Athletic association

“ The same applies to all colleges of the leading universities, Oxford and Cambridge, the best representatives of which compete against one another, whilst the smaller universities hold similar competitions. In addition, a large number of clubs are in existence throughout the country for the promotion and encouragement of sports, the whole system of athletics being under the Amateur Athletic Association (founded in 1880) , whose rules and regulations for the correct maintenance of athletics in the best interests of amateurism are regarded as a standard throughout the world. ”

“ Imagine the athletes of every village training for those prizes—thousands of boy-topers turning gymnasts, ward delegates running for something besides office, and the members of a Young Men's Association seeking paradise on this side of the grave!
With the decadence of athletic sports, games of skill come generally into favor ”

“ The proposition to organize a National Interscholastic Athletic Association, modelled upon the Inter-collegiate Association, made in these columns in the early part of last spring, is looked upon favorably not only by the schools and associations in this part of the country, but also by the schools on the Pacific coast. In fact, the Westerners have shown a much greater spirit of enterprise and sportsmanship in the matter than have the managers of scholastic athletic interests in the East. ”

“ It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity to give you a glimpse of the work of the Junior Colleges of Missouri in Athletics.
In 1914, the organization known as the Junior College Athletic Association of Missouri was formed. Up until this time there were only a few of the colleges devoting much time to athletics. Howard Payne has for years been one of the strongest supporters of athletics for women, not only within her own college, but a strong advocate of intercollegiate sports. ”

“ This first class in athletics for women was in charge of Mr. James Lathrop, for many years athletic trainer at Harvard and instructor in the Theory and Practice of Athletics at the Summer School. He ordered for Miss Eva G. May, then an instructor in the gymnasium at Vassar, the first pair of spiked running shoes ever made for a woman. The Vassar College Athletic Association provided these running shoes for every student who entered field day.”
One of the main difficulties in track work at the present time is that there is no set standard for coaches and participants to use. ”

“ It was decided that each school shall hold an athletic meeting every year. The State athletic meet will be held on the first Saturday in June, and the annual meeting of the association will take place on the same day. The association will control track athletics, baseball, football, and cricket. ”

“ Therefore if school associations want the colleges to take a lively interest in their efforts, to send them trainers, and to offer them cups, I would advise them to work along the lines that college athletes have found most suitable for their purposes, and to let other matters alone. No one to whom I have spoken of this matter so far has disagreed with me. If any readers of this Department have any arguments for the other side, I am sure we shall all be glad to hear them.
IOWA STATE HIGH-SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION GAMES, MUSCATINE, MAY 25, 1895. ”

“ Such an association of schools cannot fail to benefit track and field sports. It will simplify the schedule of events, and officially recognize those that are distinctly athletic; it will raise the standard of performance; it will bring the best material of American schools together ”

“ An athletic association or booster club or a band booster club established solely to raise funds for school-sponsored athletic or band activities for a public school or private school accredited pursuant to § 22.1-19 or to provide scholarships to students attending such school ”

“ Interest in track athletics seems to be developing very rapidly in the West, if we may judge from the formation of new leagues and athletic associations. What ought to prove an exceedingly important interscholastic organization has just been started by the schools of St. ”

“ In addition to these four major forms of college sports, tennis, lacrosse, basketball, and swimming also have a prominent place. The four major sports are usually under the control of special athletic associations, which spend large sums of money and have a great influence with the students. ”

“ And as I have said before, I would recommend that the game be learned backward—so to speak—with putter first, then with mashie, brassie, driver and down through the other clubs.
An adjacent golf course is a welcome requisite to a girls’ school or club. It is desirable for athletic associations or faculties to organize tournaments, as competition usually heightens interest. Where skill is unequal handicaps may be arranged by averaging a player’s scores and allowing the differences between the average score and par as a handicap. ”

“ This lamentable condition of affairs led to the formation of the Public Schools Athletic League for the purpose of promoting wholesome athletic exercises among the children attending the public schools of that city. The league is made up from officers and directors of the board of education, superintendents, principals and teachers, prominent athletes, gentlemen interested in philanthropic work, and leading business men. ”

“ A new track-athletic league has been formed by the larger boarding-schools of the Eastern States, and it is proposed now to hold an annual field meeting in the spring, alternately at New Haven and Princeton. ”

“ Keep the game free from the taint of professionalism, free from betting, free from the disposition that would win fairly if possible, but win at any cost, and we have a form of recreation distinctly beneficial to the whole community!
The discipline of athletics develops obedience, self-control, and the spirit of cooperation, all of them useful, moral qualities. Many a rich man’s son, ambitious for college honors, has gotten his first taste of real discipline on the athletic field. ”

“ Though informal running, jumping, and hurdling matches as well as wrestling and boxing always had a certain degree of popularity among the students, track athletics, as a form of inter-collegiate sport, was not organized until football and baseball had been recognized for some time. A University Athletic Club was organized in 1874, with the captains of the running and jumping squads among the officers, though no public contests were held, apparently, until 1876 when the first "athletic tournament" took place on the Fair Grounds. ”

“ These institutions were originally intended for the training of the young, but the growth of athletic competition soon called into being a new and specialized form of training, the training of competitors for the great games. ”

“ To-day we find the greatest body of athletes in the world is the Public Schools Athletic League of Greater New York, which has had an entry list at its annual games of over two thousand, and in whose “elementary series” in base ball last year 106 schools competed for the trophy emblematic of the championship. ”

“ This noble exercise ought not to be judged by the dishonesty or the low lives of too many of its professional followers. Let it stand alone, an athletic practice, on the same footing as boating or foot-ball. ”

“ There was the same endeavor to develop musical and dramatic talent and direct its use among the men. The cordial coöperation of the same civilian organizations that did so much to promote the welfare of the soldiers in training aided also in safeguarding the naval recruits and in adding to their pleasure. The thorough organization of athletic sports in all the camps, both outdoors and indoors, provided seasonal recreation in the way of football, baseball, basket ball, hockey, running races, boxing, wrestling, rowing and swimming. ”

“ The Olympic beauty of this game is beyond all praise. It calls into active exercise every muscle of the human frame, and brings into bold relief the supple and athletic forms of the best built people in the world. ”

“ The enthusiasm over a track meet grew, and many more lads than were expected put in an appearance at the gymnasium, to try out their skill over the hurdles, vaulting the bar, in hundred yard dashes, putting [69] the weight, shot and hammer, while any number said they were going to try to qualify for the mile run, and the broad and high jumps.
Meanwhile, more or less correspondence went on among the athletic committees of the four institutions that naturally would form the new league, if matters came to a head. ”

“ The place of physical training and of games in education, the place of athletics in our daily life and in our national life, are questions of present importance to us all, and in considering these questions we cannot fail to learn something from the athletic history of a nation which for a time at least succeeded in reconciling the rival claims of body and of mind, and immortalized this result in its art. ”

“ For the best heads evolved it, and the idea of the committee representing the University Athletic Club was to do away with the worst features of roughness in the game, at the same time retaining the science and the keen edge of the sport. ”

“ The years of late boyhood and early manhood say from twelve or fourteen to twenty-eight or thirty, and often until much later are those in which athletic sports prove not only most attractive, but also most beneficial to the individual and the race. In college and in most of the schools which are preparatory for college rowing, foot-ball, base-ball, running, jumping, sparring, and the like have assumed a constantly increasing prominence. ”

“ Offences and late time are entered in a record book, and an opportunity is given to wipe off all past records by two years' good service. The Athletic Club, with over 500 voluntary subscribers, runs three cricket, four football, and two hockey teams, besides bowling, tennis, swimming, and other sports. ”

“ The popularity of athletics, the growth of competition, and the rewards lavished on successful athletes completely changed the character of athletics in the sixth century. The actual events remained the same, but a change came over the attitude of performers and spectators. It was a change which will be readily understood by any one familiar with the history of our own sports and games during the last century, the change from spontaneous to organized sport. ”

“ Naturally athletics was selected as one of the chief fields of effort. Her managers knew that athletic supremacy would give the college the greatest prestige. Championships in the different branches of sport would attract students, and with a full roster of students, year after year, it was thought to be only a question of time when all the rest would come to her. ”

“ Each college has also a set of athletic games yearly. If we add the men who play golf, lawn and court tennis, rackets and fives, who swim, box, wrestle, and who shoot on the 155 ranges of the gun club, the total of men schooled in competition reaches eighty to one hundred. A simple calculation will show that when so many are exercising daily, few are left for spectators. ”

“ It is possible that the universal interest in track and field sports, which has so rapidly developed in the last two years, will prove harmful to baseball and tennis. Already I have heard several complaints from captains of nines that it is difficult to get candidates to come out and try for positions on the team, because almost every boy who has any ambition for athletic honors is running or jumping, or otherwise training his muscles that he may take part in contests which offer material reward for success. ”

“ Although the control of athletics at the Academy is not under the gymnasium authorities, still it is fitting to speak of the sports in this chapter. 208 The Academy has its football, baseball, basketball, and hockey teams, and in addition the cadets play golf, polo, and tennis. There is little in the training or conduct of these teams that differs from other educational institutions, except the question of time allowed for preparation. It has always been the rule at West Point that no inroads shall be permitted upon the Academic course to aid the development of any athletic team. ”

“ That seed grew so quickly that by 1916 there had been 974 enrollments for the athletic work which the Alumnae Committee on Athletics of Barnard College had originated, and the activities had grown until they included, besides basket ball and swimming, social, folk and æsthetic dancing, bowling, hand ball, gymnasium work, indoor and outdoor horseback riding, with drill work, polo and basket ball on horseback, field hockey, base ball, tennis, tramping, summer boat and trolley trips, swimming parties, and college picnics of all kinds. ”

“ Twenty-five now have fully equipped gymnasiums in which children have two or three periods of exercise each week. In the schools not so equipped the physical work is confined to calisthenics. Each year the [133] Board of Education appropriates five hundred dollars for the Public School Athletic League, which organizes meets and games, open to all public school pupils free of charge. Besides field days, baseball, soccer and football there is an athletic badge awarded to all pupils who pass an “efficiency” test in athletic activities.
The academic work of the grades is alive with enthusiasm. ”

“ The gymnasium and playground are considered of unusual importance, as the faculty encourage athletics not only for physical, but for moral and social culture. Football, cricket, baseball and other athletic sports are the most effective equalizers that can be adopted. ”

“ The colleges contain but a small proportion of the men interested in amateur athletics, as can be seen by the immense number of ball clubs, rowing clubs, polo clubs, hunt clubs, bicycle clubs, snow-shoe clubs, lacrosse clubs, and athletic clubs proper which are to be found scattered among our cities and towns. Almost any man of sedentary life who wishes to get exercise enough to keep him in vigorous health can readily do so at one of these clubs ”