"Benjamin J. Flickinger" wrote:

> There is a reason
> why there is an oft running joke that whenever an Ivy school has any success at
> all athletically the academics view it as "too successful" and feel the need to
> make it tougher.

Yup. When Keith Jackson did a series of monologues as his farewell tour,
before he did his comeback tour, he reminisced in one about a
conversation with Michigan Athletic Director Fritz Crisler (who once
coached at Princeton) in which he asked Fritz about heat he was getting
from the academics on the hill because athletics was too successful.
Fritz's response was, "What the hell do they want me to do, teach the
kids to loose?"

Following Fritz, Don Canham brought complete moral decay to the athletic
program.  He violated the intrinsic purity of the half-blank football
ticket by printing commercial advertising on the back and using the
proceeds for athletics.  Nobody's been able to get that stopped since,
not even Nike.

Unless one advocates that schools stop using "wringers" and determine
varsity team membership exclusively by tryouts from among the general
student body, what criteria would justify criticizing any school that
achieves good academics and athletic success with athletes who satisfy
the academics?

Bob Griebel