Union College - Garnet Yearbook (Schenectady, NY)

Page 32 text:

up X mv aff'T,..-32,7 -5- I WI' v'tIl,I12-4 I is axiomatic that we never fully value anything until we have lost it. So deeply have I been impressed, through their lack, of the value of health in general, and sleep in particular, that one night in a hospital my thoughts began to How in rhyme and rythm: Seven long nights my eyes stared wide. Time was no more a flooding tide, But a pool stagnant black and deep, Then first I knew the worth of sleep. P Curious, isn't it, that every literate man, yes and even the illiterate, strives to put his emotional life into verse. Why? Wotilcl be a good query to put to the professor of psychology, who would doubtless give you some kind of answer. And as I lie on a sandy couch in the Florida sunshine, watching young fellows brown as berries scamper laughing along the beach, to nip in and out of the breakers, I often think that I would give all I am and possess to have similar health and be twenty again. W'ell, if health is such a jewel of great price, I should try to apply that knowledge for the good of Union. And that I intend to do. I have been think- ing a great deal how year by year we might improve our health service, how we might get more adequate knowledge about our bodies, and instructions about their care. Next year I hope we shall have a small intirmary, so that when you are half sick or recuperating, it will not be necessary to lie around dormitories cr fraternity houses, but instead be looked after by a nurse in suitable sur- roundings. Games and sports were invented, I suppose, for two reasons, first, because people enjoyed them and second, because they helped to build up and maintain good health. Since a large part of this volume will consist of pictures of teams and contests perhaps it might not be amiss for me to say something briefly about sports and what we like to do in Union College. Curling, golf and football along with whiskey and Presbyterianism came out of Scotland' which we often think of as a dour country. It is introduced the bag-pipe into Scotland as a joke, the point of have never seen, and it is just possible that the Irish may also the Scotch the five items I have named above, for the Irish Tennis is an ancient sport played by the English and French are many references to it in literature. Lacrosse is an Indian early times, hundreds took part on a side over wide stretches of is a development of cricket and rounders under the American said that the Irish which the Scotch have unloaded on race is inventive. nobility, for there game in which, in country. Baseball genius for organ- ization. Basketball, a modern game, developed, I surmise, when football men .gg ll E2 I If N il lp x Z4 l i s f A 5EiEEE'Et?f'i5 :? h'ff'- E' 'x:::::5':!f 4 I 5.7-ji-.., , q ,,, 26 K f Vg ,, T A - 5--IS:.1 ::'1?35F -ei iiii' , E2 5 7.

Page 31 text:

DR. FRANK PARKER DAY. President of Union College and Chancellor of U niou University 25

Page 33 text:

who wished to keep fit during the winter tossed a football from one to another and took sides to keep the ball. But. whatever the origin of games, their initial purpose was to let off steam, keep fit, preserve health and to have some fun. It is always distressing to me when I learn that some particular undergraduate hates football, dreads the weari- ness of the practice, and plays only because he feels it a duty to the college and his fellows. For when the element of fun is squeezed out of a game, it becomes indeed a sorry thing. At Union College I hope we shall have every undergraduate taking two hours of each day for some sport that he truly and heartily enjoys. Anyone who has been an athlete knows the joy of feeling fit, the happy co-ordination of brain and muscle, the glory of The boxer's trim Of brain divinely knit to limb. Let us not forget at Union our slogan, Athletics for all, for a genuine and participating interest in sports may be carried on with benefit and pleasure through a man's whole life. In closing, let me congratulate the student body council in particular for the sincere efforts you have and improve your own body politic. Your greatest generally and the student made this year to reform problem, of course, is to learn how to deal with your general student body meetings. A hundred years ago old Eliphalet Nott told the professors and undergraduates of Union College that large bodies of legislators or executives were difficult to handle. Wl1e11 two men are discussing a matterf, he said, there is some reason. If eight or ten join in the discussion there is less reason, and if a hundred attempt a dis- cussion there is no reason at all. More and more the tendency, in a world that wants to get something done is to put the power in the hands of a few well-selected men and to free them from the continual review of the large number that has selected them. It is possible that some of your difficulties might be minimized by having fewer student body meetings-perhaps only two a semester-and putting more confidence in the representatives you have selected. To all teachers and undergraduates of Union College, I wish good luck, good fortune and good health. FRANK P. DAY, ' President. I0 NI s, ,.,.. .-4.51 I - 5 ' W-1 I'IC '.l'::..'ul .ii1f'fi, 157 l ' , In ,x In l...lI::::.llipIH, if 5: , ilu..g:,::.lc. , --7-' . 7 ' H1 1 .1 alll- 59 l - . f'F'1': . .a .iJl -U-U-IF f-we T IH-Ll