Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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ethereal abode. It is here again, to put the matter differently, the old case of the shield. Those who argue for no physical education fail to see the other side, and those who would make the physical rnan the whole man forget that there is another and a golden side! In College communities, where the subject of Athletics assumes more directly an educational aspect, much has been said and written touching the vexing problem-and far the greater part of the trouble has grown out of a failure to secure a proper sense of proportion, of balance. If College authorities generally recognized the right relation of physical exercises and contests to the rest of the educational scheme, the great American colleges today would not so often find themselves asking the question regarding athletics- To be or not to bef' What then is the function of an education and what part in making for the greater efficiency of that function are the gymnasium and the athletic field to play? ls not an education designed to develop true, strong, courageous manhood, to bring out all the best there is in a man and to direct that best to the highest, the most useful, and most efficient service in life? That bodily exercise is conducive to normal, healthy, mental development is too well known to be pointed out. Every one has experienced the exhilarating effect upon the mental powers of wholesome, vigorous physical exercise, just as every one who has neg- lected it comes to realize sooner or later at what cost he has denied himself, not the luxury nor the pleasure, but the very necessity of such exercise. Now in the college where does the student find this much needed help to his studies save in the gymnasium and on the athletic field? Then certainly here is justihcation for the physical side of education.. But more than this,-if courage, manly strength, a sense of fair play, if skill, agility, judgment-all these count in the mal-ce-up of the well-rounded college man, then surely there is a place in the educational programme for gymnastic exercises and athletic con- tests. Whether as an end in the development of the body itself or as a means to the de- velopment of those higher faculties of the mind and heart, college athletics cannot fail to serve a most desirable and useful purpose. What more valuable discipline than that of the athletic contest? Every honest participant learns the lesson of self-mastery, self- control. He cannot master his opponent unless he first learns to control himself-a prin- ciple he needs to carry all through life if he hopes successfully to meet and overcome the obstacles that will be found in his way. Qualities of endurance are likewise called forth and developed. The thoughtful and observant player finds that the staying qualities in the long run count for more than the brilliant exhibition of a moment that meteor-like illumines his path and then goes out in darkness and oblivion. He learns to hold out a little longer, to endure to the end, and. thus in the face of seeming defeat he does not give up and finally comes out victor. And when he leaves the athletic field and goes out into the greater and more serious contests of 22

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fgifws Q QE, ., ll NSW E Hiampiivit-Svihnwg auth Atlilrtira N QU Y man who has spent a year at Hampden-Sidney and has seen the splendid battling and the still more splendid spirit shown by her sons on the athletic held knows that athletics is a popular cause at this Institution-a cause that should be, and is, very dear to the heart of every loyal son and supporter of the College, whether he be a veteran of many years agone, or whether in recent days only he has stepped forth to enlist under the banner of Garnet and Gray, so often glorious in victory, yet not less honorable and honored in defeat. Familiar to every one is the three-fold division of education into mental, physical, the mind, body, and heart are severally brought into play and spiritual, according as the ends for which they were created. One reads and hears and trained best to subserve popular side today that one may entirely forget the right of so much of athletics on the physical, bodily exercise in a proper system of education. But the ancients were still alive to the importance of physical training and development as a necessary part in the schooling and equipment of their youth. No people ever attained to greater intellectual prowess than the Creeks, and yet those same Greeks have continued to our own day the wonder and admiration of the world for their exhibitions of physical skill and superiority, and the laurel that crowned the poet's brow they coveted scarcely more than the victor's wreath in the Ulympic games. Nor was this a disparagement of the higher being of man, but a happy correlation of bodily and mental powers, both regal, both supreme in their respective spheres. It is to the ancients, too, that we turn for the felicitous and com:- pendious definition of a well-rounded man as that of a sound mind in a sound body. If mythology furnishes in a Hercules the people's recognition of the physical as the highest type,-nay, if early history affords examples of the peopleis delight in the brutal and brutalizing elements of man's nature, and records for us the rule of international law in vogue with our ancestors that might makes right, we should not be led into the oppo- site error of supposing that a misguided fancy, a grim necessity, or even a willful abuse of native powers must be remedied by the suppression of those powers in all matters of proper conduct and living. The difficulties then, as now, resulted too often from over- emphasizing the one side of man's nature to the disparagement, if not exclusion, of the other. Because we have minds, have we not also bodies? and conversely, are our bodies to be regarded as the sum total existence? Press either too far, and you are reduced to an absurdity. A mind divested of its corporeal existence has no more place in a mun- dane sphere than gross corporeal substance would have in the limitless expanse of an 21

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life, he applies and applies successfully the lesson learned in his school days, that the re- ward is to the faithful and the enduring. He appreciates more fully the great trut:h4 He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved. Again, the ambition of the student is aroused. l-le strives to make the team, he works hard, he does his best, he wishes to prove his worth, to win his laurels, he is ashamed to be left behind,-and so he is stimulated to higher and better things. He learns not to be afraid. As he meets, tackles, or wrestles with his man, he discovers his own strength, learns to stand his ground, comes to be brave and courageous in the face of danger. But better yet, when he goes out with his team to do battle with the opposing team, he forgets himself as he remembers that he is entrusted with a high commission, that he has in his keeping the pride and glory and reputation of his Alma Mater. l-le learns that noble and ennobling lesson of unselfishness, devotion, and patriotism. He cares not if he is skinned and bruised and hurt if only he has worn well the colors and insignia of his cherished Mother, if he has been enabled to keep her banner from trailing in the dust of defeat, if he has been permitted to bring home to anxious and eager com- panions and friends the trophies of a victory brightly and honorably won. ls it a small thing, is it a boyish enthusiasm,-this devotion to Alma Mater, this pride in a football or baseball victory? Verily it is of such stuff that the leaders of armies, the true and devoted defenders of home and friends, the unselfish patriots who give themselves to the cause of freedom and native land, the benevolent and self-sacrificing servants of their fellow-men-it is of such fibre and spirit that the world's greatest servants and noblest citizens are made. Best of all, the true player learns how to be brave and manly in defeat, and thereq may be displayed a nobility in the midst of defeat that not even victory can know: for who of the world's illustrious men can answer to the nobility of that matchless leader in the 60's when surrounded by the overthrow of his people's cause? There is no disgrac.e in defeat if only honor be safe. And after all, the victory of the field is only an inci- dent,-but the qualities of true and noble manhood that have been developed there are lasting-yea, are everlasting. What makes for college spirit-esprit de corps-like the veteran team around which the students rally and for whose success they are knit together as one? If the team wins, the students forget their troubles and everything is brighter and they are de- termined that more victories shall come. ln sounds of happy, if not always well- modulated voice, they chant their paean of victory, and with the fires of their enthusiasm they light up the way for the home-coming team. As Horace of old, they rejoice with those that rejoice, and thus their hearts are drawn together in indissoluble bonds. Perchance victory has not been theirs, but by some strange accident has perched on the standards of the opposing team. Do the boys at home lose heart and go silently to their tents and leave their comrades uhomeward to plod their weary way in the un- 23