"Go Big Green!"
These words echoed through the football stadium on Saturday as Dartmouth's team won it's first home game of the 97-98 season. Fans came out in droves donning every article of green and white clothing they could find. It seemed as though the entire campus was electrified with victorious energy as we cheered our boys on to their glorious win. But did anyone ever notice how we treat our football heroes and other athletic stars when they're off the field?
Walking across the Green on any given day, you're bound to hear someone griping about recruited athletes. "They don't deserve to be here." "Why does Dartmouth have to recruit so many dumb jocks?" People often speak about two types of Dartmouth students: those who were accepted because of their intelligence, and those who were recruited for one of our world famous sports teams. But none of the members of the first group seemed to be complaining when we beat Cornell's football team. Members of the so-called smart group all but hoisted the team members up on their shoulders and paraded them through the streets of Hanover. How can someone be a campus hero on Saturday, and one of the most loathed members of the student body on Monday? The fact that we can cheer so enthusiastically for the same men that we demean on a daily basis proves that we are all hypocrites.
I must admit, I have often questioned the academic capabilities of some of our recruited athletes and wondered whether they actually deserve to attend Dartmouth. But a few things have occurred to me in the past few days. First of all, students and faculty alike boast about the diversity of talents within our student body. But it seems that many of these people only take academic talents into account. While many Dartmouth students are here because they excel in the classroom, there are also many who are here because they excel in music, theater, visual art and, yes, athletics. If we truly want to appreciate diversity, then we must learn to appreciate all of its forms.
I've also noticed that many people here have talents that span a broad horizon. Just because someone can kick a football 85 yards doesn't mean that he can't also be a whiz at physics, history, English or some other academic pursuit. I'm quite disappointed that many of my classmates are too shortsighted to realize this.
Of course, there are many athletes who, I'm sure, cannot quote Shakespeare, translate Latin or calculate the velocity of a baseball hit at a 39-degree angle with a force of 15 Newtons. But no one on this campus is without weakness. Not only could I not figure out the answer to the physics problem I described, but I have about as little football prowess as the members of the losing Cornell team. I, however, not being a recruited athlete, take very little slack for my flaws. The fact is, when students are recruited for athletic purposes, they often have to work twice as hard off the field to prove to their fellow classmates that they are intelligent enough to be members of the Dartmouth Community.
How can this situation be rectified? Well, I certainly don't think we should stop attending football games and cheering on the men in green. I would, however, like to see the school pride and camaraderie that we all display so openly at these games carry over into the rest of the week. Our athletes not only bear a Dartmouth courseload and heavy practice, but also the burden of such a fine athletic tradition to uphold. And they bear all of this with smiles and spirit. For this, they deserve our respect and support all seven days of the week.
