Slippery Rock University - Saxigena Yearbook (Slippery Rock, PA)

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most base of emotions, hatrcd. Hatred has never built anything, but has always been destructive. Fair play and sportsmanship, if practiced will go a long way towards developing a finer type of citizenship throughout the country. Athletics develop in the young women and men initiative, resourcefulness, and the ability to think for themselves. Athletics are largely contests of wits, and teams who have played the game properly get a lot of benefit mentally as well as physically. The average sport is a hard, rough game, and there is nothing in the rules against playing it as hard as you can. However, it must be played clean and without muckerism. The game has no place for the mucker any more than it has for the mentally dull. Joshing on the field and court is all right, but it must not be carried to an extent where it becomes insu-lting. During the current basketball season peppered with defeat, the alumni have shown their loyalty by their actions in standing by the team and coach, particularly after just having a grid eleven that had found a great measure of success. However, the alumni should realize that loyalty isn't worth a nickel unless it works both ways. If the team shows it has been well coached, fights to the last ditch, and lives up to every tradition ofthe old school as regards sportsmanship, morale, and physical condition, the alumni should not feel bitter if the teamis beaten now and then. The most successful schools in athletics are those which have retained coaches over long periods. The most unsuccessful schools in athletics are those which allow their alumni to have them chasing rainbows. This means that they keep looking for the miracle man to coach their team. Practical Cxperience would show them that there is no such man. If they get a fairly good man, they had better keep him. This portion of the Saxigemz, the athletic division, like past issues, is meant to give homage to the athletes of Slippery Rock and to acquaint their many admirers and followers with facts con- cerning the various teams and athletes that might otherwise go unknown outside of the campus. Nothing said in praise of the athletes and the athletic organizations is meant in a spirit of brag- gadocio, rather, our comments are made from the point of view of an outsider looking in at them with an attitude of respect and awe. We make no attempt to exaggerate the qualities of the Slippery Rock players, because we feel that this is unnecessary. Various things said in this department of the year book are the antithesis of what they would say about themselves. To us they are real heroes, and we only ask that the reader try to look at them through our eyes. We wish to take this occasion to thank our many contributors and others who co-operated with us in this gesture of respect for what we honestly believe to be the greatest grid team and one of the greatest athletic seasons in Slippery Rock history. -THE ATHLETIC Emrronsf '

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SLIPPERY ROCK ATHLETICS Another sensational chapter was added to the stirring history of athletics here at Slippery Rock with the completion of the current season. The Rockets have just passed through one of the hardest athletic seasons in its history, but the co-operation of everyone con- cerned made it a successful one. - In looking back over the history of the school we find that athletics were run on a scholarship basis up until 1917 when, in order to raise the standards of the school, scholarships were done away with. The athletics were given over to the student boys under the supervision of an athletic committee, composed of members of the faculty. The school authorities and ofiicials can point with pride to the fact that throughout all the following years Slippery Rock has remained a win- ning team on the non-scholarship basis. With this champion and non-commercial status has remained a high degree of sportsmanship. Sportsmanship in itself means fair play. It means having a little respect for the other fellow's point of view. It means a real application of the golden rule. In contests like track athletics, tennis, baseball, swimming, etc., where the competition doesn't involve so much mental stress and strain, sportsmanship has reached a very fine level. It is more difficult for a football or basketball squad and coach to get the proper point of view. This is due to the fact that the very fierceness of the contest produces emotional clouds, making it difficult for judgment and fair play to pierce this dense fog of emotionalism. However, fair play has dominated in all Slippery Rock sports. When a Rocket team has won, the coach is as generous as possible in his comments on the losing team and the losing coach. .Bragging and gloating have no place in these circles of erudition. Green officials feel that when a team loses the losing coach should give full credit to the other team, regardless of conditions. An alibi or a flock of alibis is entirely out of order. The feeling between the student bodies has been one of exhilara- tion, and the coaches have done all in their power to eliminate that

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