In the course of an address before the National Collegiate Athletic Association on December 29th Dean Briggs said: "There may be reasons why the athletic coach should not receive three times as much as a professor of Greek, but there is no reason why he should not hold a position of equal dignity." Athletics and studies are too often regarded as competitive rather than complementary, to the detriment of each. As a result few athletes find time to do justice to their scholastic work, while on the other hand the most brilliant students are frequently forced to neglect their physical well-being. Coach Haughton recognized the need for co-ordination in the recent letter which he urged football candidates to avoid probation not as an annoying technicality, but as an end in itself. If all coaches and professors had as good sense as Mr. Haughton and Dean Briggs, collegiate instruction in both departments would be greatly improved.
The situation has become so acute that these two sides of collegiate activity are completely estranged. The athlete and the scholar usually regard each other with mutual suspicion at first sight. Very few men indeed have been able to unite physical prowess and intellectual distinction, although last year's Phi Btta Kappa list contained some notable exceptions. There is no reason why every student should not follow their example to a certain degree, with the practically unlimited time at his disposal. For unless it is driven to an unhealthy extreme, neither work nor play need occupy more than half one's leisure hours. Personal negligence alone can explain such one-sidedness. Whoever recognizes his physical unfitness or his mental bankruptcy has plenty of opportunity to redeem himself.
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