SPRING FOOTBALL

Spring football practice, after a quiet lapse into informality and practical inactivity, is once more to be put upon a more or less organized basis. Announcement of this fact naturally leads to conjectures on the cause for this distinct change from last year's policy.

It would seem reasonable to suppose that last autumn's mediocre showing has in part prompted this action of the H.A.A., which is naturally anxious under the present methods of making up its budget to produce as good a football team as possible in order to increase the gate receipts, which must support the whole athletic program. Yet it is at the same time unfair to attribute totally selfish motives to the Athletic Association in this case.

Certainly any regular call to the prospective football squad is to be strongly condemned. However, this spring's practice is to be entirely for those men who are not engaging in other sports, and no effort will be made to attract men participating in regular spring athletic activities. Indeed, most of the key men will be otherwise engaged this spring, so the football coaches cannot be justly accused of attempting to do much more than try out some new ideas on formations and give those men who enjoy the game and would be otherwise inactive a chance to play it during the spring.

Under these conditions March and April football practice appears perfectly legitimate; it is not any attempt to ballyhoo or overemphasize the sport. Yet it should be conducted with the full realization that it has certain bounds; for nothing would be easier than to slip back into a formally organized and much over-emphasized activity.