estricted to State and city I.S.A.A.'s, or open, as well, to
individual schools. It were better at first, I think, that membership be
restricted to associations; that is, that the larger body be made up of
smaller organizations, which in turn are composed of individual
institutions. Then the competitors at the national meeting would
represent the best and strongest athletic talent of the State and city
leagues--men who had earned their right to compete by having won in
their event at their own State or city contest.
Some sort of exception could be made in favor of large schools that do
not belong to any association, or whose association, should they be
members of one, could not for some reason send a team to the national
meeting. The question will come up for decision in the case of the
Oakland High-School of California. This school belongs to the Academic
Athletic League of the Pacific Coast, and is imbued with sufficient
sporting spirit to wish to come East, and enter the National
Interscholastic lists. The A.A.L. might hesitate at undertaking to send
a team to New York on account of the expense; but because the A.A.L.
cannot send a representative team is no reason why the O.H.-S. should
not be allowed to compete. As a matter of fact any team representative
of the A.A.L. would be largely made up of O.H.-S. athletes. It is very
probable, however, that the A.A.L. will be perfectly willing, and even
anxious, to have the O.H.-S. team come East (at its own expense), as the
representative not only of the Oakland School, but of the entire
Academic League. It could place its reputation in much worse hands. But
whatever the A.A.L.'s inclination may be, the organizers of the National
Association must formulate some rule that shall cover this and similar
cases, or they will find themselves constantly called upon to solve
knotty and complicated questions.
The New York interscholastic football season is more backward this year
than ever before. There seems to be almost no interest in the game
except here and there, and several schools have announced that they will
not even put teams in the field. Harvard School is one of those. The
reason given is that the principal considers the game as played now too
rough for his pupils. A member of the school, however, asserts that the
true reason is that the Harvard scholars are not good enough at the game
for the school to stand any chance in the league contests, should it
enter. There is
|