Mr. Roper of Princeton has a letter from a loyal alumnus of '98 suggesting that the game of football would be improved vastly if the captain were to have the entire responsibility for the management of his team when engaged in contest. This idea is not a new one. The arguments that this ruling would make the game not merely a contest of the brawn and physical skill of the two teams, but also a contest between their brains, seems to hold a certain amount of water. No doubt competitive athletics conducted on this plan would approach more nearly the ideal set by English ideas of sport, in an informal cricket contest where play is interrupted while the sacred rites of the tea table are observed, this plan would work. Unfortunately, the condition of intercollegiate athletics in America today, especially football, is different.

Yesterday many of us were glad to outdraw our bank accounts to get our quota of tickets to the Princeton game at $5 apiece. We would have liked to get twice as many an twice the price, if necessary. Thousands will swarm from the byways and hedges to see two and twenty players fight over a little leather ball. They will expect great things. A single mistake may decide the game. One error may mean defeat. But what of it, our friend across the water asks. There is yet some joy in life. What remains of life does not at once look bleak and dreary to an English 'varsity man if he happens to drop a ball. Nor does he feel eternally disgraced if, by mischance, he falls during a sprint or crumples up in a shell.

It is unfortunate that our American make-up is such that we take sports so seriously. It is nevertheless an undoniable fact and we must face the truth its best we can. Considered from this standpoint the morale of the team and leading his men on the firing line are quite enough of a task without giving him the awful responsibility of making substitutions as well, and directing the strategy of the game in a manner that will be pleasing to 30,000 spectators, millions of newspaper readers and millions more of listeners on the radio. It is essential that an older and more experienced man should have this responsibility, and that man we know as coach.

Admittedly, we do overemphasize the game; but here we are quite justified, considering, that by this means our other sports are supported and we are able to maintain our "athletics for all" policy. In the development of this latter program and in other tendencies, there are hopeful signs that we are getting away from "Professionalism." This year the University crew coach is taking three undergraduate courses and is working for an advanced degree in addition to his regular athletic duties. Likewise, one of his assistants is teaching in an undergraduate department. The Freshman football Coach, furthermore, is entering his second year as an instructor of history. These and other admirable examples that we could cite would seem to prove that we have not entirely forgotten that amateur ideal of sport.