1905-06 Volume 30 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

loo THE SCROLL.scarcely a one of the top notch tennis players but who has suffered fromheart disease, many of them in severe form. Many died of heart diseasebetween the ages of 40 and 45, when they should have been at their best,physically.It is often asserted that the successful athlete brings into his after life acourage and reserve strength which makes him eminently successful. Thisis not the case. The college athlete does not lead in his studies. Thosewho are interested know that he is seldom even up to the average of hisclass. This mental inactivity seems to follow him in a:fter life, preventinghim from becoming a leader in intellectual aftairs.Few of the winners of the Oxford and Cambridge footraces, records ofwhich are available for more than 100 years back, ever achieved more thanmoderate success. Frequently they were left physical wrecks, and seldomthey escaped without some physical injury. The conditions in this countryare the same as those ui England. The athlete's heart is frequently badlystrained and the work tells upon the strongest constitution. In after life,when the body should be the strongest, the undermined system collapses andthe athlete fills an early grave from heart disease, consumption, or someother disease induced by over-exertion.The Tribune obtained by telegraph the views of many collegepresidents and professors on President James views andpublished them June 14.President Eliot of Harvard said: I think the statement istoo sweeping. Probably President James never intended tosay anything like that. He probably referred to some concretecases and did not intend to apply the statement generally."President McClelland of Knox said: ' I have no patiencewith wholesale and indiscriminate attacks on athletics. Ath"letics are inevitable, and the question is whether they shallrun wild or be carried on under proper control. I cannotindorse President James' generalization any more than 1could the wholesale condemning of intellectual work becausea man here and there overdoes and collapses."Provost Harrison of Pennsylvania said: To say that hardtraining by athletes breaks them down physically, and thatthey never achieve any great success mentally in after time,is to my mind the result of the selection of altogether exceptionalcases. No better argument could be offered for thecontinuance of college athletics than to cite the number ofnames of Pennsylvania's famous athletes who have achievedgreat success by the employment of their mental powers. Wehave made physical training a part of our curriculum, andthis is an evidence of our faith in athletics."President MacLean of Iowa said: "As a result of my relationsto college athletics and as a mem'ne^ -of boards of controlfor twenty years and from my observance of the aftercareers of distinguished athletes, I would say that there are