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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1957)
standard offers anl within, the lim itators of toosI "purity codes." One University, however, viso guaran teed Foul part-time wjik with a "downtown rmoster" that would pay most of his living expenses simply fur "mudolinjt" sportswear. At first, Paul and I considered only the schools that offered daz zling bids for his services. They spotted our interest and gave us the "hard sell" on the monetary advantages of their institutions. IT was Paul's mother who start ed us back to reality and focused our attention on the real problem. We had visited a week-end coaches' clinic at some body else's expense, of course and met a well-known alumnus who confided that his firm guar anteed jobs for the school's stars during and after college. "Didn't he even ask what Paul wanted to do, or what he would study?" my wife asked. "Whom did you discuss his education with?" The answer was nobody. Strange for a parent, isn't it? And equally strange for educators. Paul's future was nobody's busi ness but that of the gridiron en trepreneurs. He had become foot ball "material" first, a student last. Maybe, I decided, I'd better take a closer look at this scholarship business. We revisited the colleges that seemed the most openhanded. "The scholarship is attractive," we'd say, "but what happens to Paul's education if he doesn't meas ure up to high-school promise?" We soon learned that most golden scholarships boil down to simple small-print contracts in which you either play top football or else! Suddenly I was the indignant parent! Why worry about a game? It's the boys who play the game that count. I preached to Paul that the true star recognized football as a small part of college and an even smaller part of life. The star is the man who looks on the game as a prep aration for life, not life's goal. I brought my righteousness to a man I had learned to respect as an athlete and as a teacher of young people Paul's high-school football coach. He quickly cooled me off. "Did you come here to tell me some schools are hypocritical or dishonest in their athletic pro grams?" he snapped. "Then I'll tell you some retail businessmen, like yourself, are crooks. Will you take the blame for all of them?" I flushed. "You're defending them? Why, they think of boys simply as commodities in a $100 million industry. They make them hired freaks at a public circus where winning is everything, and then talk 'building character'!" " 'They'?" the coach asked. "Who are 'they'? You mean the three or four colleges you bartered with, don't you':, 'NM all the 14 who cou tactcd you. lat rnl.t have you to condemn them all? You were willing to play a dirty gome your self until you found Paul might Uise something and not 'character' either! These colleges couldn't break the rules if it weren't for parents letting them. If underhanded bids were so shocking, you could have walked out. Honest colleges were waiting for Paul." And so I was told olT. There wasn't a reply I could make, either. The fault was obvious, of course, but when you suddenly find your self on the receiving end of a big "free-load," your perspective gets distorted and no alibi intended. as the coach pointed out, it was ' time wc righteous critics learned about a side of foot ball that doesn't make headlines. College officials have their football problems, most of their own crea tion, but they are genuinely trying to solve them. Whether they like it or not, educators must now draw big crowds to support extravagant athletic programs and costly stadi ums; they must help produce win ning teams and All-Americans. Many accomplish this by exploit ing youths put under their guid ance. Some solve the problem sim ply by dropping the Frankenstein like sport. But others strive to bring total respectability to college football and still maintain it as a spectacular part of Americana. They aren't having an easy job, as any newspaper reader can tell you. The cheats may be few, but they're like rotten apples in a bar rel. Codes can't stop them. But parents and young men could. It takes two to break any code, and the ultimate responsibility for a young man's acceptance or rejec tion of fair play lies with himself and his parents. Without their tacit approval, the football fraud of our land couldn't operate. That oversimplification isn't the final answer, of course. But "polic ing" by parents would go a long way toward helping colleges restore the real value of football, a student activity designed to train and de velop youth on a higher plane than "what's-in-it-for-me?" Not that Paul didn't get a football scholarship. But he selected it for what it offered in education and self-respect. Since he had a specific career in mind, he entered a school with a fine reputation in his chosen field, if not in football prowess. The college's grant-in-aid pro gram seems relatively unattractive but, as a counselor explained, the true worth of a scholarship is what a youth and his teachers make it. For his tuition, Paul must be a campus leader in all respects scholarship, character, and athlet ics. Saturday heroics don't exempt him from the responsibility of a sluucPt and citizen. On the other hanrt, he will n w udecd n fail ure in college if his yardajjc slips My wife and I believe this is training, this is education. tiier factors decided us on the college. It does not rely on football attendance to support its athletic program. Tuition, fees, and endowments take care of an adequate but not extravagant pro gram. That means the athletic de partment isn't under pressure to fill a stadium to pay for everything from intramural canoeing to coast-to-coast football junketing. Second, most of the coaches are considered members of the faculty and have tenure. As long as they meet responsibilities as educators, they cannot be fired. Free of the demands of winning every Satur day, they can look on players as persons, not performers. Equally important, the faculty at this col lege has the strongest voice in ath letics, not a clique of professional sports promoters. Third, Paul's 12 hours of training weekly allows enough free time for normal student activities. Most big time schools devote about 20 hours a week to practice; how can a young man learn anything, social ly or scholastically, that way? These factors influenced us. Other families with young athletes will face different circumstances and, consequently, find different reasons for their decisions. But I believe one tip applies in all eases: Don't judge a football grant-in-aid on its face value. Among other things, look at the representative offering it and ask, "Do I want a person like this influencing my boy's judgment and sense of val ues? Will he help him be a better man, win or lose?" Since I've had my own perspec tive straightened out, I've found that most college leaders deserve the parents' confidence. But, as in K fell any group, there are the self-seekers, and nobody conference com missioners, college presidents, or crusading sportswr iters can as sume the parents' responsibility for guiding a boy. Sure, it's tough to pass up the gravy train, but I can tell you it's worth it in the long run. When I visit Paul on Saturdays, I'll watch him play football, not work at it. 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