UNIVERSITY CHANGES.

A great change has taken place in the position and the importance of physical training at Harvard since President Eliot's inauguration thirty-one years ago. The out-of-door sports antedate the indoor exercises. The first boat race with Yale occurred in 1852. The old Gymnasium, now called the Rogers Building, was built in 1859. After it had become outgrown, the President of the University recommended, in 1873, that a new Gymnasium be built, and Mr. Hemenway gave the money for the building, which was completed and transferred to the University in 1879. A Director of Physical Training and of the Gymnasium was appointed in that year. Since then there has been a steady growth in the systematic physical training of young men desiring to use the Hemenway Gymnasium, and Dr. Sargent's work has placed Harvard easily equal to any modern university in the opportunities for physical culture offered to the students.

The Corporation, upon the recommendation of the President, provided a loan for the construction of tennis courts on Jarvis and Holmes Fields, which had been purchased for the use of students in outdoor exercises. In 1869 the out-of-door sports were football, rowing, cricket and baseball. The Track Team and the Athletic Association were formed in 1874, and the Lacrosse Association in 1878. Since 1879 a number of new organizations have sprung up, such as the ice Hockey Team, the Shooting Club, the Fencing Club, and the Basket Ball Team.

The gift of Soldiers Field by Mr. H.L. Higginson enabled the Corporation to place all out of door sports in a locality not likely to be needed for new buildings. A steady improvement of this region has taken place since the transfer of the different sports from Holmes Field. The additions which can be made to the field by the future treatment of the Longfellow Marsh will provide adequately for all out of door teams.

The growth of College sports was so rapid during the first years of the President's administration that many abuses crept into the intercollegiate contests. In 1882 it was found necessary to make an inquiry into the schedule of the baseball games, and the standing committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports was appointed in that year. In 1883 it became apparent to the committee that football, as then played in the intercollegiate games, had become brutal and dangerous; but what was much more serious, it involved a danger to the manly spirit and to the disposition to fair play on the part of the contestants. Changes were made in the rules and a conference with other colleges was summoned by Harvard to consider the intercollegiate question. Nothing came of this beyond the education of the public, but the Harvard Faculty undertook single handed to impose restraints which seemed necessary. In 1888 the Corporation and Board of Overseers established a Committee for the Regulation of Athletic Sports, consisting of nine members, three members of the College Faculty, three graduates, and three undergraduates. Since 1888 there has been steady improvement in the spirit of intercollegiate sports. The Harvard students have learned how to win fairly and have shown every disposition to conduct their games in a manly and fair spirit.

This subject may be summed up by the statement that thirty years have practically seen the establishment of definite systems of physical training and a great improvement in the general physical welfare of students; that during this period out-door sports have, like the swing of a pendulum, carried the men from inordinate study to excessive athletic training and back again to a more sensible adjustment between such studies and sports. It is only of late years that we have begun to settle down to this reasonable adjustment. During all these years both physical training and out-door sports have had the benefit of wise guidance from the President of the University.