Harper's Round Table, February 9, 1897

by Various

On the other hand, there is a great popular interest in football in Connecticut, and the money contributed by spectators at the principal championship games is very much in excess of the requirements of the association. Perhaps, too, so far as track athletics are concerned, there has been a little mismanagement. The spring games of 1895 were very successfully managed, and proved a financial success, but the association was in heavy debt previous to that date, and the profits of 1895 went to make good some of the deficiencies of previous occasions.

In 1896, however, the managers of the games were incompetent, and the meeting proved a financial failure. The games were not properly advertised in New Haven, where they were held, and on the day of the meeting there were more spectators present from Hartford than there were from the home city. Furthermore, the managers were extravagant in the purchase of prize cups, and when they came to figure up their accounts there was a deficit.

It is the belief among a number of the young men interested in track athletics in Connecticut that if the track-athletic meetings cannot be conducted at a profit, they ought certainly, by good management, to be conducted without loss. It has been suggested that instead of having a football association, a track-athletic association, a baseball association, and perhaps other athletic organizations, it would be the better plan to have a single association that would govern all interscholastic sports in the State. The managers of this association would be the managers of each sport as it came up with the season, and the treasurer of the association would be responsible for all the moneys received and disbursed.

Thus if there was a profit from football, that profit could go to the assistance of any deficit there might be in track athletics. At the larger colleges this plan of uniting all branches of athletics under one financial management has been found to be the best plan, for in sport there must always be one branch that is self-supporting while another is not.

Furthermore this plan of uniting all school sports under one financial management in Connecticut would solve the problem of what to do with the surplus in the treasury at the end of the football season. It would seem that, knowing there was a deficit in the track-athletic treasury, the officials of the football association would have turned over from their surplus the amount necessary to make good the shortage. It is to be hoped that the desire of those who wish to unite all sports under one head will be carried out, for it would be to the benefit of athletics in Connecticut.

The Hartford High-School will have three representatives at the Knickerbocker A.C. games next month. F. R. Sturtevant will enter the high jump. He won the event last year with 5 ft. 7½ in. He will also enter the pole-vault. His record in this event is 10 ft. 5 in. J. F. Morris will enter the 100, 220, and 440 yard dashes. He has run the 100 in 10½ sec.; the 220 in 23-3/5 sec.; the 440 in 52-4/5 sec. C. A. Roberts will enter the walk. He is an unknown quantity.

The Board of Education of Chicago seems to be taking a hand in athletics, so far as the high-schools of that city are concerned. A rule has been passed which makes it necessary for the Cook County athletes to work hard at their lessons. No scholar at any of the high-schools who is not a regular student taking a regular course may represent his school in any athletic event. The principal of the school is required to sign a voucher certifying to these facts, and it is also required of him to see that no pupil lets his marks fall below a certain average, the penalty for this being that he must give up athletics until his school work is brought up to the required standard.

There is a lull in athletics among the Chicago schools just at present—the quiet before the storm, most likely. The in-door baseball games do not seem to be getting along very prosperously, and there is considerable opposition to them among some of the students, on the ground that an admission-fee is charged. Lake View High-School still leads for the championship, having won every game played, with Austin second.

There has been a protest game, of course. It was in the match between North Division and Evanston. In the last half of the ninth inning North Division was at the bat, with the score 7-9 in favor of Evanston. The crowd that was looking on got in pretty close to the Evanston fielders, who claimed that this prevented them from doing their proper and necessary work. The Evanston captain protested against the crowding, but as this had no effect with the on-lookers he left the floor with his team.

The matter was of course brought up at the next League meeting, but the executive committee decided that Evanston was in the wrong, gave the game to North Division, and legislated that in the future any nine that left the floor should forfeit the game to the opponents.