THE SPIRIT OF OLYMPIA
ways play the association game, and it used to be the ambition of every youth to get the ball, and carry it down the field all by himself, while the audience cheered, "Bravo, bravo!" So the faculty arranged matches with the crews of visiting British warships, and from sad experience the college learned the value of side plays and frequent passes, and began to see dimly that good football is played, not with the legs and mouth alone, but with the head, and that hard team-work is better than grand stand exploits.[1] That lesson may some day change the map of Asia.
The physical director of the college now has under his charge no fewer than eighteen football teams, besides twelve basketball teams, six hockey teams, four baseball teams and a cross-country running club; thirty men play at cricket regularly forty-seven hold certificates or medals of the (British) Royal Life Saving Society, and there are a hundred and thirty-five entries for to-day's field and track events.[2]
It makes one homesick to hear the cheers. With the exception of an occasional "meet" with some mission school, like those at Jerusalem and Sidon, there is no opportunity to compete with rival institu-
- ↑ In 1913, the college team defeated the champions of the British Mediterranean Fleet.
- ↑ The above figures are for the current year, 1913. With this exception, however, the chapter is not in any sense a composite, but describes the happenings of one actual field-day held during the author's residence in Beirut.
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