llege spirit and college life.

"Sport is too much with us. Of late years I have observed a great increase
in the number of athletic students, and a great decrease in scholarship.
The fame of the half-back and the short-stop and the stroke-oar has grown
out of proportion to their real worth. The freshman is dazzled by it. The
great majority of college men cannot shine in sport, which is the best
thing that could be. The student's ideal, instead of being the highest
scholarship, the best attainment for his career, is apt to be influenced
by the honors and friendships that are heaped upon the great athlete.
This is false to university life. You are here to prepare yourselves
for the battle with the world, and I want to state that that battle is
becoming more and more intellectual. The student who slights his studies
for athletic glory may find himself, when that glory is long past,
distanced in the race for success by a student who had not trained to
run the hundred in ten seconds.

"But, gentlemen, to keep well up in your studies and _then_ go in for
athletics--that is entirely another question. It is not likely that
any student who keeps to the front in any of the university courses
will have too much time for football or baseball. I am, as you all
know, heartily in favor of all branches of college sport. And that
brings me to the point I want to make to-day. Baseball is my favorite
game, and I have always been proud of Wayne's teams. The new eligibility
rules, with which you are all familiar, were brought to me, and after
thoroughly going over the situation I approved of them. Certainly it is
obvious to you all that a university ball-player making himself famous
here, and then playing during the summer months at a resort, is laying
himself open to suspicion. I have no doubt that many players are innocent
of the taint of professionalism, but unfortunately they have become
members of these summer teams after being first requested, then warned,
not to do so.

"Wayne's varsity players of last year have been barred by the directors.
They made their choice, and so should abide by it. They have had their
day, and so should welcome the opportunity of younger players. But I
am constrained to acknowledge that neither they nor the great body of
undergraduates welcomed the change. This, more than anything, proves to
me the evil of championship teams. The football men, the baseball men,
the crew men, and all the student supporter