Rugby

     I have caught another fish! Our good friend Dwight Peterson, who keeps up the elevated WAISerly tone set by Max Hope! He says:
     My freshman year at Stanford I played American football and also Rugby. I quickly learned that a sane person who values his body and mind should no longer play rugby. It is American football with no pads nor helmets! However, I love rugby as a game and it is stilled in a sense of camaraderie that continues the practice of each team filing through to shake hands, much as hockey players do when the game is over. More often than not, competitors from both teams go out to drink beer or celebrate in some such manner, at least on the amateur level. It still retains a high level of tradition. My comment to your remarks about the sport is that a competing athlete is a wonderful soul and understands the concept of fellowship and decent behavior even in these hyperventilated times ! I do not see him as a nasty brute.


     My comment: that was the way things were in my youth. However, nowadays sports have become intolerably competitive and money-crazy. The customs you mention are admirable, but they seem obsolete in modern professional sports. The French bicycle Tour de France and other "sports" are now infested with charges and countercharges about "le doping."
     I agree that many people in college sports are admirable humans, more likeable than the horribly competitive academic types with whom one cannot enjoy a pleasant conversation. When I came to Stanford, I tried to start them with colleagues, but I found that some were accusing me of wasting their time and starting trouble. That is when I decided never to say anything controversial.

Ronald Hilton - 11/10/99