ATHLETICS FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS.

BY CHARLES L. THORNBURG,

Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy, Lehigh University.

I assume that it will be conceded by everyone here present that "A sound mind in a sound body" is a wise saying and especially applicable to the class of men called engineers. Some, if not the majority, of the faculties of our educational institutions seem to lay great stress on, and devote much time and effort to, the "sound mind" part of the saying and little or no attention to the "sound body" part of it, leaving that to nature and chance. The writer believes that both are equally important and that if greater emphasis is thrown on either part it should be on that of the body, for without a sound body the mind cannot do its best work.

It is difficult to account for the attitude of many educational institutions on the subject of athletics; too many of them leave the management and control of athletics to their students, without the proper regulation and control that they should have in order to secure the best results, hence have grown up the abuses that we decry. The recent organization of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, composed of members of the faculties of some sixty or more colleges and universities, is a step in the right direction and should result very soon in great good both to the cause of education and athletics. This movement grew out of the abuses that were rampant

in the football sport, and the first work of the association was to improve and regulate that, but at the last meeting, held in December, 1906, resolutions were adopted looking toward the proper regulation of baseball and basket ball, and a resolution was also adopted requesting the faculties of the various institutions belonging to the association to take steps to regulate the number of intercollegiate contests for each branch of sport. This has already been done in certain sections of the country, but it should be done in all of them; fewer intercollegiate contests should be held and greater stress should be thrown on inter-class, inter-fraternity, and inter-club contests, and the benefit of outdoor athletics brought to the greatest possible number of the students of every institution of learning.

Athletics at each seat of learning should be under the general oversight of a trained director of physical education, who should be of the grade of professor with a seat in the faculty, and who should be responsible for his department to the same extent and degree as the professor of civil or mechanical engineering is responsible.

Gymnasium work should be required of every student for at least one year with not less than two hours work per week; if for any reason of physical disability the student's family physician prohibits this, he should be required to take an equivalent amount of work of some kind in its place. This is so at Lehigh University and no student can graduate until he has satisfied this requirement. I would go further than this and require that certain students,

with weak and undeveloped bodies and consequent poor health, should, when the judgment of the professor of physical education says it is necessary, be required to take regular exercise under his direction throughout their whole college course or as much of it as is decided upon by the professor. The gymnasium work should not consist wholly of physical exercise, but the students should be instructed in the proper care of the health and the body, and their protection from abuses and diseases; the exercises should be regulated to correct the defects and weaknesses of the individual student, as our best physical educators know so well how to do. A large part of the gymnasium exercise should be done out of doors.

After the period of gymnasium work has been completed as many students as posible should be encouraged to take part in the different branches of athletic sports, and to secure this end each educational institution should provide and equip as many athletic fields as necessary so that the benefits of this kind of training shall be made possible to all students, and not confine it, as at present, almost wholly to the candidates for the so called "varsity teams."

What has been said thus far is applicable to any kind of a student, and in fact I fail to see the difference between an Engineering student and any other as far as his relation to athletics is concerned. I have been intimately and very actively connected with the management of athletics for the past fifteen years, and as secretary of the faculty for the past eight years, I know the scholastic standing of the student body. At Lehigh University our best and

our poorest students engage in athletics, and I give it as my judgment based on years of experience that athletics, per se, are not detrimental to scholarship, and that if properly managed and controlled they would be an aid rather than a hindrance. Almost invariably the scholastic standing of weak students, who are athletes, has been found better in the term in which they were playing football or baseball than in the one in which they were not playing. It may be thought that one reason for this result is a rule which some colleges have requiring a certain grade of scholarship of the students engaged in athletics, which is not required of other students, nor of athletes except when members of a team. This is not so at Lehigh University; any student whose scholarship permits him to remain in the university is to that extent qualified to engage in intercollegiate athletics.

Some years ago a weak student who was an athlete was placed on probation by the faculty, as to his scholarship, on motion of the head of his department; the question was raised as to whether he should be ordered to stop playing baseball, whereupon the department head replied "No it will do him good to play."

I am aware that many engineering educators will admit the benefit of athletics but will deplore the loss of time devoted to them, which in their opinion had better be spent on engineering work. I do not agree; I do not call the time lost; but some will say, we have no time for athletics, we need all the time for shop, drawing, field, and laboratory work; my reply to this argument is, do less shop, drawing, field

and laboratory work, or rearrange your roster, or cut down some of the other required work to such an extent that the students may devote some time to athletics and you will graduate better embryo engineers. At Lehigh University in the fall and spring months as little work as possible is scheduled after 4 p. m., and no work is scheduled on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons at any time.

We cannot make engineers, we can only give our students the underlying fundamental principles of the science of engineering and develop in them, as best we can, the power to think and reason correctly, accurately and rapidly; they must make engineers of themselves after we graduate them.

The President of the Bethlehem Steel Company recently said to me that in choosing men to do his work, of two graduates equally well prepared scholastically, he would give preference to the one who had been an athlete, because as a general rule that man would get out the work he was assigned to do quicker and better than the other man, because his athletic training had taught him to act quickly and accurately in the face of opposition and difficulty.

In my judgment the faculties of the universities and colleges of the United States should take a firm hold on the management of their athletics, and see that they are conducted on a strictly amateur basis, under well regulated business principles, fairly and honorably in all particulars, and aid in improving their moral tone and in making them more useful.