Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

THE ATHENAEUM 87 letic teams and unsurpassable scholarship are perhaps the most im portant factors that put any college in the class of the greatest educa tional institutions of the world. Ever mindful of this fact, More house has put much emphasis upon this) phase of college life- As a result her graduates are "given high ranking by the greatest North ern universities” and her average scholarship compares very favor ably with that of any college in the South, while some of her under graduate athletes regarded at Morehouse as only Mediocre are hailed at other schools, to which they may go for a change, as “Stars.” A few years ago it was not uncommon to find a star athlete who was also a class leader at Morehouse. But for the past seven years there seems to have been a growing tendency to excel in either ath letics or scholarship. During that period no student participating in any athletics has won the coveted honor of valedictorian or has been awarded first scholarship prizes from the individual classes. Yet it is known that the majority of excellent athletes have the most alert minds and are mentally the most capable of acquiring the sub ject-matter of their studies. There is probably one of two reasons for this state of affairs. Either the courses as now taught at More house require so much time to master them that the athlete finds it impossible to do so and maintain his place on the various teams, or the physical strain upon him during practice is so great that he must retire early at night before he has studied thoroughly. Concerning the former reason, it has been observed that some men who looked forward to a scientific career have branched off in other directions in order to avoid spending~so many long hours in the laboratories. To substantiate the latter many members of the present football squad have said to the writer that after a man goes through those two hours practice in the afternoon he doesn’t feel like doing anything but go ing to bed at night. In conclusion, what can be said of the harmony between schol arship and athletics? Must they necessarily be opposed to each other? The answer is "No.” What then is the remedy for the op position that seems to exist between them at Morehouse? We have one suggestion to offer. Give the athlete something to contest for in the scholarship world as well as in the world of athletics. It is true that Morehouse offers a first and second scholarship in each class for highest standing, but the majority of athletes here consider those be yond his reach in competition with men who do nothing scarcely but study and have plenty of time to do it. As a result many of them set the school’s passing mark as their goal. Why not offer a special scholarship with honors for the athlete? The conditions governing such an award could be easily worked out by the faculty. This would encourage more thorough study and would inspire the athlete to ex ert himself to his fullest capacity in scholarship just as he does on the gridiron when endeavoring to uphold the honor of his college, and would go a long way towards creating at Morehouse a group of scholarly athletes-