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Caption: Book - History of the University (Nevins)
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298 STUDENTS AND STUDENT LIFE upon athletics is concentrated an attention unusual in larger centers. The third element in student life, that which caters to the artistic or intellectual instincts— literature, drama, art, music, serious discussions of special topics—was until six or eight years ago starved in comparison with these two, and is just now coming into due place. To say that athletics receives a rare degree of attention does not mean that under the circumstances it takes an undue part of the student's time. The undergraduate, with little of the theater, no excursions, no town dinners, and few concerts, naturally looks forward with eagerness to the football games or baseball matches that give him a regular Saturday afternoon thrill. The Home-coming and Interscholastic festivities are centered in a football game and a baseball and track contest respectively, and in these the presence of thousands of alumni and other visitors helps to generate a wildly exciting interest. Much is said about the unusual quality of "Illinois spirit"; in large part it is simply the student's unusual interest in the most widely appealing event, a battle between the home team and a rival. But this interest in a half dozen baseball and as many football contests is thoroughly healthy, for it takes little time and it in no way militates against the general' participation of students in athletic activities of their own. President James has repeatedly expressed the fear that the students were becoming too largely spectators of, too little partners in, athletics; but with constant encouragement from the authorities, the students have tried to shake off this imputation. The teams usually practice and play on Illinois Field, and the inexpert have the wide south campus to themselves. On fine days it is inspiring to see this stretch alive
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