It is the firm belief of the proponents of the plan that its advantages are such that Yale will soon come to adopt the game sort of sports set-up for the future. Until then, in the individual sports, the Harvard all-House teams will be at an advantage over the champion Yale House team and on close to an equal plane with these individual sports in which Yale has no House team, while in the team sports Harvard will be at a disadvantage in meeting the Eli soccer, lacrosse and rugby regular outfits and on the same plane in the others.
The Coaches
At first it might appear from this plan that minor sports coaches would have nothing to keep them at Harvard. It has already been mentioned that such coaches will have more work to do. This work will be dealing with a far larger body of men than heretofore and hence will be less directly influential. But if coaches can see the "sport for sport's sake" ideal of the plan, they will fit into their new niches in much the same manner, at least in the individual sports, as club professionals. Their tenure will be secure, and their indirect influence vastly greater than at present.
Our present sculling coach is an example of the coach of the new type, a year-round position, for which the plan calls. His name is as widely known in his sporting world as that of any competitive coach. And the champion games with Yale, with intensive coaching before them still continues the intercollegiate thrill for those deserving it. And finally, let it be remembered that athletics are moulded for the undergraduates, not for the coaches.
Worth of House Sport Expansion
The recent voting of the House Associates plan on the part of the House-masters may be taken as another reason to prove the worth of an expansion in the House athletic program. One consideration, however, is worthy of more than passing note; that is, that every single upperclassman in College must be eligible for House competition as attached to some regular group. With this premise in mind, the Committee views with alarm the recent promulgation of the separate athletic scheme for out-of-House men.
Now that the Associates plan will care for many of them, whether they may be able to be allied with Dudley, is a question at the present writing. The powers that be in the athletic world here, nevertheless, must fit these men into the competitive scheme of things. Financially, this task will be made very much less difficult by the Committee's plan.
Double Goal
In conclusion, let us look at the plan as a whole. The goal of the House athletic scheme is a double one, quantity and quality. Improving one without the other defeats the very purpose of sport. The plan we launch attempts bettering both at once, quality from the top, with the invigoration which will come from the erstwhile Junior Varsity and minor sports man, and quantity all the way through, in the tremendous expansion of the House program which the plan affords.
When this investigation was first proceeding, there was raised the question of whether or not to allow Varsity men to compete in sports closely akin to those in which the Varsity men made their mark. And it was the unanimous opinion of the Committee that such men added much needed dignity to the House sports. Under the plan now proposed this dignity has been given serious consideration and was one of the cornerstones upon which we built.
The success of this year's newly organized House hockey may be considered as boding well for the venture. The Junior Varsity puckmen were allowed to compete and improve the competition, and the Varsity hockey coach was on hand on numerous occasions to give advice which many of the non-Junior Varsity men would never have been able to receive. With the complete abolition of the Junior Varsity hockey team, the possibility of a regular House hockey coach, handling also the Freshmen, is extremely practical. In another sport, baseball, the new coach has expressed his willingness to look on the House nines as Varsity "farms." Such will be the case of other House teams, boosted by better material and at least one hitherto Varsity mentor.
Conclusion
The House sports will have more money placed in their barren coffers than they have ever had up to the present time. But, let it be remembered, that if this scheme is born of the present in view of the budget, it is also of the future in view of the ideal.
We are not damning intercollegiate competition. In the Varsity sports that remain we oppose curtailment, save in connection with shorter winter schedules. And, in the sports which we are taking from the ranks of "minor" into House, we believe that it is both possible and even fairly probable that in the future some of them might be added to the select seven. Soccer appears to have the greatest chance in this regard now, and, should participation, outside interest, and funds permit, the day may well come, perhaps soon, when soccer will be back in the intercollegiates.
Flexibility in any athletic program is essential, as college interest in the world of sport rises and wanes at no predictable times and along no predictable lines. A few present hardships, however, must not be permitted to interfere with general good on a broad basis. The plan, it is believed, will form the second step, with the inauguration of the endowment plan considered as the first, toward "athletics for all" at Harvard.
