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
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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.
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