Harvard Athletic Association Develops into an Efficient Machine Under Long Bingham Regime

What would Harvard be without the Briggs Cage, the Dillon Field House, and the New Indoor Athletic Building? When William J. Bingham '16 took office as Director of Physical Education ten years ago this month, Harvard had none of these buildings, but Bingham's ten year reign has seen great changes in the athletic situation.

Whereas in the Twenties no attention was paid to many of the less-populous activities of the athletic scene, now the H.A.A. arranges games for scrub teams, for ineligibles, for House teams, for the C, D, and E participants in the world of sport.

Beside the tremendous physical expansion in both plant and number of men accomodated, less striking but no less significant changes have taken place in the relationship between the Athletic Association and the faculty as a whole. The traditional distrust between the man who teaches the star halfback football and the man who teaches him history, usually resulting in a permanent state of warfare between the dean's office and the athletic association, does not exist in Cambridge as it still continues to in some other colleges.

By making the Athletic Director a member of the faculty instead of a member of the coaching staff, and by such measures as the joint meeting of the Deans and the Administrative Board with all the coaches every fall, the H.A.A. has been brought closer and closer into cooperation with the rest of the University. The vote by the Corporation several years ago that certain members of the coaching staff should be entitled to share in the benefits of the Teachers Retirement Fund has also done much to do away with the old position of insecurity, making for a desperate desire on the part of the coach for winning teams at any cost.

Besides these developments in the internal situation the policy of the Crimson with regard to other colleges has changed materially. Harvard was once a firm believer in the principle of the Munroe doctrine and refused to enter any league, compact, or agreement. At present Harvard is a league competitor in almost every sport.