MAJOR OR MINOR?

With basketball just admitted to the ranks of the major sports and with swimming knocking hard at the door, the question inevitably comes up as to what the criteria for major sports really are. For if a game like basketball, which is played indoors before a relatively small band of rooters, is to merit the award that is given to football, which thousands gather to witness, or crew, for which a half of Wall Street goes on a regular Roman holiday, clearly some other consideration than the excitements and the crowds seems to govern the selection of sports for the major "H".

Yet from the point of view of the athletes who participate in the various sports in the college the distinction between major and minor seems to mean very little. A soccer player, for instance, takes his training as seriously, is just as worked up over the thought of getting into the Yale game, and will as willingly give his last effort for the cause as any football or hockey enthusiast. In tennis, another of the lesser sports, the team competitor has even more responsibility to keep on the top of his form, since he is individually responsible for the success or failure of his own particular match. Likewise in lacrosse and many others it seems inconceivable that the players can give any more to the game than they actually do, and yet they come off at the end of the season with a smaller "H" than those who indulge in the more highly rated activities.

It would appear, then, that a major sport is determined by the distinction it brings to the University, rather than by the effort or the spirit which the athletes who participate in it are willing to give. Football, of course, supplies the pennies for the H.A.A. strong box and keeps a large number of people aware of Harvard's existence. Crew has a social prominence which the University would hate to sacrifice, despite the fact that it produces only indirect monetary gains. And rare is the undergraduate who is so indifferent to Harvard athletics that he does not have at least an inkling in his mind of what the major teams are doing. And for this reason it seems not unnatural that sports like swimming and basketball should be promoted to major status as soon as they show that they have behind them the support of the undergraduate body.

But despite the tumult and the shouting, the press agents and the army of hangers-on, and all the corps of loyal rooters for the various teams, the athlete is the man that makes team sport possible. And from the point of view of what the athlete gets out of sports it is hard to see the distinction between the major and the minor ranking.