ATHLETIC REPORT ENCOURAGING

To the President of the University:

Sir,--I have the honor to make a report in behalf of the Committee on the Regulation of Athletic Sports.

Besides the Chairman, the Faculty members of the Committee were Dean B. S. Hurlbut and Dr. E. H. Nichols; the graduate members outside of the Faculty, Robert F. Herrick, Esq., J. Wells Farley, Esq., and Mr. G. P. Gardner, Jr.; the undergraduate members were Mr. H. B. Gardner, Mr. Walter Tufts, Jr., and Mr. W. M. E. Whitelock.

The year was a year of unusual success in athletic contests: in football, in hockey, in baseball, and in rowing the teams won notable victories; and the ten men of the cross-country team that met ten men from Yale took the first ten places in the race. The victory in football marked the fifth and last year of Mr. Haughton's first term as coach. The Committee took great pleasure in re-engaging him for a term of three years. In baseball the College saw a well-earned Harvard victory over a team generally believed to be much stronger. Dr. Sexton was re-engaged as coach of the University baseball team for three years. The track team won from Cornell, lost to Yale, and took second place in the Intercollegiate track meet, Pennsylvania taking first. In October the track management was authorized to enter a two year agreement for dual track games at Cornell and a two years' agreement for cross-country running with Cornell.

"H" to Hockey Men.

In March it was voted, after long discussions in the Student Council and in the Committee, "To make hockey a major sport, carrying with it the award of the 'H'"; and in April it was voted "That the hockey 'H' be awarded to all men who have ever played for Harvard in a game against Yale.

Coaches off Players' Bench.

In May it was voted that beginning with the year 1914 coaches and graduates should be kept off the players' bench in baseball. For several years there has been a strong feeling in the Committee that in the actual games the baseball team, however thoroughly trained beforehand by the coach, should be thrown on its own responsibility and that the exigencies of the game should be met, not by the coach, but by the captain. The authorities at Yale and Princeton had for some time believed in just such a change, and had proposed it earlier in the year.

The rule of the Faculty forbids the beginning of a public athletic contest until four o'clock except on Saturday or a holiday, and until the end of the last hour of lectures or recitations on Saturday. The more important football games in the Stadium are played in November, when the afternoons are short and the height of the Stadium walls makes the sun set early. For the safety of players and spectators alike the Faculty voted that the November games, which are always on Saturday, might begin at two o'clock.

Resignation of Mr. Garcelon.

Mr. William F. Garcelon resigned as Graduate Treasurer of Athletics, his resignation to take effect at the close of the year. . . . . . Coming as Graduate Treasurer with the understanding that not more than half his time should be given to the work, he had been required again and again for considerable periods to give nearly his whole time to it. He was instrumental in many important changes, and he had the satisfaction of seeing a marked improvement in the business of the athletic office, in the intelligence with which Harvard teams are managed, and in the success of those teams against their rivals. He worked hard and successfully to stimulate interest in athletic sport among students who need such sport for their bodily and mental health and have no thought of belonging to an organized team. In nearly all ways he left a much better athletic situation than he found. Fred Wadsworth Moore, A.B. '93, was appointed as Mr. Garcelon's successor.

William E. Quinn, for seven years a successful trainer of track athletes, and a very valuable man for our teams, died February 14, 1913. J. Fred Powers has been engaged as his successor.

Increasing Friendliness of Contests.

Not the least important thing in Harvard athletics of late years has been the steadily increasing friendliness and confidence of the relation between Harvard and Yale. Years ago this relation was frequently disturbed by suspicions which were often too nearly warrantable, and for which each college was no doubt in part responsible. To expect that every player in every contest will always do exactly right toward his adversary is to expect something a little beyond human nature; but in general it may be said that the games between Harvard and Yale are now among the friendliest and the cleanest, as they have long been among the most intense, of college games, and that the negotiations between Harvard and Yale about them are among the most agreeable negotiations of the college year