Samuel F Bergeron Analysis

Slowly, student disapproval began to show. In the December 1906 issue of the Augustana Observer Emil F. Bergeron wrote about the somewhat absent spirit at Augustana. Bergeron, a captain of the 1904 Augustana football team, was confused on how Augustana, once a place where students were proud of their athletic accomplishments, could become such as place of dread. Rival newspapers ran articles describing how honorable and “clean and fair” Augustana athletes had been at previous intercollegiate events. It was surprising then when it was rumored that a reason behind the Synod’s elimination of athletics was for “illcultured behavior” and “degenerated college spirit.” The organized sports did not live up to Bergeron’s recollections. He could not
They wanted their sports but in an honorable way. After it was discovered that Northwestern and Bethany ignored the Synod’s requests the Observer ran an article that stated “Augustana is justly entitled to every privilege the conference institutions enjoy and that it is the duty of the Synod to see that such equality is administered.” Augustana respected the Synod and the decisions it made. However, they believed that sports were integral to the collegiate atmosphere. Even at other institutions, athletics was beginning to be viewed as an important value of an upper education, as Ingrassia argues in his article on football reform in the early 1900s. Students of Gustavus Adolphus College, also under the Augustana Synod, joined forces with Augustana College in 1908 to fight the athletic ban. After constructing a petition, the two schools asked “for the removal of the restrictions on all intercollegiate athletics [except] football.” From this request, students were asking only for the return of basketball and baseball; football was not included in the proposal. Recalling the actions of Northwestern and Bethany, one could question why students did not include football. It could be seen that football would be the most difficult for the Synod to allow to return to the campuses because of its violent nature and the dangers associated with it. Students themselves could also be on the fence about bringing the sport back for similar reasons. Or
Numerous articles from the Augustana Observer helped to support the account from a student perspective. However, it can be argued that only a certain pool of students would publish in the college newspaper and many other accounts could have occurred on the Augustana campus over the five year span. From this outlook, it could be stated that the above information is quite biased. I bring this into the ending of my paper only to acknowledge the possibilities that may exist of behind the student approval or disapproval of the Augustana Synod’s ban on intercollegiate athletics. Likewise, little information was gathered from the Synod’s point of view. Few documents were available detailing the reasoning behind their actions. Using reflections of the past on why sports were banned, such as articles from Ingrassia and Watterson, I was able to piece together a possible and highly likely reason why the Synod desired to ban sports for their collegiate campuses. This struggle between the presence of intercollegiate athletics on campuses of higher education was apparent throughout America during this era. If students like the ones on Augustana’s campus would not have protested the ban of sports who knows where America would be today. Similarly, without the banning of sports throughout America would its importance be as great as it currently is in