The Exponent, 1903-12-01

              The Industrial-NOrffidl EXDOIICilt
Vol.,. 2 ABERDEEN, S. D., DECEMBER, 1903 No. 2
oteg Character and Athletics otot
Emmett McKenna
The excitement of the football
struggles is over for the season and as
the dust rises from the gridiron, we
have time to consider again the nature
of the sport and the part it takes in
forming a strong character.
Athletics, like all live subjects, is
one upon which all authorities do not
agree, and yet we cannot believe that
any clear thinking person would deny,
that anything which tends to make our
fellows more complete and active, that
develops all there is in one is not
worth the experiment.
There is nothing connected with the
life of a boy or a young man which
reveals his character so much as the
sports or games in which he engages.
He may be taught constantly in the
school or home, but if you wish to see
his real character then you must go to
the playground, where engaged in ac-tive
sports, when he is a member of a
team opposing another team and ex-erting
every human effort to be suc-cessful
in the contest.
All the nobleness, the generosity,
the truthfulness or fairness of charac-ter
on the one hand, and on the other
the viciousness, the meanness, the
trickery, the dishonesty are brought
forth. Individual competition is not
so likely to show this. It requires
the team work, the acting in concert
with others against another team, un-reservedly
to bring out these qualities.
Footabll is not a one man's game,
but one in which all members of the
team must work in perfect unison,
each man is his own general and mar-shalls
all his forces when and where
they will be the most effective. It re-quires
skill and thought on the part of
each player and every move or maneu-ver
must be thoughtfully studied, and
planned with the greatest of care.
It may be the desire of the individ-ual
to make a good impression upon
an older person whom he khows is
watching him and for a time he will
control himself, but sooner or later he
reveals his true self, he shows his
character. You meet boys and young
men in many different ways, but not
any of these ways brings out the true
character as the contest in their sports.
Such contests are as valuable and
even more so, as developers of char-acter
as they are developers of muscle.
A noble, generous character should
be and can be the result of engaging
in friendly contests free from any
money consideration. The man who
can go upon and play through a hard
active game without taking unfair ad-vantage
of an opponent, without
thought of himself and only of his
team's success, can take his defeat
good-naturedly and has received a
training in his boyhood and youth that
will be invaluable to him in his after
life.