As to whether it is a good plan for the National games to be again conducted by a club, or by any organization other than the National Association itself, is a question that cannot be decided without the most careful thought and serious discussion. It was undoubtedly well to have the first meeting of the N.I.S.A.A.A.A. managed by a club, for if this had not been done, it is very probable that there would have been no field day at all, or, at best, an unsuccessful one.
There was considerable opposition among the school-boys of New York against having the Knickerbocker Athletic Club take charge of the event, and I know that there is considerable dissatisfaction now over the way the meet was conducted. The complaints, however, all come from those who took no part whatever in the contests, and who had no further interest in the games beyond being spectators; and their complaints, therefore, deserve but little attention. The question is not so much to find where the club fell short in its efforts, as to point out where matters may be mended on future occasions. If the Knickerbocker A.C. did not carry out the school-boys' ideas in the way the school-boys think this should have been done, or if they believe that they themselves can do better, they should attempt the entire management of the games next year.
It would be very much better, of course, not to have the games managed by a club, if the officers of the National Association could spare the time to look after the preliminary details of the meet. But there are so many other things that must take up the attention of school-boys in the spring months that it is difficult for them to spare the time necessary for the successful management of so great an undertaking as a National meet. We all of us recognize the fact that studies should come first. But after the studies there is always plenty of time, and there always should be plenty of time, for young men to indulge in other enterprises. It is good that they should have divers interests. It is excellent that they should go into the management of athletic organizations, and that they should indulge in sports of all kinds, for in both these pastimes they are gaining valuable experience,—experience which some people rank equal in importance with book knowledge.
It is usually the case, however, that the young men who are officers of the National Association are also officers of their own local athletic associations. This gives them double work. They have plenty of time to manage their own meets and field days, without being overburdened and without taking time from necessary work. But when they add to these responsibilities the management of a National Association, they are taking on considerable extra responsibility, and unless the particular young men have strong business capability, they are undertaking more than they can accomplish. It might be well, for this reason, that the officers of the National Association be chosen from men who hold no offices in their own associations. From a practical standpoint, however, this might not be a good plan, because the best workers and the men with the greatest executive ability are chosen as officials of the local associations, and it is most important that these men with the greatest executive ability should also be at the head of the National Association.
But there is another plan by which the National games might be managed without the assistance of a club, and if this plan could be successfully carried out, it would undoubtedly be better than any that I have as yet heard mentioned. It is the old idea of graduate assistance. In every city there are a number of college and school graduates who take a lively interest in the sports of the schools and the colleges, and who are always willing to give more or less of their time to the management of athletics. Up to the present time, in school athletics, this interest and assistance has largely been shown by the graduates acting as officials, because the management of the games has not been complicated enough to require their aid in the preliminary work. But in National matters it is different.
If the schools of New York, and the schools of Boston and Hartford and Philadelphia could get one or two graduates who would be willing to assist the Executive Committee of the National Association in the organization of the annual spring games, it is more than probable that the event could be made a greater athletic and social success than in any other manner. The graduates would have more experience in business affairs than the school-boys, and business men would probably be more willing to enter into contracts with the graduates than with the school committee—and I am sure, from my own experience when I was at school, that every scholar would much prefer to have the contracts undertaken by others who would be willing to assume all responsibilities.
By dividing the preliminary executive work between the Executive Committee from the schools and the graduate committee, no one would be overworked, and everything necessary to the success of the day would be done. This would be an ideal plan. The only trouble is to get the graduates. This is an obstacle that can be easily overcome if the search is begun at once. Mr. Evert Wendell, of this city, is a very good man to go to first. He has had wide experience in interscholastic matters, and there is no one who has better judgment than he in these affairs; and we all know that no graduate has given more time and more valuable assistance to school athletes than he has. He would undoubtedly be able to suggest the names of other gentlemen in other cities who would be willing to undertake to aid the Executive Committee of the National Association.
If it should be found that this plan could not be carried out, then it will be time to discuss the questions of club management and purely school-boy management, but until the other scheme has been found impossible, I think it would be well to keep it in mind. There is one more subject that this Department wishes to touch upon in connection with the National games, and that is the officials. But so much space has already been taken up this week with N.I.S.A.A.A.A. matters that the discussion of this question of officials will have to be postponed until next time.
The athletes of the Berkeley School may justly feel proud of the record they have made this year. They have taken every championship in the New York I.S.A.A.—football, track athletics, tennis, and baseball. In baseball the Berkeley nine was not defeated in any of the championship games; and in addition to this, the team secured a number of important victories over strong teams not in the League.
The result of the championship series is as follows: