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Grinnell Tops Cornell; 0b Squad Meets Faculty

The American

I consider it a matter of the
most general good taste not to
burden the reader of these pages
with manifestoes. Not, of course,
that good taste is necessarily my
inclinatio it being one of the
hack‘s ju ier pleasures to crank
out Ringing Declarations of
Principles every few weeks,
However, I find myself con-
strained by a certain verbal
chastity and its concomittant
desire not to be made a fool of
in print or anywhere else,

1 had thought that it might be
interesting tolearn a thing or two
about sports and to gain a
measure of fluency in the
language, (Lloyd also said that
I could read Paul Weiss's
Philosophy of Sports and say so
in the newspaper. But the library
didn’t have a copy, and Lloyd
refuses to talk to me anyhow, so
that will just have to Wait.)

Now it’s fine, when you‘ve got
a couple of columns on the
editorial page and a deiphic in-
scription on the mast-head to
think like Aristotle. Which I
don’t. I do, however, write like
Aristotle, to wit: dreadfully. So
it behooves me to follow some
of the Grand Masters of English
prose: c. s. Lewis, James
Thurber, Tolstoy (in translation,
of course), and the estimable Mr.
Bertrand Russell. In fact I had
planned to write a piece replying
to last week’s “Letter to a Young
Athlete” in his style (e.g.
“Although an admirable
scientist, Mr. Newton’s memory
is discredited by his pernicious
Laws of Gravity, a curse to all
rightrthinking humanists, which
just last week caused me to {all
down and sprain my ankle”).

Apart from leaving a con
siderable body of writings upon
which jock-scriveners can hone
their prose, Russell served
another profoundly useful pur-
pose: that of the reasonable man
with a big mouth, He was a
gadfly, which is a term Platonists
use because they don’t really
want to say “pain in the aft.”

It was remarked the other day
by a professor that the view of
politics and by implication other
forms of human activity seen as
a subspecies of theology is on
the wane. Many would hold that
this is a sign of our enlightened
times, Such times being defined
as those in which a gadfly is a
shrill and superfluous nuisance.

The following are excerpts
from a speech reprinted in the
NCAA News, the official organ
of the Collegiate Athletic
Association, of which Grinnell is

Way of Sports

amember.

Eddie Robinson of Grambling
College, speaking to the Houston
Touchdown Club:

“Football has made its con-
tributions to you, the new breed,
because the game of football is
like life itself; there are lessons
to be learned, responsibilities to
be accepted, obstacles. .ac-
cidents and even defeats to be
endured, sweet victories to be
savored and all played under the
rules of the game, .

“Football builds basic
character in boys. it gives them
strength enough to know when
they are weak and makes them
brave enough to face themselves
when they fail. . , to master
themselves before they seek to
master others (Sic). ..

. .the boy has ample op-
portunity to discover his
weakness of character and to
build them up. If he lacks
aggressiveness, he will soon find
out. He will learn, too, why
aggressiveness is so necessary
for success. . .

“Football’s greatest con-
tributions are yet to come. I
believe football will go on being
a tremendous influence for good
in American society, a constant
inspiration to American .youth. .

Now apart from the realization
that American football is not
played at all abroad, much less
to lose, I found this Whole piece
rather disturbing, Sports an-
nouncer Howard Cosell once
noted a tendency in this country
to look upon momentous events
as though they were sports and
upon sports as though they were
truly momentous; this in itself
is a disquieting observation, but
itbrings me around to my point.

Since it is fashionable at the
moment to sneer at all but
political forms of moralism, and
pietism, this is a little like
dentiiig a dead horse. Sports are
entertainments, pastimes, and
recreations: they are not subject,
it seemsto me, to moral analysis,
much less to Mr. Robinson’s. As
Plato recognized, they may
contribute to certain ends
otherwise established But what
do you do with an immoral sport
— flog it'l Sports area reasonable
pastime for reasonable men, and
even at sedate Grlnllell the
loathenlungcd are welcome But
not morals. . ,Let Russell rest
easy, he deserves it, If you want
a good workout, though, you can
ask the college why we do need
a swimming test You may
discover that this place is more
moral than you thought, .y I\' p

DANISH MAID BAKERY

Fresh Pastry Every Day
INDULGE!

818 Fourth Avenue

The Grinnell cagers began a
five game home stand Saturday
night With a soul victory over

the Cornell Rams. The Pioneers
are now 3.4 in Midwest Con-
ferellce play and 4.7 overall.

This is a basketball game. These are basketball players,
Some are from Dibble. Some are from West.

Swimmers Face Carleton Today, St. Olaf Tomorrow

Our last two home meets are

this weekend. Today we face the
toughest dual meet competition
so far this year, Carlton College.
Their distance combination»
Arnessen and Davison, will be
tough in the 1000, the 500, and
the zoo. The first event, the med.
ley relay, promises to be one of
the greatest races of the day.
Thiel in the individual medley,
Adelman in the butterfly, and
Hancock in the backstroke round
out our days greatest threats.
The meet is at 4:00, promising
exciting races and good com-
petition.

Saturday’s meet against St.
Olaf should not be quite as tough
as Friday's. Bruce Rollins faces
Wemsen. last year’s conference
champion in the too They have
good medley and freestyle teams,
and a good backstroker. Mike
Keller, last year's runner up in
thc ccniercnce diving event,
should be tough competition if he
makes it to the meet

These are our last two home
meets. We are undefeated thus
far and have high hopes for
continuing to be so. Come and
see a winning team today at 4:00
and tomorrow at 1:30.

Previously forecast to be a
contender for the conference
title, the Lawrence Vikings
provided little competition for
our Grinnell swimmers. Even
John Fease, conference record
holder in the 500 yard freestyle,
was lapped in that event by John
McBlain alld easily beaten in the
200 by Mike Daley, whose 1:55.e
tied the pool record. After being
crushed two years ago the last
time we Went to Lawrence, the
23430 victory was quite welcome
to the seniors on the team and
to the coach. The only event we
didn’t win was the diving Don
Links and I had a very bad day.
One-two sweeps dominated, and
no first place winner was ever
seriously challenged,

John McBlain swam a good

The Ups and Downs of

Women’s intramural Volleyball
byCilidyRoot

Although men's intramural
sports seem to draw all the
crowds, the action is actually
ovcr in the women's gym, where
the womcn of Grinnell are
waging their annual battle over
lM volleyball.

All forms of skill arc obviously
lacking. A one-handed punch is
the favorite technique, The
strategy is rather basic; just get
it back over to the other side of
the net, quick‘ Still, the en.
tllusiasm is overpowering 7 I
mean, how many people would
actually kill themselves to take
a swipe at a ball that was sailing
10 feet out of the court? The girls
do it all the time!

Smith is definitely the team to
heat with two wins and no losses,
They even managed to pull
through in a double overtime with
Langan, Their strategy seems to
be to lose the first game so badly
that when they come on strongly
in the next two the other team
ncvcr has a chance to get back
up Keep it up, Smith! The
college is also Iiclding a pickup
volleyball team to play with her
women‘s league in town every
Monday night. So come on out
and volleyball it up for awhile.

Alld for all you avid fans who
are sitting on pins and needles
to get the results of your favorite
tcams~we'l| keep you posted.

Scoring was slow in the first half,
but in the second half the
Pioneers began rolling in the
shots to build a lead that Cornell
could not overcome. Height
proved to be a great advantage
as Bob Burnett paced Grinnell
with 14 points and Greg Beckman
hit 12 Gary Johnson, Greg
Bombillski, and Scott Hanson
scored consistently from the free
throw line to enable Grilinell to
coast to a tenapoillt victory,

Half time saw one Building
Team pitted against another as
the precise shooting of the 0b
Squad and the Faculty set
basketball back ten years. The
Oh Squad introduced in
novations: 40 players per team,
totally unbiased refs, and dunks
resistant baskets that provided
riotous half time entertainment.

Grinnell continues its home
stalld as it hosts Monmouth
Friday and Knox Saturday, The
Pioneers have already equaled
their conference wins from last
year, and, if they can keep up
their momentum, may be able
to climb from the Midwest
Conference basement.

1000; Bruce Rollins swam well
in the 50 and the 100; Steve Ward
did a good job in the individual
medley. Daley, Ward, Jim Cams,
and Rollins teamed up to break
our school and the Lawrence pool
records in the 400 yard freestyle
relay.

Beloit provided little better
competition for us than
Lawrence, as we swept five
events there also, Ron Brammer,
Mike Bye, Hal Dale, and Steve
Ward started the meet with a
good effort in the medley relay,
Chris Freebcrg followed with his
best effort in the moo, and Jim
Cams witll his best in the 200,
Don Linke won the diving with
his best performance ever, quite
a feat on a foreign board. Delay '
broke another pool record,
swimming a 5:288 in the soofree,

by Reggie Graham

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