Colleges Pay For Brawn,
Then Why Not Brains?
(By Lee Casey)
Whizzer White has defended
college football players who plu>
for pay to get an education.
“There isn’t anything in the
system of subsidizing calculated to
shake the foundations of a uni- j
versity or send the professors to
cover,” he says. “No one can say
‘shocking’ or ‘unfair’ until they
themselves have checked the play
ers, to see if down through the
years the system has not benefited
them and the colleges.”
Let me remark that Mr. White,
despite the benefits of an educa
tion at the University of Colorado
and a further polishing at Oxford,
has fallen into the favorite error
of my fellow-columnist, Mrs. Elea
nor Roosevelt, and follows a sin
gular indefinite pronoun with a
plural definite pronoun. Maybe if
he had paid more attention to
Lindley Murray and less to lateral
passes he wouldn’t do that.
No matter. Let's to the heart of
the argument. He contends it is
right and proper for inst tutions
of higher learning — presumably
including those supported by tax
ation—to subsidize brawn because
brawny youths usually it not al
ways are improved by an exposure
to things of the mind and spirit. If
- o, why not try subsidizing brains?
Harry Carlson, athletic director,
says the University of Colorado
has “conservative standards’ with
regard to subsidization. That, ni
ter all, is a bit vague
This would seem to mean that,
despite the overcrowding of the
campus and the lack of rooms, the
state university, like other univer
sities, is adhering to the custom of
offering snec al inducements to
adroit quarterbacks and plunging
ends.
Why not go further and offer
special inducements to future his
torians to buding poets, to aspiring
artists, to potential playwrights?
If physical excellence is to be
purchased by competition, why
not compete for intelligence?
No one can justly blame a high
i school athlete for accepdng a sub
| s dy that will help him toward a
I college education. But to confine;
j the subsidies to athletics, although
such is the common practice, is
obviously wrong.
The University of Chicago, fol
lowing the example of Johns
Hopkins, abandoned intercollegi
ate football despite the howls of
alumni who remembered Walter
Uckersall. Tax-supported institu
tions, of course, are more suscep
t ble to alumni pressure and less
able to afford the loss in revenue
that the abandonment of football
for the few in favor of education
for the many would entail.
Nonetheless our own University
of Colorado might vie with Johns
Hopkins and Chicago in a more
modest way. The authorities at
Boulder, it appears, do not hesitate
to hire star halfbacks. If the Con
stitution and statutes permit this
use of public money—and I’m not
at all confident they do—why not
hire star students in, say the lib
eral arts?
The star student would benefit, j
So would the university.
These were the headlines of 1946...
P lying Clipper headlines that brought news of reduced fares, greater
passenger comfort and the most frequent flight schedules in Alaska’s
travel history.
Yes, for 15 years, we at Pan American have been introducing new
facilities and services in the 'territory . . . and in 1947, as always,
we’ll make every' effort to better serve you ... to further stretch
your travel dollar. In short, during 1947 we hope to make travel
by Flying Clipper more enjoyable, more time-saving and convenient
than ever.
Pam Amen/cam
World Airways
^/fie System of the^T/ymy
PRINCESSES — Princess Margaret Rose (right) rests a
hand on the shoulder of her sister, Princess Elizabeth, heiress pre
sumptive to the British throne, in this new study of the daughters
of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth
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