XLV. Student Life—Physical Side, Continued
In our description of athletics in the Eighth Period,
1895–1904, we mentioned the fact that, during the session
of 1898–09, a system of alumni coaches was introduced,
but that, at the end of two years, it was abandoned,
and the former system of alien coaches restored.
It was under the latter system that instructors, drilled
on the grounds of Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Michigan
Universities,—experts like Abbott, Chamberlaine,
De Saulles, Poe, Sandford, and Cole,—were employed
to perfect the skill and harden the power of endurance
of the University of Virginia players. To Hammond
Johnson was assigned, in 1906–07, the somewhat complicated
duty of leadership in re-establishing the alumni
coaching system, and adjusting it to a facile working
footing. The attitude towards the change on the part
of many was one of emphatic disapproval. They said
that a large number of alumni who would make competent
coaches would be prevented from undertaking
the task by narrow means; that a spirit of fickleness
would be encouraged; and that it would be impossible
for such coaches to accumulate the experience of a
Yale or Harvard expert. Besides, there was little in
the history of the re-introduced system, as formerly
associated with the University, that would serve as
guiding posts for present or future management.
Following Johnson, there sprang up, in succession, a
number of capable men,—M. T. Cooke, John H. Neff,
Charles B. Crawford, Kemper Yancey, Speed Elliott,
Rice Warren, and H. H. Varner,—who, in turn, undertook
the principal control, and, with the assistance of
many other alumni, made the system of domestic coaches
so successful that criticism of it was gradually hushed,
and it continued in force until the athletic activities of
the University were rudely broken up by the World War.
But the services of the non-alumnus expert were not entirely
shut out. The advisory committee of the General
Athletic Board specifically requested the Faculty to
amend the regulation prohibiting the use of such services;
and this counsel that body accepted with the following
safeguards,—which also had been suggested by
the association: (1) the supervision of the foreign coach
was to remain with the University alumni; (2) no alien
was to train longer than two weeks during any one session;
and under no circumstances was he to possess the
last decisive word; and (3) he was only to be engaged in
case of an emergency. With these precautionary rules,
it was sanguinely expected that the amateur purity of
University athletics would be protected and handed
down indefinitely. As a matter of fact, it would appear
that it was only in the sport of baseball that these foreigners
were occasionally employed.
The manner in which the system of alumni coaches
worked was thus described by Dr. Lambeth: "From
each passing team," he said, "there is selected for field
coach the most available man who possesses brains,
initiative, and the faculty of cooperation. He opens
the season's preliminary training, and he adjusts individuals
and squads. As development advances, he invites
certain specialists, who have become proficient by
teaching here and elsewhere. On the arrival of the new
coaches,—and the number is to be increased as the season
progresses,—they are informed as to the plays in
use, and the methods of executing them. At the night
meeting of the coaches, every man can talk and vote
on changes and innovations; and what is ruled by the
majority is next day drilled into the team. The field
coach is transposed into a graduate coach. Here
coaches are being made while the team is being instructed.
Ten years will produce ten coaches of wisdom
and power. The graduate system encourages and requires
Virginia men to think for themselves. Instead
of rubbing out and starting anew each year, we begin
the new season where we ended the last."
The report of the secretary of the General Association
of Colleges for 1910 mentions the fact that, at this time,
nearly seventy of these institutions were in favor of the
selection of coaches from the circle of their respective
faculties, alumni, or undergraduates.
The old charter of the General Athletic Association
having expired before the beginning of the session of
1911–12, a new one was drafted and adopted by the
association and granted by the State Corporation Commission.
Under its provisions, the advisory board consisted
of two members drawn from the Faculty and five
members drawn from the student body. It was the
duty of the executive committee to superintend the association's
affairs; to appoint the coaches, managers, and
employees; to award the V to the most distinguished
champions; to guard jealously the integrity of University
athletics; and to administer the finances of the association.
By the session 1913–14, the influence of gross politics
in the choice of officers of the General Athletic
Association had disappeared. In all former elections,
there had been two antagonistic parties, each supporting
a different policy; but no step, however wise or necessary
in itself, could be taken before the nomination of
a candidate who represented that particular policy.
"The politician in athletics," remarked Dr. Lambeth,
who had been observing the normal species for many
years, "suggests affinity with insects. He first comes
out of his pupa stage in March as a crab. He is a crab
because you can't tell which way he is going, forward
or backward or sideways. He backs and fills, until his
final metamorphosis, which gives him his future characteristics,
and which becomes pronounced in May."
Before the adoption of the new charter, all the students
participated in the elections, and the campaigns invariably
took that violent form picturesquely described as
"whirlwind." Subsequently, the "whirlwind" subsided
to such an innocuous zephyr that, not infrequently,
the names printed upon the ticket were not known to
everybody until the day before the election took place.
Each election was now in the hands of the executive
committee and athletic boards.
About 1904–05, the University of Virginia withdrew
from the Inter-collegiate Association. It seems that
the institutions belonging to this association were now,
with the exception of itself, without graduate students.
"We were unwilling for them," said the spokesman of
the University, "to legislate as to how they should play
other colleges which did have graduate students." In
1915, the General Faculty were unanimously in favor of
the University of Virginia participating in the athletic
conference of Southern State Universities, the object of
which was to stimulate the prosperity of inter-collegiate
sports; to increase their disciplinary value; and to foster
the highest sense of honor and fair play in all the intercollegiate
contests. The conference assembled once a
year, and each member was represented by two delegates.
The financial condition of the General Athletic Association
throughout the Ninth Period was, as a rule,
satisfactory. The report of the treasurer in June, 1910,
showed that the receipts for the previous fiscal year had
amounted to $13,178.33; and after all expenses had been
paid, there remained in the treasury a surplus of
$499.52. At the beginning of 1913, there was a credit in
bank to the extent of $1,440. The income, at this time,
was derived from the regular fee of two dollars, the
special contributions of students, and the gate-money
handed in by the spectators. In 1911–12, the advisory
board was compelled to borrow the funds which were
needed to complete the work on the concrete stadium in
Lambeth Field.
