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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1904)
y ftr Football "Wo aro thankful wo got whipped this year," will bo Alma Mator'B Thanksgiving graeo today, for through dofoat this University has gained somo thing which humdrum victory would not havo brought It. Tho Idea that to havo success In sports wo must havo victory, 1b now obsolete. Tho notion that tho main thing 1b to win rathor than to do a man's work llko a man, 1b dead. Tho men and1 women of thla University tho University Itself has Bald to Its football team: "Flno en deavor, not tho score, wins my pralao." Not In vaguo thinking but In actual deed, tho studonta havo made theirs tho truo spirit of tho University tho Idealism on which It was founded and on which It must stand If It stands at all. By "collogo spirit," tho lack of which at Nebraska herotoforo has been a commonplaco thomo for regret, and to tho lack of which tho Prlncotonlan to whoso systematic discipline Nebraska owcb, clearly onough, her long series of victories, has often referred by "collogo spirit" Is not meant roping a heifer Into tho bolfry a la Prlncoton, nor groaning at tho collogo choir when it Is particularly "rotten" a la Brown, nor Harvard's momorablo "Bloody Monday," now happily supplanted by tho reception to Freshmen; nor such a shroddod-shlrt, "midnight battle with tho "Sophs" under tho "cerulean om pyroan," as a Freshman themo-wrltor puts It, as tho writer rlggled through not so long ago. These high and he roic services to tho cause of civilization, though not so wicked as some poreons make them out, Indisputably not so bad as somo other things that aro worse, aro not tho only Instruments of culture What genuine college spirit -meanB to tho man It has mastered, ono could see at Princeton, for instance how it pulls a thousand graduates from tho four quarters of tho country around tho fountain from which In youth they drew now life; how it leaps to tho lip as thoy pledge their faith again in tho Ideals of tho old college to tho thunderous melody of "Old Nassau." For these men Prlnco ton Is not tho pile of marble and lvy oncompassed granite; It is an Ideal tho Fair Mistress who still beckons them on to learning and to devotion to principle. Of devotion to what a college stands for, no company of students can havo too much not a theoretical devotion but a practical devotion that exhibits itself not merely at commencement re unions, but by constant, lvely Interest in whatever good work the University as such engages. To go to college is not simply to join a society -nor to go to recitations and lot tho professor fun nel ono full of facts for parroting which back, to him ono may, though ho oughtn't to, got a diploma. It Is much more than this. It is life. Tho truth that tho lifo is as important as tho work will bo ono of the truths - driven homo to our Rhodes scholars at ancient Oxford. Of this college Bplrlt Nebraska, like many another school, has not had enough. And for. various reasonB. In tho first place, our students the men In particular either from preference or pressure, haven't much leisure. For weal or woe, this rushing, red-blooded civilization of the West leaves them neither time to read nor to reflect onough even on their Immediate con crete work, not to speqk of that larger, Intangible thing, the University. il iVI ft ' "- '' and College Spirit By PROF. M. M. FOGO Anothor reason why wo lack col lege spirit Ib that our life lacks unity. Wo do not got together often, nor do wo stay together long. For this the absence of dormitories Is largoly re sponsible. ThlB lack all hor ono hun dred and fifty years of richly accumu lated tradition could not overcome for Columbia University, so she Is building tho dormitories to centralize college lifo and to generate collogo spirit. The University of Nebraska files Into somo twenty-five hundred bits six times a week at 6 p. m! At Harvard, Yale, Prlncoton, Cornell, Pennsylvania, tho students aro concentrated. Up from tho ground and down from tho clouds or windows tho writer has seen come at ofesignal a thousand students tho University militant breathing ono Bplrlt. Tho air thoro hangs heavy with collogo spirit. Tho Intentions of tho good folk wo assert that dormitor ies wouldn't help Nebraska, ono can respect; but their thinking well, It's grounded on air. Horo each person goes too much on his own tangent. In theory democracy gets us together; In practice, it doesn't seem to. Each ono of us 1b a kind of miniature aristoc racy paddling his own oanoo. "Nobody hero seem to caro to do a follow a good turn," Bald a frank and slncero Fresh man tho other day. Now, on this campus there is some thing immensely bigger than any stu dent or all tho students. American civilization in Its oldest parts Is, at best, juvenile, In swaddling clothes. In our part of It the most impressive ob ject for tho Btudont to behold Is the great, truth-seeking spirit of the Uni versity, majestically marching on. Sports may come and sports may go but that goes on forever. These handicaps to a vigorous col lego spirit, football In a largo measure 1b overcoming, has overcome. The celebration of a victory, but especially the celebration of a defeat, makes us pause, snatches us at least an hour of leisure In which to crawl out of tho hole In which we've burrowed and look upon one phase of university life. More Important yet, football gets us together, pulls us together, makes us pull together. It Is crystallizing, if but for an hour or two at a time, most of tho twenty-five hundred1 particles Into a unit. For tho University this vlvlflcation and crystallization of college spirit means very much. Football defeat thlB year stimulated Imagination. Through defeat wo have caught another thrill let us hope it will bo a steady glow of enthusiasm for the University, a heal thy, full-pulBed spirit of dovotion to tho Impersonal University. This en thusiasm will bo reflected In all phases of college life. In ggneral, It wfll make us more "safe and sane." It will save us from "yellowness" of all species, whether in writing or speaking. It will give us large-mindedness, open mindedness. It will save us, when a little friction comes from getting an intellectual hot-box. It will rise against professionalism, if it appears, for football is sentiment and it ought to die, as It will, when It turns to business tho transformation that has debauched tho sport and besmirched tho escutcheon of many a college. No man mastered by college spirit auc tions himself off to the college world at $300 a hundredweight! Through defeat we havo climbed to something better than one more vic tory. To hurrah for victory 1b easy AaftdtHUiMMMaCiMUU onough; to hurrah for defeat calls for anothor kind of stuff. That means In sight, discrimination Idealism. It was a sago soliloquy of Harvard under graduates after tho last of many suc cessive defeats by Yalo In rowing: "After all there are many things in lifo worth while besides beating Yale!" For collogo spirit at Nebras ka that university welcome to tho de feated victors from Minnesota speaks with auspicious eloquence, for It Bays: "Whether you come homo with your shields or on them, I judge you not so much by what what you do as how you do it." That standard Is set and set for good. Wo shall say that for tho University that day was not worth all last year's monotonous victories? Jack Best. I to inconsiderable part has been played in the past five years by Jack Best, the trainer of the team. By his devotion to duty, the team, and the In terests of the university Jack has now tho affection of every person at all in terested in Nebraska athletics, and has dono much toward keeping his charges In good condition to meet tho 'hard con tests in which thoy havo participated. Tho picture- of Jack and his little grandson, which The Nebraskan prints on another page today, lends hope 'that when Jack can no longer bo with us there will at least be moro of his stock to fill his place. If young Jack shall continue as he nas evidently begun, ho will soon be able to fill Charley Borg's position with muck credit to himself and to tho university. COACH W. COWLES BOOTH rfifiTiir-ir-ifmr, A New Athletic Field. Coach Booth's repeated statement that athletics at Nebraska cannot con tinue to thrive without bettor provis ion being made for them In tho way of new quarters, has again resulted in the demand for a now athletic field. Tho erection of tho physics building on the old field has cut down Its di mensions to such an extent that base ball on the campus will doubtless provo an Impossibility, while much of tho hard luck that has beset tho Corn huBkers In football this fall Is to bo directly traced to tho cramped and altogether wretched condition of the football field. Tho very soil of the field Is not suitable either for a diamond, track, or gridiron. Men havo been con- f '' stantly on our hospital list this year QiV account of Injuries received1 through the flint-like roughness and hardness of the soil oh tho campus. Tho ground Is ovon too hard to oven provide a track on which fast time can bo made by tho runners. The diamond has to be worked upon constantly to keep it 111 any sort of shape for base-ball. So bad have tho conditions become, in fact, that it is now universally recog nized that other arrangements must bo made. It is probable, however, that this will bo possible. Tho writor of this article was told not long ago by tho officials In charge of the grounds and buildings of tho university, that the next legislature will be asked to purchase or condemn tho two blocks north of the present campus, to bo used for this purpose. AN ALUMNUS. ( - -r T vxryi" Jw V mwimii,m3mm fcaftjV Au .i .- i .4 ":"i;!i,i' "a 'vr-