There is one rule which every athlete must follow to be successful. Be clean in mind and body. For a starter, I know of no better advice.
I am not much given to preaching, but if I ever took it up as a vocation, I would preach cleanliness first and most.
The boy who wishes to get to the front in athletics must adopt a program of mental and bodily cleanliness.
Perhaps the greatest foe to athletic success, among young college men is strong drink. Personally I have never tasted liquor of any sort.
It was my mother’s influence that was responsible for that, as I promised her when I was eight years old that I would never drink. I might state, parenthetically and without violating a confidence, that my family tree had several decorations consisting of ambitious men who had sought valiantly, if futilely, to decrease the visible supply of liquor. I do not wish to take a great amount of credit for my abstention. Really, more credit is due to a person who has fallen under its influence and fought his way out; but I know that the keeping of my promise to my mother has had a powerful effect on my life and my career.
CHAPTER XIV
THINGS THAT MONEY WON’T BUY
Everything depends on something else. There is no such thing as absolute independence, and those who think differently are simply asleep at the switch. Of all things sought for in this world happiness stands first, and to be sure of this estatic state of being the common mistake is made in selecting the path supposed to lead most directly thereto.