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If the respective desirability of Harvard's football opponents rests upon a mutuality of athletic ideals and programs, Pennsylvania State College should find its name near the top of the list. In the middle of a period of unparalleled overemphasis on intercollegiate football that swamped intramural sports in its wake, both colleges perceived athletic values sensibly, and courageously reorganized to meet their principles.
Long before the inherent evils of the old system had been brought sharply to public attention, Penn State decided to set its football house in order. In a clean and drastic sweep that shocked the pigskin world, football scholarships were abandoned, coaches were appointed to be not only gridiron mentors but bona fide faculty members as well. A thorough stimulation was applied to intramural athletics, although the true value and position of intercollegiate competition was by no means underrated.
As Robert Harron points out in today's issue of the H.A.A. News. "There is honor due to the college which deliberately interrupts a winning tradition in football because it feels that its football is not fulfilling the whole function it might fulfill in relation to every undergraduate." Penn State's "winning tradition" was broken, but never in her history have undergraduates shown so much eagerness for athletic participation. Colleges that still fear to sacrifice their "prestige" may look to her example with profit.
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