OCR Text |
Show ,.,«!!«#With perspiration gleaming on his back, one foot seemingly limping in the fast dash down the hardwood floor, the athlete left his pursuers behind him, then leaped high, gracefully suspended in air as he served the basket its fare; in descent he stumbled, his goal achieved. That would be the famous Leroy Smith, athlete extraordinaire of L.I.U., before the fix scandal became public knowledge.In sports there are many moments of grace and temporary perfection. But there is more to sports than merely occasional successful physical maneuvering. For sports reflect life. In life there are similar constant pressures: the need to win, the necessity of preparation or practice, the obligation of rules, the rinding ofgeorge butsikaresstrength quickest through unity, the development of all-important character through sportsmanship, and greatest self-acceptance only when motivated by goals farther reaching than those of the moment.And so athletics lose their worth when they serve only selfish motives. When a university hires out-of-state ringers, when the crowd cheers only their own team and boos all else, when individual stars perform for motives of self-glorification alone, or when the school puts sports before knowledge, then that university has lost sight of its hope of the spiritual progression that should be linked with the recreational development of its students. |