Hockey as a Major Sport.

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

From the standpoint of a graduate who took part in athletics when he was in college and has closely followed all Harvard contests since, the failure of the proper authorities up to the present time to increase the number of major sports by the addition of hockey is difficult to understand.

It would hardly seem as if the undergraduates as a body had followed hockey very closely or compared it with the rowing, football, baseball, and track either in regard to the number of men who have taken up the game, or in regard to the outcome of our hockey games with Yale compared with the outcomes for the same period of the four sports named above.

First some figures in regard to the number taking up the sport. Leaving out the Varsity squad there was last winter 22 scrub hockey teams, on which 230 men played. Twenty-one other colleges have organized hockey teams, among them those with whom we compete in one or more of the major sports. Thirty-two private schools support teams and build up available material, later on, for college teams. There are forty-four public schools with teams and from this source also many players become available for college teams.

The sport itself covers a period of four months, December, January, February, and March, a longer one than any of the other four sports, and comes at a time of year when out door sports generally are out of the question, and does not interfere with any of the other squads. The game itself requires the best physical condition, great activity, mental alertness, and being thoroughly at home on skates.

We have played annually with Yale since 1900. This is the way the records stands compared with the four major sports for the same time.

  Games won.  Harvard  YaleHockey,  10  3Baseball,  8  4Track,  6  7Rowing,  5  7Football,  2