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Show periority over Colorado. The meet last year, in which we nearly doubled the score on the athletes from the University of Colorado, who in turn worsted the other colleges in the Centennial state, claims for us the Rocky Mountain track championship.With baseball things are different. Like professional football, college baseball has never been a remarkable success. The reason for this is hard to explain, but in our case financial difficulties have stood in the way of bringing teams here from outside the state, and without competition no sport is a success. However a revolution may take place, and in a few years we may see our nine going forth throughout the inter-mountain country and making other colleges acknowledge our superiority in one more sport.The time is premature yet for Utah to excel in the minor outdoor and indoor sports, but next year will be the beginning of the University's basket-ball regime, and from then on the progress in this sport gives promise to rival football and track, and will undoubtedly unfold one more field of glory for Utah.The school owes much to Coach Joe Maddock for its triumphs in athletics. With his coming the ball was started rolling, and as he stays it is constantly accelerated. Not only has he fashioned winning teams, but he has installed a cleaner, more manly spirit into athletics, and this is by far the greatest mission of the coach. Next year he will have assisting him E. J. Milne, from the L. D. S. University. This will be a great boom for baseball and basket-ball, and will invigorate the work in football and track. With these two men at the helm, Utah is assured better coaching in all lines of sport than any other college in the west.In advancing college athletics the faculty and the students come in for their share of praise. No movement would be successful without the support and enthusiasm that the students alone can give, and such demonstrations of spirit and loyalty as have been shown on Cummings field are in themselves an incentive to victory. The faculty in part has been a co-worker. The name of Byron Cummings will stand immortal in the history of athletics at the University of Utah. There are many other faculty members who have gallantly given their support, and those few who are lacking in this respect may live to change their minds.That athletics are the index to the school is the assertion made by educators of note, and the truth of this statement is without question, when the sports are conducted on a legitimate basis. We rarely find an instance where a superior class of athletics do not accompany scholastic superiority. The idea is particularly true with our own school; the advancement of the institution in educational efficiency has ever been paralleled by strides of progress in the athletic world. It is only right that this important branch of student activities, which, obviously, is a criterion of college spirit and the standing of the school, should receive just recognition and support and should stand high in the hearts of every student and alumnusD. A. R.(176) |