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

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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

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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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lighted watches of the night? If by 'iboysi' Hampden-Sidney boys are meant, one might sooner expect the trees to leave their places in the forest, the rivers to turn back'- ward in their flow, or the headlong cataract to stand still in its course than to hear. that they had failed their comrades in the hour of defeat. No tribute more beautiful, no devotion more pure will be found in the annals of college history than that paid by the Hampden-Sidney student body of V909 to the home-coming team on such an oc- casion. 'lihe news had been received on the Hill and the players could only imagine the joyous greeting that would have been theirs had the victory been won. But as they rounded the bend at Kingsville late in the night, what was their surprise when yonder- on the campus was the welcoming light of a glorious blaze? Could it be true? Yes, the students had actually done it as though to prove that no defeat could chill the ardor of their interest or lessen the zeal of their devotion. On another occasion, when the returning team stepped off the train at Farmville well past the hour of midnight, what was there left for words when they found themselves surrounded by their loyal fellows, patted and caressed with all the eagerness and fondness that might have been called forth by some notable victory. Yes, the students had come all the way from the College, armed with their horns and drums and fifes, and in their determination to do homage to those who had fought their battle, they even ran the gauntlet of an irate local constab- ulary, which threatened to demolish their tuneful instruments and march them to a different tune to face the music before an offended magisterial dignity. The writer feeds no idle sentiment, betrays no unmanly secret when he here records that on one of these occasions there were those among the veterans of the battle-field who were moved to tears by such expressions of devotion and loyalty. Surely such a nobility and refinement of leeling were worth the purchase at any price! Of course we believe in the right sort of athletics at Hampden-Sidney, and in say- ing this the writer means to speak both advisedly and deliberately: he holds no brief for any side-line enthusiasts, nor do the purse-strings of liberal, if interested, financiers con- nect with his private office. All that is meant here is what has already been said be- fore, that there is a place for sound athletics in any sound educational system. ln his comprehensive educational programme that great man and educator, John Milton, allows, nay, prescribes a necessary, a proper place for athletics-the exercise, culture, and de- velopment of the body along with that of the mind and the heart. Young men come to Hampden-Sidney for a thorough education and it is the high privilege and responsibility of those in charge to see to it that, as far as possible, these young men grow up into the fullness of the stature of perfect manhood, physically, mentally, and morally. ll must not be understood, however, that we are running a college here simply for athletics or that athletics here is the power that runs the College. Students of the present session who have trod with the writer the high-ways of literature will remember how the satirist Swift, with his keen and poignant pen, chose to prick and excoriate certain of the fads and follies of his day run mad, and how forsooth he would have established special 24