Tennessee Wesleyan College - Nocatula Yearbook (Athens, TN)

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BASKETBALL ® By far the most successful team on the campus this year was the basketball team captained by Fred Whitehead. A representative lineup of this team which won thirteen games and lost only three would be: Hanna CF); Vestal (F); Whitehead CO); Walker (G.i; Posey CG). Substitutes for Wesleyan: Fulkerson G . Jenkins CF), Davis (F), Ragan (C), Walker, Guthrie, (F). This team started out in a manner which made the stu- dents heave a big sigh and say: ' We won ' t get to cheer much this winter, but after dropping games to Birmingham South- ern and U. T„ bath four year colleges, they went to the finals in the Southern Junior College Tournament at Asheville without suffering a defeat. The play cf the team was characterized by a fast, clean dribbling and passing attack and a clcse five man defence. This method of play made them almost unbeatable. George Hanna always led the floor offense and the ball usually landed in the basket from the hands of Whitehead or Vestal to whcm he fed the ball. The last home game was the best game played in the Wes- leyan gym last winter. In this game the Bulldog ' s won from the Kncxville Y, 37 to 11. Knoxville was rated as a mighty gccd independent team. The true metal of the team was tested on the trip which ended up the scheduled season. Wesleyan was slated to lose at least two out of three of the trip games and she came thru winning them all. The last game at Sue Bennet was the clcsest of the season, the Bulldogs taking it in the last min- ute of play by a field goal which put them one point in the lead. At the tournament in Asheville, the Asheville Citizen gave them an equal rating with any team there. They won their preliminary games by large scores and only lost by five points to Bluefield College, of Bluefield, West Virginia. And next year is coming. SPORT COMMENTS The Sports Editor has suffered thru this year, making navy a comment on the subject of sports in general and as he is now singing his swan song as a contributor to the columns of the noble Nocatula he is going to give the subscribers of this sheet a few of his mental verdicts on the subject of sports and sport editors w.fchout extra charge. College sports have suffered some very justifiable criticism from the academicians in the past few years because of the tendency of sports to usurp the first page in college newspapers, relegating such things as literary societies, schol- arship societies, dramatics, etc., to positions under ten point headlines and on the pages where advertising predominates. Commercialism has also been leading these hounds of re- form a merry chase as has the tendency of the coaches to dictate the policy of the school. One Chinese American stu- dent described the Arr.erican College as an athletic institu- tion where certain of the more feeble were afforded an oppor- tunity for study. Our institution is more cr lees free of all these so called evils. Inevitably sj because it is not heavily enough en- dowed to be commercial and because denominational sm is so prevalent that any other icrce must lift its head with fear and trembling for it will sure get it knocked down again. The trouble in cur school is not too much athletics, but too little athletics. By this we mean that the athletics of tne school is carried on by too few people. Although the modern youth is much touted for his strength of body and freedom of spirit, it remains that the average boy is constitutionally averse to physical exercise and that the average college graduate has a physical development which makes him unfit for a hundred yard dash and common house labor. This may be the fault of the modern trend of college thought — that mind is more important than the body— or the modem methods of operation, which is such in the large college that none but the exceptinoal can stand the commer- cialized competition and in the smaller colleges that so lit- tle equipment is offered and so little variety of sports that, it is soon taken up by the select few. As we see it this should be combated in two ways — tif it should be combated at all and if we are right in our premise ' — first the college student should be taught the value of physical perfection, not merely from a utilitarian standpoint, for it is the mind that earns the living in this age, but from

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Miklii- GIRLS IN ATHLETICS They are tanned in the face by the shining suns and blow- ing winds. Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength. They know hew to swim, to row, to ride, wrestle, shoot, run. strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves. They are ultimate in their own right, they are calm, clear, well posed of themselves. It was many years ago when the poet Whitman wrote those words but this graduating class of Tennessee Wesleyan and the future graduating classes are seeing and will see it come true. It was of the girls he was speaking. We were looking thru the Exponent issues of the nineties just the other day and lo and behold here was a specimen of the discreet, shy, but somewhat gay it is told) nineties. Her dress, her expression and everything about her qualified her for a spectator in the athletic contests of her day. Not so today. The girls of Tennessee Wesleyan although they were treated somewhat as a side issue, provided witii only one activity and clothed in antiquated uniforms came out about fifteen strong for basketball and rivaled the bo s in ability and activity. More power to the girls. Here ' s hoping that some day they will have tennis teams, hockev teams, swimming teams, coaches and equipment, and that the Walt Whitman prophecy will be even truer than it is to- day. GRADUATING ATHLETES When the thump of the pigskin and the thud thud of the basketball is first heard next year no two of the graduating Wesleyan athletes will find themselves trying out for the same team, for the six graduating letter men are dispersing to all points cf the collegiate globe. Fred Whitehead, the only four letter man in the group will st.ll be competing for the big W. But this time it will be a W of another color. It seems that old John when he passed thru this section of the country also founded colleges in Ken- tucky and Ohio. It is at Kentucky Wesleyan where Fred will betake his lumbering frame and his Olympic manner. Howard Guthrie, letter man in two sports, baseball and basketball will follow John ' s trail out to Ohio and try his batting eye at Ohio Wesleyan. Sweeney Jenkins, who earned his yellow W as a member of this year ' s only thrice defeated basketball team, doesn ' t want to get too far from home. He will go to U. T. Wilsie Wilder, for three years tackle, seems to be having a hard time making up his mind (he ' s probably waiting for Bill to make up hersi where he will finally betake his athlet- ic form and argumentative mind. He has Mercer University in mind right now. Fuzzy Green, the smallest man in the Wesleyan back- field, will go back on his Alma Mater, Alabama, and try his luck at Auburn. Red Latham, who matched Wilsie Wilder at tackle, savs that he will forsake the athletic field and locker room and take on professorial habits at the beginning of the next school year. He will try his hand at school teaching. TENNIS AND BASEBALL @ Tennis is a coming Sport at Wesleyan. Besides the vari- ous amateurs who play for well deserved pleasure in front of Petty every evening. Wesleyan supported a tennis team which need not look askance from anyone. The team composed of Jerry Vestal, John Thomas, Raul Leon. Kyle Haynes and Howard Guthrie, up to date has played four matches. In the match with Hiwassee College, the first of the sea- son, they swept the docket clean, taking every match. Mary- ville College fell before them 5 to 2. They dropped matches to U. of Chattanooga and Baylor. While the college supports no official baseball team, thru the efforts of Coach Haynes the boys have banded themselves together into a nine which has won four and lost one game. A tattered looking bunch they were with uniforms of every- body from the Chattanooga Lookouts, to uniforms which have no right to be called uniforms, but nevertheless they pounded the old pill all over the field. Probably with the showing that nine men can make with no effort at school sponsorship, the school will see fit to put out a baseball team in the future. 17

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GAMMA GAMMA Emily Johnson.- President Virginia Mae Immel Sec-Treasurer Valeria Ogle Reporter an esthetic standpoint, and from the standpoint of the per- sonal satisfaction that a perfect physique can give. Here- tofore this has been done in a negative way. We have been told what not to do and we have been given synthetic meth- ods of getting our play and exercise but there has been lit- tle positive effort to instil a love of the body in the minds of the students of the country. Second there should be a positive effort to minimize the importance of the varsity athletics and make athletics a subjective rather than an objective concern and to give every student in the school the chance to participate in the games he prefers without having to compete with athletic students. If it is deemed so very important by the school auhorities that the athletes should have mental training we see no reason why it should not be just as important that the av- erage student should not have athletic training. Certain sub- jects are required of all the students and we cannot see the great difference in the intrinsic value between them and ath- letics. The athletic temperament is a classic quality and shculd be encouraged. SPORTS DISCUSSION © We have kstened to many dormitory bull sessions as to the relative value of the different sports which are played in college. The discussion has usually been confined to the three major sports, basketball, football and baseball. The three major sports are mainly for the boys of athletic body and temperament and should be treated as such — the inter- est of the majority of students in them is the interest of the spectator. From the point of view of the player probably football is the more value, for in it one gets the combination of track, wrestling, boxing, and basketball. It is physical de- velopment and the enormous crowds seem to testify that this is the more popular from the spectators ' point of vie v — we beg to differ we think that basketball is the tenser of the two games. Football has all the thrill cf machine like teamwork, the thrill cf clever running and hard tackles but it is a game played in stops and gees and it is a game played in heavy pads. B?.si:ettall is a game w-hich requires as much stamina. It is a game which is played with the barest of uniform. The pretty play cf the muscled arm is in plain view. It is a game played much faster than football and a game taking a much quicker eye and a clearer head than football. The eye of the spectator can never be relaxed. The team work is more evident and prettier. A one man basketball team is far less possible than a one man footbpll team. Baseball, we think is precluded from the race because of its professional aspect and because of the slowness of game allows inattent ' en. From the standpoint of the student who wants a good so- cial game and a body builder at the same time we think that bcth tennis and golf are far superior to the major sports. When a football player graduates from college the chances are that he will never again wear a football uniform and the chances are that his fine athletic action will degenerate into mere talk and reading of the sport page. Both tennis and gclf are social sports which can be played with little equipment and little organization. Neither cf them demands youthful vigor but both can furnish a good outlet for youthful vigor. They are the games which can be played with undiminished pleasure throughout a life time If the technique of these games not gained in college, or the majority of cases they are never played. So it seems to us that they should be r ated higher in the scale of collegiate athletics because they are fitted to serve a greater number cf people for a longer time. 1!)