EDUCATIONAL ATHLETICS. At the outset it must be borne well in mind that ath letics in an educational institution is not an end but a means to an end. The end in view is to furnish a healthy habitation for a healthy mind, for without a sound body to carry out its work the mind certainly cannot do what nature in tended it to do. Certain minds incorporated in crippled bodies, it is true, have risen fo remark able heights in the various fields of human activity, but not on account of deformities, but in spite of them. Perhaps there is nothing so detrimental to a good healthy body — not even the use of stimulants — as excessive sedentary pursuits. When a young man is bent on win ning scholastic honors, he unconsciously falls into this excess. Of course the natural result follows. Good rich blood is denied the parts; they become starved, and in a short time degen eration sets in throughout the entire body. Then it is that we have a terrible spectacle of a strong intellect unable to do even ordinary work on account of a pain-racked body.
It is to counteract this tendency to starve the body in order to feed the mind, that school authorities have encouraged physical as well as mental training among students. Thus we see that to-day the gymnasium is as important a part in a group of school buildings as a hall of science or of arts.
Although educational athletics is found at its best in the university, and there is little dif ference between the systems employed in our leading institutions of learning, the question is far from settled as to the best way of exercis ing the boy in the elementary and high school. It is a generally accepted fact that the exercise —we can hardly dignify it by the name ics'" —in the elementary school is the one which, apparently, has the least system about it.
Athletics reduced to a system is for the first time found in the high school. The games played are much the same as in the college, namely, baseball, football, track sports, tennis and basketball, while in some of the high schools we find indoor baseball. As a rule all inter
scholastic competition is under the control of the school principal, or a member of the teach ing force appointed by the principal.
All over the country there are interscholas tic associations made up of high schools in ad jacent counties. The winners in the respective i meets compete in larger meets under the aus pices of the athletic associations of some nearby university. In many of the Western States, State high school track meets are held annually by the various State universities. Beside the rivalry between high schools located in the same section, there have been contests between the champion football teams of the Middle West and those of the East.
Generally speaking, every university in the United States has the same routine. Each stu dent is required to undergo a physical ination, so that a correct knowledge of his bod ily condition is obtained and proper exercises prescribed. Regular classes are formed for drill in ordinary arm, body, leg and wand cal isthenics, and then on the various gymnasium appliances and apparatuses. During the fresh man year at least, gymnasium work is compul sory. ' Exceptions, however, are made in the cases of those who make athletic teams. Be sides the exercises themselves, lectures are given on personal hygiene. If the college is a co-educational institution, the female students take physical training under a competent woman instructor. In several institutions young women have taken part in basketball, and in rarer cases in track athletics, and on several occasions have made enviable records.
All competitive athletic games are given un der direct faculty supervision, and examination is required to show that the membership on any team will not cause injury to the student, but will tend to improve his physical condition. No student, whose class work is unsatisfactory, is allowed to play on a university team. No stu dent is permitted to play on an athletic team more than four years. All those who take part in collegiate sports must be amateurs.