For Dear Old Wabash . . .

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the Crimson:

The Harvard football team has completed what we must admit was not a successful season. Why? I believe that it was not half so much the fault of the men who did their best on the team an of these who call themselves its "supporters."

We talk about the over-emphasis of football, but what about the over-emphasis of Harvard's "Influence" which has apparently ruined what little college spirit we ever had? The lackadaisical attitude of the undergraduate body, whose support of the team this year has consisted in little else than occupying a seat in the so-called "cheering" section is enough to shame any Harvard man who has an ounce of sporting blood. We cheer only when we are personally excited by a good play, merely as an emotional outlet, and not with any idea of maintaining the morale of the team. We have become like a gambler in stocks whose support of a company is based only on its chances of increment, to be abandoned at any weakening.

The cheering sections of our opponents are a shameful contrast to our own. How many cheer leaders of other colleges have to beg their men to "make some noise? I wonder how many of the present undergraduate body know the words of even one of Harvard's great football songs? So few that the University Band has given up playing them and gives us instead medleys of largely irrelevant, albeit well--played music. In parenthesis I should like to congratulate the Band on its magnificent spirit at New Haven last Saturday. That made up for a lot.

And what has become of the football rallies? I actually discovered a Senior the other way who didn't know what the term signified! No doubt the rallies have been put aside as expressions of kiddish emotionalism unworthy of college men. But without some kind of real, honest-to-God enthusiasm directly instilled into the men on the team, we have no right to expect them to defeat teams whose members feel solid support behind them.

Indifference has made of us a spineless lot of dilettantes. But may be I'm merely an old grad harking back to the "good old days!" W. D. Richmond '25.