L.
Barbour, '63, '65_l_, of Detroit, Regent of the University from 1892 to
1898, and from 1902 to 1907. The building eventually cost $41,341.76,
and includes not only the gymnasium proper, 100 by 90 feet, completely
equipped, but also two large parlors and a series of offices, the
headquarters of the Women's League, as well as a small auditorium and
stage above, seating about 600 persons, named in honor of the
President's wife "Sarah Caswell Angell Hall." Palmer Field was made
possible through two gifts, the first of $1,500 from the Hon. Peter
White, Regent from 1904 to 1908, and the second of $3,000 from
ex-Senator T.W. Palmer, '49, of Detroit. It comprises a rolling six-acre
tract, just south of the Observatory, and therefore within easy walking
distance of the Gymnasium.

These gifts not only ensured systematic physical training for University
women, but also quickly led to a broader interest in sports for women,
as is shown by the pictures of three women's basket-ball teams in the
1903 _Michiganensian_. Since that time there has been a continuous and
consistent development under competent instruction, with special
emphasis placed on basket ball and such outdoor sports as cross-country
walking, hockey, baseball, tennis, swimming, and archery, all of which
are supported by a Women's Athletic Association. During the war also a
drill company was organized under officers of the S.A.T.C.

In closing this review of the development of athletics in the University
it may not be amiss to emphasize the fact that the present status of
collegiate sport is not without its inconsistencies and dangers. There
is real peril for _mens sana_ in an overdeveloped _corpore sano_. The
general and healthy interest in all forms of outdoor sport of earlier
days has been all but lost in this era of specialization. Nowadays the
Varsity team too often is far from being the apex of a pyramid whose
foundations lie in a widely distributed and wholesome interest in sports
for their own sake. Too often we have the spectacle of high-school
students coming to our universities with their careers all made for
them, because of their ability in athletics, bringing with them a spirit
of professionalism utterly foreign to university ideals. And yet all
this has come as a natural result of the heritage of the American
college student, of enterprise, resourcefulness, and love of outdoor
life and sports.

The ideal, of course, is a general participation of a