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Brain And Brawn

Brain And Brawn image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
August
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Univereity of Michigan has never eached the postiou where brawn rather ian brain is most highly admired. But aare in danger ofdoing sosoon if great ire is not taken. The following words í a recent able writerin Harper's AVeeky on this topic will prove interesting to ourier readers. day while the journals of ds country were filied with the news of he athletic contests going on between ur various colleges, and the -wungling oncerningthem, while the cheeWwhich ollowed the Cornell crew down the arbor had uot yet died out, the Engish papers were printing the portraits f the young men whohad won the senor wrangler-ships and other scholastic ïonors in their great univërsities. It may not be wise or tirnely or sportsinanke to suggest that men with trained mind sought to play a larger part in the orM's economy than sprinters, jum)ers, oarsmen, and ball-players, but it ïay not be taken amiss if we say that n giving recognition to the young men 'ho win tlie scholatic honors the Engsh papers are not wholly lor wrong, ertainly most of the sturïeuts of a un i - ersity are there for the improvement of ïeir minds, and the ostensible object of university is teaching. The sound of the modern college chalenge, and the tone of the modern intercol legiate discussion, are begining to reembte too much the swagger of profesionalism. A little more oi this spirit, nd these manners would putan end to nter-collegiate sport altogether' And bis would be regrettable. The body of be young American of to-day has been astly bettered by the athletic contests n which he has engaged as a student. The stimulation which inter-collegiate ontests have afforded to physical exrcise bas been so marked that tlie )hysical condition of the whole body of tudents liave been greatly improved. ïather Ihan have inter-collegiate con;ests abandoned, we would have them xtended, but they must become once nore the the recreation of amateur genlemen, or they must be abandoned. 'here is a tendency to make the track, he ball-fleld, and the boat-house tlie chool of professionalism. Manners ught to be and are softened b}' generus rivalry, and manliness and self-repect are thereby increased. Properly onducted contests develop character as veil as muscle, and there is no reason vhy the danger that threatens should not be averted before tlie inter-collegiate games bring about that boastfulness and ,hat trickery which movitably characerize professionalism, and tliat thoroughly unspertsmanlike feeling which uts the prize of victory above the leasure of a fair contention for it. But all this good canuot be gained uuess the athlete is taken down froin his edestal and put upon a level with his ellow students. When he goesoutinto he world, if he has been an athlete and ïothing else in college, he finds that nany a class-mate whose name was ïever in the newspapers in youthful days ia vastly his superior in the im)ortant aifairs of life. Why should not he real student have sonie recognition n undergraduate days? Why should ie wait until he is a judge on the bench o flnd himself on a par with his oldime muscular demi-god who passes lis oíd age as a judge of boat-races? Even more important however, than the ■ights of the scholar are the ine results in athletic contests hemselves that would follow tbeir proper subordination to the real work of the university. Tlie Adrián Press is the only paper in the &tate that would dare gay thls : "Just to bIlow that lio 'wasn'f iiio poli'ticiaa, nor notliing, and "vould mot go to congress, nor nothing, if lie h.ad a chance, but was a plain, li'iinible ianner, tlie greatest of whose liii!le 'Avooild be to see bis ewes graze, li i-i lamte Biick, and bás --lieat drop int o the hall luslvel,' L.iwyer John F. Ijawrenöe oï Anm Arbor, liolped to ihrosli his oira grain tho other day. John's Oiands aro awíully calloiis. Eier iee u-m ?"

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier