsity
number of men engaged, seems to me an equal-fals- e
in this case seems to me to be produced by the presence in college sport of
the principle of representation. In intercollegiate competition the individual
undergraduate is competing as a representative of the institution to which
he belongs, and this simple fact makes, it seems to me a world of difference
If you or I make ah engagement to play golf or tennis with a friend we re
present nothing but ourselves. If we do not train, if we do not practice, if
we violate the code of sportsmanship, our actions reflect upon no one but
ourselves. But if, with four or five others, we are engaged in a team match
to represent our golf club, or our tennis club against another, there at once
enters into our play the principle of representation and this principle is likely
to alter the whole nature of our competition. We are likely to feel, and
the club is likely td feel, that we are no longer completely free agents,
that we are in fact their representatives charged with the responsibility
of representing them as well as we possibly can in skill, and in sportsmanship,
and that the club has a right to define the degree of skill and the quality of
sportsmanship which shall represent it. This subordination of individual
freedom to representative responsibility is a factor, it seems to me, of pri
mary importance in any discussion of college sport.

What arc the lines of responsibility which govern the administration of college athletics ? Those seem to me to bo the two fundamental nnd really important questions about the whole matter; because if our control is correctly centered, if our nthlctlc system ia correctly related to the Ufe of the
university ns a whole and is governed by the same wisdom and authority
that governs other phnscs of university life, if the linos of responsibility
from those who arc Immediately chnrged with tho administration of athletics
to those who arc ultimately in authority are correctly drawn, then wo need
not particularly fear to face any of the problems that arise from our
present system.
In general today, it seems to me, there arc two systems of university
control that arc being exerted in athletics. One obtnins, perhaps, more
universally through the West nnd Middle West thnn in the East; thnt
is tho system by which a department of athletics is set up nnd n director
of athletics who is n member of the faculty, with faculty tenure nnd faculty
salary, is in charge of tho department. In institutions where that Bystem has
been set up, tho old advisory boards of undergraduates nnd nlumni have
nonrly gone. There is still informal assistance nnd counsel, but the power
rests in the department nnd in the head of the department.
In the East, in institutions such ns the one which I have the honor to
represent, wo have not yet proceeded to that point; and yet I nm not certain but that, in a number of ways, we have established as complete a
university control in prnctice as is represented, perhaps, by the department
system. I can illustrate what I mean, by outlinging the way in which
athletics are controlled nt the university which I know best.
CONTROL OF ATHLETICS AT PRINCETON
At Princeton n complete seperation is made at the Btart between nil
questions of eligibility nnd nil questions of business administration. There
o
are two bodies functioning in parallel relationship, one is the Faculty
on Athletics nnd the other is tho board of Athletic Control. The
Faculty Committee on Athletics consists, in Princeton- solely of members
of the Faculty. That committee at present has a membership of seven
men, the eldest in service of whom has been a member of the committee
since 1888.
Thnt committee has complete and sole authority over any
question of eligibility; it hns finnl power to approve orveto the appointment of any coach; it has final power to determine the physical fitness of
all men competing for us (a power exercised, naturally, in consultation
with tho Department of Hygience nnd Physical Education), nnd it has finnl
power of investigation and action in any question which seems to involve
sportsmnnship or a question of professionalism, should such arise, in athletics.
These are the powers of the Faculty Committee.
The Board of Athletic Control has charge of athletics on tho business
side; that is, in the making of schedules, the financing of the various sports,
the provision for the trips by which the schedule is carried into effect, the
care of the athletic equipment, grounds, buildings and so forth; the administration of all funds accruing from athletics; in general all powers other than
those I have outlined as belonging to the Faculty Committee. The Board of
Control consists of thirteen members. The President of the University
ex officia, is a full, active and voting member; there nre three members of the
Board of Trustees of the University; three ihembers of the Faculty of the
University who must also be members of the Faculty Committee on Athletics, and elected by that Committee as its delegates on the Board of Control; three nlumni, elected by the Graduate Council of Princeton to represent
them; and three undergraduates elected by the Undergraduate Athletic Committee to represent them.
You will see how complete is the university control, under this system,
over the business organization and the finances of the various sports. You
start with seven votes out of thirteen on the Board representing the
Trustees and the Faculty, and this Board, it must be remembered, has complete charge of the business administration of our sports, and complete power
over competitive athletics with the exception of those powers which I have
already spoken of as reserved to the jurisdiction of the Faculty Committee.
Now whether one favors the somewhat Bimpler departmental system
of organization of college sport to this more elaborate system is, I should
say, a matter oi preierence; out tne tiling mat interests me is mat, nere in
the East, we have been able to work out of past history of college sport a
system of control that centers final and complete authority over all phases
of intercollegiate sport in the hands of the faculty and the trustees of the
university. In that, it seems to me, the control and regulation of college
sport has moved forward. In the past 30 or 40 years we have made great
progress along these lines. That this system is completely free from defects I would be the last to uphold I have doubt whether any system is
every perfect but that it represents the correct ideal in the administration
sports i feel certain.
of competitive
In present discussions of college athletics two problems are con
stantly forcing themselves to the front: The problem of the characte
and responsibility of the coach, and the problem that presents use
in the size of the modern athletic budget. The first of thes
hat led to much discussion as to the relative desirabilitv of am
teur, professional, or faculty coaches. The second underlies much of tfh
Dresent-da- v
discussion as to the "commercialization of college sports.
should like to give as frankly as possible my views on these two problems
Com-mitte-

for sport will increase, nnd just in tho samo proportion will the business
organization that controls these activities necessarily enlarge nnd expand.
It is not possible, nt one nnd tho same time, to ask or demand that we extend to these largo numbers of students an Increasing, and eventually 100 per
cent, participation in athletics, nnd, at the samo time, refuse to faco the fact
that this brings with it the necessity of n business organization nnd an inevitable necessity of handling, on one aide of the ledger or the other, Very considerable sums of money.
Now the question of money in athletics Is, of course, a vexed question.
There is n feeling, nnd a very natural feeling, that when you have a
system thnt is, supposedly, a matter of sport, It should not Involve such heavy
When one reads of the largo sums of money that
finnncinl operations.
nre handled, there is something in it, thnt somehow, as an immediate reaction, goes against the grain.
When one nicks up a newspaper for example, and reads of tho hundreds
of thousands of spectators that witnessed the football games in any Eastern
stadium this past fall, and then estimates that if the price of attendance
is averaged a only two dollars the autumn's proceeds at almost any one of
them would range from a third to two thirds of a million dollars, or
more, ono is likely to be staggered. These are staggering sums, to grow
out of a system of amateur sport. Members of university faculties, who
nre not in nil cases entirely sympahetlc with athletic purposes and tho
athletic ideal, arc given concern by such figures, rather naturally, I think,
when one remembers that the departmental budget for the intellectual purposes of their various departments nre in most instances, much less than tho
nthlctlc budget, One cannot wonder' thnt a man who has selected as a profession the teaching of philosophy, mathematics, or science, or whatever it
may be, looking; nt the total budget of his department and then cxatninging
such figures ns these and finding that larger sums arc being expended on
sports than arcf being expended in the intellectual fields in which he is primarily interesirjd one cannot wonder, I say, that it gives him pause; one
cannot wonder 'that he is inclined to questi6n whether things nre as they
i

should

be.

But what auch a man usually 'forgets is this: that just in proportion
as theso figures are large, they represent the participation in sport of a very
much larger percentnge of the undergraduate body than ever would come
under his department as such. He forgets that there are phases of activity
and administration in phases of athletics which cannot be parallel at all in
tho functioning of his department.
For example, take any one of the departments of a college or university;
its budget must, of course, provide teaching. The university may or may
not, according to its budget system, charge against the given department
But the budget of the department is
a certain percentage of overhead.
very largely made up, except in the science depnrtmnets, where there
are additional funds needed for laboratory equipment, etc., of the teaching
Item only.
Now, in sport, you havo
in any technical department
coaches and assistant coaches
is, after all, nothing in the
should be selected as such.

a teaching item paralleling tho teaching item
in tho university. The large number of
that one must procvide in our various sports

world but a number of teachers, and they
That is their function.
But there are many other matters of finance in athletics which a departmental budget in college or university has no call to meet. In addition
to coaching, what else do we have to supply in equipping our teams? In
this country and here we differ from England every item of expense that
is incident to participation in sport by any undergraduate is normally borne
by thk athletic association of tho university which he represents. In England
that is not true. In England, at least at Oxford and Cambridge, which are
.
the universities I know best, the whole system is more informal. The students make up a team and when they go out of town they go to the booking
office and each man, as likely as not, buys his ticket to his destination; he
may buy his own sport equipment, his own uniform, and all that sort of thing.
Now, in this country we don't do that, and there is a very important reason
why we don't. In this respect there is a great contrast between the English
system and the organization of competitive sport in our colleges and universities. Everyone of them equips the undergraduate. He is given his
uniforms, his stockings, and shoes, his polo, hockey, lacrosse sticks; the
entire equipment he plays with; he is given whatever is incident to his
participation in competitive sport at not one cent of expense to him.
Suppose he represents any one of your institutions and is engaging in
competition away from his home grounds; what happens?
From the
moment the team starts, beginning with the bus that carries them to the
railroad station, including the railroad tickets that take them to the town
vhere they are to play, including their rooms at the hotel, their meals at the
,otel, all expenses that are incident to making that trip are borne by the
reasury of the athletic association of the institution that they represent.
Now why is this? Is there a justification of it, or would it be better
f we in this country should try to adopt the English system? I believe
Jyhere is a very sound reason why our system is what it is. We must not
forget that Oxford and Cambridge are, to a very considerable degree, class
universities representing the aristocracy and wealth of England, and we
need not Jbe surprised if this fact colors their point of view in sport as
well as in other matters. But our colleges and universities, gentlemen, are
We must take our boys
very immediately serving a great democracy.
THE ATHLETIC COACH
as they come to us boys from preparatory schools such as the old school
of New England; boys from the high schools of the country who have
SIGNIFICANCE OF COLLEGE ATHLETICS
The real question about a college coach, .it seems to me, is not much little background of means behind them, who are coming, in the finest sense
What, then, is this system of college athletics with which we are dealing bedeviled question as to whether he is an amateur, or a professional coach, or of the word, "under their own steam." It is well that we should not lose
and what is its true place in the corporate life of a college or university? a member of the faculty. The real question is as to his permanence, and admiration for the type of college student who comes from the high schools
I recognize, of course that it has a value, in improving the physique of a his responsibility. The seasonal coach who devotes only a portion of his of the country, who does not have someone behind him pushing him into
growing boy. I recognize that it has a value in affording an outlet for the time to coaching, combining if with some other set of interests outside college,but who, as he comes to the beginning of manhood, says to himnatural human desire for the playing of games. But the intensity of my the university, is to that extent; whatever his merits may otherwise be, a self, "I desire a college education because I know that, if I obtain it, my
faith in college sport is not based on either of these grounds. It is based upon less permanent and less responsible agent of the university. The important whole life is going to be a different type of service;" who feels this so strongthe conviction that college athleties properly supervised and properly de- question about a coach does not seem to me to be whether he is amnteur or ly that, under his own steam, and very often unable to look ahead for
veloped afford a laboratory training for the development of character such whether he is professional, whether he is paid or whether he is not paid. As a months, he comes to our colleges and universities. Now,, if we were six
to
as is not afforded elsewhere in the life of an undergraduate. I am glad matter of fact, so far as my knowledge extends, there are few purely am adopt anything' like the English system, what should we be doing ? We
to have this opportunity to define my faith: The training of the average ateur coaches, seasonal or otherwise, engaged in teaching college sport today, should be saying to our undergraduates, "Those who are fortunately situndergraduate, as I see it, falls into three phases. First, his mind is being I am inclined to believe that a coach ought to be a professional, in the same uated, financially, shall represent us and have their places in intercollegiate
Second, sense that any other college teacher is a professional; that he should te sport." Men of the type of whom I have spoken could not "afford it, and they
informed and disciplined, and his intellectual powers developed.
basis, that he should be directly would be out of sport. That seems to me a very sound reason for the
in addition to intellectual development, qualities of character are being engaged on a permanent
strengthened in him will, application, patience by his efforts to analyze and responsible to university authority, and that his salary should be gov difference between our system and the English, and I think it goes a consolve the problems presented to him day by day in the various fields of erned by the same law of supply and demand that govern other pro siderable distance towards justifying this large sport budget.
study he has chosen. His character is being developed by a struggle against fessions. The development in the past few years of coaching schools at var
Now, what is really more important than the size of the budget at any
himself, a struggle against his own inaptitude and inability. But there is, I ious universities at which young men of fine character, intelligence, and institution is the question as to how the funds are administered. Is
believe, a third phase of education in which characters must be developed sportsmanship may receive 'training for this profession is to my mind the system budgeted? Do those responsible for administration know what
and made strong in a growing boy not only by competition against himself, a very encouraging and heartening development. I think we may hope to they are doing? Is the purchase and supply of equipment, of service, of
but' by competition against others. It is in this field that our whole modern recruit at such schools men of the right character and personality who will everything that goes into the carrying on of athletics, being conducted as
system of college sports fulfills so important a function. Nothing is more fit themselves seriously for the profession of coaching and who will enter purchase and supply should be carried on in a business office? That is the
important than that a boy should learn, during the formative years of col- our university departments of athletics with a sense of the significance question. Are the expenditures made by someone in a haphazard and guesslege, to control and command his own powers, to focus them upon a single and importance of that field of university life.
work way, scattering money to the winds like rain, or are they handled
The real questions, therefore, as to the college coach, of which there with brains and with a willingness to do the same thing in a business-lik- e
end, to mobilize them quickly and completely, and yet to do so with a
regard for the rights of others and the rules of the game. are four, seem to me to be these: First of all, and most important way ? That is the really important question on the financial, side. If you can
chivalrous
This is a training, it seems to me, that lies at the heart of all development of (whether he is paid or whether he is not paid), to whom is the coach re- answer that question right; if you can say, "The man that is running this
an individual toward good and useful citizenship. Now it is possible m the sponsible? Is he responsible to some one, and is that some one the right is, in the first place, responsible to the Board of Athletic Control; the
classroom to preach all this to a boy, to show him the need and the lm person.' mere is your question, unu it is just us uncurtain, a qucauuii u Board of Athletic Control is directly responsible to the Trustees of the
portance of it, but it is vital and imperative that he should have some he is giving his services gratis as it is if you are paying him whatever the University; therefore the responsibility as to athletic finances runs from
thing like a laboratory training in carrying out the precepts we give market sets up as a fair return for his service.
this man, through the Chairman of the Board, straight back to the
The second question about the coach is: What is his personality, his Trustees" if you can answer that way, then your
him. College sport furnishes such a laboratory.
finances will be
character, the type of influence which he exercises on the boys under him? properly administered unless an error of judgment athletic
In competitive sport it is necessary for a boy to mobilize at a given time
has been made in pickquestion favorably you should go
a given place all the skill and intelligence and courage that he pos- If you can not answer thathow successful he may be in other no further ing the man and has not been discovered.
Purchase and supply and the
'and
ways, you
man; no matter
sesses; to do this in the face of the most strenous opposition; to do it with with
and service will
problem of
must go no further with him. But if you find that a coach is the type of wholeresponsibility equipment other phase of be handled with the same care
a Bmile and a cool head; to do it in a spirit of chivalrous sportsmanship that
and
as in any
university administration. It
will not permit him to stoop to that which is base and mean in order to man whose influence is sound and fine, you may go on and consider his seems to me that is a complete answer to the question.
itv.
,
win. If any system, gentlemen, that furnishes such a training as this, is not other qualifications.
The budget, as to its size must be examined from another angle. The
The third question is: How well does he really know the sport which public focuses its vision on a few' large football games and thebr
very directly serving an educational purpose, then certainly many of us
receipts.
to
Is he essentially a student of the basic principles of What the public never realizes is that, during the rest of the year,
are in error as to what some of the ends of education should be in the case he professes Or teach? superficial?
that
is he
his sport?
Is he un oppdrtunist? Is he borrowing money is being expended we will hope wisely and carefully, for the support
of a growing boy.
,
his methods here and there according to changing whim and the fads of of other sports and teams which could not exist
otherwise.
the time? How well does he really know the fundamentals of the sport
UNIVERSITY CONTROL OF ATHLETICS
At Princeton, last year we supervised thirty-nin- e
intercollegiate comhe professes to teach?
petitive teams in sixteen sports. We had a varsity and ai frejhman team
Now if there is any validity in this point of view that college sport
The fourth Question is: How well can he teach what he knows?
in each of those sixteen sports, and in seven, we had in addition a iunior
constitutes, and should constitute, an actual department of the life of a have known many men engaged in the process of teaching, in sport and varsity; all with intercollegiate competitive schedules costing money.
Out
college, or university, it carries with it an obvious implication: that is, outside of sport, who were in high degree masters of their professions but
teams,
of those thirty-nin- e
were only
that did not
that the administration of college sport should be entrusted only to a gov- not particularly skilled in imparting to others the knowledge they them turn in a deficit. The three gentlemen, there themselves three varsitv foot
were
that supported
erning agency that is continuous in time and responsible in character. selves possess.
ball, varsity
This implication, of course, points directly to university control of intercol
These are all the real questions about a coach; and it seems to me the some degrees baseball, and varsity basketball. All the ottyer sports were in
legiate athletics.
less we bother with the" auestion whether wo are fortunate enough to The deficits ofdependent for their existence upon tho receipts of these three.
the other teams varied from very little all
I have read and heard the view expressed, and ably expressed, that get a coach who is willing and able to Bervo us for nothing, or whether up, to a sport like rowing which nt Princeton has no incomethe way down, or
whatever. These
our whole situation would be bettered if complete control of college sport we are doing what I think we should justly do paying the market price are facts which one must always heep in' mind.
were restored to the undergraduate. With the spirit in which such a sug- for his service the better off we shall be. and the more we ask these
THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF COLLEGE SPORTS
gestion is made, I have great sympathy. But with the wisdom of the four questions: To whom is he responsible? What is his character and
And then, finally, we must, it
ourselves
suggestion, I am forced to take issue. True progress in intercollegiate ath personality? How well does he know his sport? And how well can he tion: Has this complicated systemseems to me askits businessanother aues
of sport, with
in the administration. teach what he knows? tho more progress we are going to make in the cor and its large budget a real value ? With the size of tho figures organization
letics can be attained only by continuity of
inthat
This continuity furnishes the means by which progress in athletic conditions rect development and regulation of university athletics. So much for the volved and all these considerations in mind we must ask ourselves. are
"What
coach.
is conserved from year to year so that little by little we build upon the
arc tho purposes after all that are subserved by college sport on its comof the past towards sounder development of sport. Now the underpetitive intercollegiate side? Aro they important purposes?" If thev
THE CHARGE OF COMMERCIALISM
graduate body is not continuous in the sense I have in mind. Every four
are, then they justify what they cost; if they are not, let us do away with
years furnishes a complete change in its constituent units. Every two years
Now as to the frequently met charge that college athletics are becom them.
marks a very considerable change. Policies adopted, or agreements entered ing "commercialized" by the mere size of our athletic budgets; what is tho
I, personally, am a firm believer in intercollecriate
and competitive
into, three years ago, are likely to be completely unintelligible to an under truth of the matter? The fact is that such a charge, if applied to any sport, properly supervised and developed, as an actual educational influence
graduate of today both as to cause and purpose, lhe attention of the un- progressive system of college athletics represents u somewhat illogical de- upon tho undergraduate. And, as I have already said, I am not in this, thinkdergraduate is almost always focused upon the present rather than mand that two irreconcilable things shall somehow be reconciled: namely, that ing primarily of his physicul condition. We do not need all this organization
upon the future, upon the present year, the present contest. The outcome a policy of participation in competitive athletics by an entire undergraduate of Intercolleglute athletics to keep men in
physical condition.
of a given contest is likely to seem to him more important than a question of body shall be administered on a budget that would have been adequate decudes
When a boy comes to us und I um speaking now not so much of the
principle which muy bo rooted in a long view toward the future.
ago when only a small percentage of the undergraduate body participated in university us of the college (and it is one of tho finest elements in th
The agency that administers college athletics must not merely be con- intercollegiate sport.
Americun system of education) when a boy comes to the American college,
tinuous, but must be responsible to the university in the same sense in which
At the present time, the country over, there aro many who believe that whut is he coming for? It seems to me that it a wonderful uct of faith
the agencies that govern any other phase of her corporate life are responsible. the policy in collego soprt would be "athletics for all." They feel, whatever and trust on the purt of the boy's father when he turns his son over to one
We must not forget that in the last three or four decades intercollegiate the beneht of ahtletics may be conceived to be, that there should be u of these institutions. This boy is flesh of his flesh, and blood of his blood: ho
athletics have passed through two stages: the original stage in which con- system properly administered and properly regulated which will put those sees in him the wheel of time turned backward; he sees in him new ambitions,
trol was very largely centered in undergraduate hands, and a subsequent stage benefits at the disposal of as lurge number of men in tho undergraduate new hopes, new dreams; he sees in him time renewed and extended beyond tho bounds of his natural life, projected throuirh the life of his nn.
in which alumni interest and control was dominunt. We must not forget body as possible.
Side by side with this almost universally held opinion, one meets con This boy that ho has watched over from infuncy has "grown up," hns
that in both these stages of development there was a lack of responsibility in the guidance of intercollegiate athletics which hindered effective stantly the expression of feur lest athletics are being commercialized; u feur reuched that most difficult of all uges, when he can neither bo held nor let
administration and permittted evils of spirit and practice which wo are glad of the size of our organizations, of the amounts of money involved in them, go; when ho must pass from a regulated to a
life, the most cruto regard as belonging, in large measure to the past. We must not forget and of the business organizations that it has been necessary to set up to cial years in a bov's experience. The futher knows he cannot tie strings
upo