Page 163 - YB1902

w. )VI. C. Htbletic5, 1901--1902. E hardly think that athletics need an}' defense at present. Almost every objection that can 'be or has been raised has been anticipated ~ and met. That the college man of to-day, with his strong muscles and tingling life-blood, is an improvement over the college man of the past, whose only object -vas intellectual development, even at the expense of health if necessary, is one or tile most apparent facts in our progress. We cannot say that a rough encasing destroys the value ofthe priceless gem of intellect, but how much more beautiful that gem appears if lodged in a body whose every faculty is at its best and under perfect control. There has been a tendency for our colleges to turn out intellectual geniuses with emaciated bodies. Athletics is last becoming the universal remedy for this evil. And so at western Maryland athletics plays an important part. Foot ball during the Fall term. in-door athletics in Winter, and in the Spring track team work, base ball and tennis allow no student an excuse for neg- lecting the development of the physical side of his nature. For the promotion of athletics in general an association has been formed by the boys of the college, and this association has entire charge of the different branches of athletics on "College Hill." First to claim our attention is foot ball. In this field our success was not so great as we had reason to expect. With a snappy team, which, taken as a whole, made the best showing in "raw material" we have had for sev- eral years, we anticipated much. The best game of the season was played with Mt. St. Mary'S College, and, for the first time since aLII' association has been in existence, we de- feated them in foot ball. Many other exciting games were played, but in most of them fate seemed against us, although we won some games with such scores as 60-5 and 40-0 and, moreover. gan: all our old rivals a scare and a rub. Next in order was basket ball. The schedule for basket ball consisted mostly of games between college classes for the college championship. This series or games caused much interest, and, as every game was hotly con- tested, class spirit was aroused to a high degree. 141