The Question: Are bowl games good or bad?

HAROLD SCHAFER, Bismarck, N. Dak.
President
Gold Seal Co.
"Good. They create lots of excitement and pleasure for millions of people. They furnish fans with coffee-cup conversation months before and after a game. They give the student body, as well as the team, a common ideal for a long enough period of time that it becomes a permanent, pleasant memory."

DR. WILSON H. ELKINS
President
University of Maryland
"Bowl games are attractive to the participants, members of the student body and football fans. They contribute to the competitive spirit which has been such a factor in the building of this country. If players are not taken away from classwork, it seems to me that there are advantages to be gained."

FRANK GIFFORD
Halfback
N.Y. Football Giants
"Bowl games are good for some college conferences and bad for others. In the East, they are bad because the Ivy League and other universities want to de-emphasize the game, thinking it's gotten out of hand. In the West, Midwest and South, it's what the colleges want and they are good."

DEANE W. MALOTT
President
Cornell University
"Much of the trouble with college football begins with the profit motive; bowl games dangle the dollar sign to an alluring degree. Colleges cannot justify taking part in such spectacles over which they have little or no control. Bowl games are out of season, out of perspective and out of setting."

JOHN C. MAYFIELD, Houston
Chairman of the Board
Houston Port Bureau
"Contrary to the prevailing opinion in the Ivy League, I think bowl games are good for colleges. They give players and student bodies the one chance in a lifetime for football supremacy. The Aggie Club, of which I'm president, is enthusiastic about bowl games."

WILLIAM W. DOWNEY, Springfield, Ill.
Administrative assistant to Gov. Stratton
"What's wrong with bowl games? The players look forward to them. The student body loves them. The alumni are enthusiastic. They are held during Christmas vacations and don't interfere with studies. And they're wonderful to watch on TV after a bad night on New Year's Eve."

HENRY D. HORMEL, Medford, Mass.
College football
field judge
"Good. The players go to the bowl games on their own time, during Christmas vacations. This doesn't interfere with their studies. It's their reward for a great season. The boys will remember it the rest of their lives. Some of the bowl games have a charity angle. The entire country enjoys them on TV."

DR. JOHN A. HANNAH
President
Michigan State University
"They can be good if properly sponsored and administrated; however they can be bad if there is undue emphasis on the commercial features. I subscribe to the idea that participating institutions should have control of the game itself and considerable to say concerning the events surrounding the game."

REV. THEODORE M. HESBURGH, C.S.C.
President,
University of Notre Dame
"One can't answer the question significantly if you just ask: 'Are bowl games good or bad?' Football is only a part of a larger educative process. What is most important is not the game, but the boys who play it while they are in the process of getting an education. The really significant question is: 'Are bowl games good or bad for players?' If you assume that some few colleges will be outstanding almost every year and, therefore, invited to participate in bowl games very often, I would think that bowl games will interfere with the main business of the college student: getting an education. Practicing for, anticipating, traveling to and from, playing and post-morteming games from September 1 to January 1 doesn't leave much time for normal study—the real price of an education. If championship teams must have bowl games as playoffs, why not shorten the schedule, play the bowl games to end the season and then get on with the main purpose of a player's life in college? Bowl games may be good for football, but I don't think that what is good for football is necessarily good for the players—unless, by some distortion of values, football is their real life, and college a game."

ILLUSTRATION

NINE PHOTOS

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