THE DAILY NBBRASKAN
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Ownud nud published by I o University of Nebraska througt)
THE STUDENT PUBLICATION BOARD
OlIlccH IJusumotU tlio Administration Building.
I'oHtolllco Station A, Campus, Lincoln, Nebraska.
TELEPHONES
Day Auto 1888. Night Auto 314G, Ed. 1035, Bus. Mgr. 420C
8AM R. BUCK, EdItor-ln-Chlef
EDITORIAL
A. H. Dlnsmore, Managing Editor
I. C. MuConticll, AhhocIiUm Kriltor H carlo F. Iloltnes, Assoclalu Editor
Htuart Gould. City Kdltor K. Loo UpdcKrnff, Sporting Kdltor
REPORTORIAL
Merrill Itcud Homer G. Hewitt
C. 1'. AmlrowH Wallaco 13. Troup
It. S. nii(l(lonl)iii'K I- A. Dcchtcr
William O. Cooloy
WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT
Mildred UuvIiih Huth Mungcr
Winifred Klchar Ituth Sheldon
Hugh Agor
Kenneth M. Enydcr
.1. Lovejoy Linn
Ollvo 13. Mann
Allco Chambers
BU8INESS
VINCENT C. HASCALL, BUSINESS MANAGER
C. C. Buchanan, Asat. Bus. Mgr. J. V. Morrison, Circulation Mgr.
Subscription $2.00 por year. Single copies Sc
Faculty notleoH and University bulletins published free.
Entered at the PoHtolllce, Lincoln, NVbr., as second class matter under act of
Congress March 3, 1879.
PROFESSIONALISM IN
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
By Sam. R. Buck.
Tlio rceent altercation between the athletic associations of
Minnesota and "Wisconsin universities regarding charges of profes
sional baseball playing which were brought by the latter school
against Captain Pickering of the Gopher football team is but an
other example of the rank injustice and unfairness of the profes
sional rule as applied to college athletics.
Not) that Wisconsin's motivo in preferring such charges is
questionable for the rule is on the books, and being there, must be
regarded, but there is absolutely no reason why such a rule should
ever have been on the books, and it is high time it were erased in
view of the progress of collegiate athletics which are admittedly
becoming cleaner and more free from professional influences each
year.
During the early days of football, some of the more unsports
iiHin like coaches of'teams persisted in "fine-combing" the country
for big husky men who were placed on the teams to play football.
Some of them were provided with "scholarships"; some with
"government jobs," and some with out and out salaries. Conse
qucntly the question of football supremacy in o certain section be
came one of; money, and the teams of the various colleges did not
develop from such material as was bona fide a part of the legiti
mate student body.
In an effort to stamp out these practices, therefor, the "pro
fessional rule" disqualifying any person who had participated in
any form of athletic competition for money, was adopted
That there is much infringment of the rule as it now stands is
well known and that authorities generally are reluctant to enforce
it, quite patent; but when protest is made to them, and convincing
proof offered, there is but one course open the rule must be cn
forcd. University life should be the most broad-minded, liberal and
charitable of all periods of existence. In the university wisdom
and foresight are supposed to live and have their being, and that
so short-sighted and futile a rule should be published abroad as
having emanated from university men is little short of the
ridiculous.
Year after year, in certifying the list of men eligible to par
ticipate in athletic contests, the governing board of every universi
ty in the land is forced to perjure itself, knowingly or unknow
ingly. So keen is the competition in this day and age, for positions
on the various teams of a great university, that none but he who
cxcells in a marked degree can win a place. In order to excell in
any form of athletics it is absolutely necessary that one must have
both natural ability and a vast amount of experience. Is it reason
able to suppose that the young man of twenty or twenty-one years
of age who turns out in a given fall for the first time in a univer
sity suit is wearing n suit for the first time, under the supposition
that ho possess the excelling qualities named above?
Cortainly not. The chances are ton to one that that young fel
low has been playing football or baseball or sprinting or what not,
ever since he was old enough to run. He has probably played with,
against and for men who under the rules arc professionals, and al
though he may never have received anything for it, other than a
few dollars from the bleacher fans for a home run in the ninth at
some high or prep school game, or on a back lot in a country town
have run a race with some professional runner, and been beaten
fifty yards in a hundred, that young fellow is a professional and
cannot represent his college in athletics, no matter if he be a bona
fide student of Phi Beta Kappa ranking for ton years.
Such a rule is patently not only unfair to both school and in
dividual, but is absolutely ridiculous on its face.
That it has existed until Nebraska can no longer put a base
ball team in the field that is a credit to the college and not a blot
on the conscience of the athletic board, is little short of a disgrace
to the intelligence of'those who draft, or are content to live by the
regulations now in force -in this conference and elsewhere.
The writer of this article has been a college man and a fol
lower of college athletics in almost every phase for more than eight
years, as undergraduate, graduate and official. He has attended
three colleges and universities of as many different types and sizes
in as many different sections of the west, and he has visited -and
is fairly familiar with a great many schools that he has not at
tended. Tn all his -acquaintance with athletes and athletics in
colleges he has never seen or known of a single team of any sort
that could not have been decimated by enforcement of the profs
Sional rule. This applies to the University of Nebraska also, as per
example last spring. Yet with the single exception of the case
just mentioned, he has never known of a single instance of the
enforcement of the rule by those in control of athletics against a
member of their own teams.
The motive in its adoption was perfectly good,ut a rule j in nlI tho othor cnses the 1)oard ,mg been conten(. tQ oither
reading m such language could not but affect a great Tnany things liberately ignore sucli hints 'as they have overheard ' from timo to
which it was not designated nor intended to cover. time, or have deliberately closed eye and ear to what is going on
It would scorn perfectly proper to prevent men who played aroun" "lorn.
it would seem that the time for that sort of thing has passed.
That tlio day should now be near when college athletics could be
run under rules that were not unfair or oppressive, but neverthe
less efficacious in. preventing real professionalism which in tho last
analysis as applied to collego athletics, should moan, not what
recompense others moy have offered for the athletic ability of any
man, but what he can be proved as having received from tho col
lege at which he is playing.
ItHs timu tlratr-irll bona ficle regisColnuRliiuTti'icllltttrdRtTF"
baseball for money from participating in collegiate baseball; it
would seem right to prevent those who rccoivod pay for playing
football from playing the 'latter game in colleges, but no reason
able person can see any reason why tho playing of professional
baseball should interfero with tho playing of football, a game as
different from baseball as d-ay from night.
A more sane and reasonable rule could bo drafted quite easily,
providing that professionalism in any particular branch of ath
letics should bar participation in that particular line, and it is
;time that athletic associations over the country awoke to this solu
tion, of, one phase of the troublesome problem. Such a rule would
not have robbed Nebraska of the services of McKibben, a marvel
ous' drop kicker; Minnesota would not have lost George Capron or
jjPickwing, and njny number of collegiate football men who a.re
$ good enough to draw salaries of $150 to $200 monthly playin" baso-
4 ball in the summer would not be forced to try to elude recognition
4 in order- to play, or to work as forty-five-dollar-a-month clerks in
some-department storo.- - . -.-!,.
;i.. .i. ..ii -l i ... .
ucmh, who uueiui classes with regularity, and maintain a good
standard of scholarship without favor and upon their own merits,
shoulfl bo permitted to have an equal chance on gridiron, track dia
mond, or floor.
It is time that college athletics should begin to be run, really
on the "square." It is time that the "professional" bugbear
should be done away with, and replaced by a saner, plainer regula
tion that would put all athletics at the ordinary university, above
suspicion for all time to pome.
Bowling; 5 cents a" game, at. tho Y, The Hyde Prlntery, 1331 P St, tip
,CVA,.BowllnB Alleys. to-date proline of all ktng 7
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