Although the control of athletics at the Academy is not under the gymnasium authorities, still it is fitting to speak of the sports in this chapter. The Academy has its football, baseball, basketball, and hockey teams, and in addition the cadets play golf, polo, and tennis. There is little in the training or conduct of these teams that differs from other educational institutions, except the question of time allowed for preparation. It has always been the rule at West Point that no inroads shall be permitted upon the Academic course to aid the development of any athletic team. Consequently, what practice the teams get must be during recreation hours. The only concessions made are supper a half-hour later for the football men, and exemptions twice a week from parade for the baseball men. Athletics receive, however, the greatest support and encouragement from the authorities, whose aim is, however, not to develop a few good men or an excellent team in any one sport, but to seek a good average. Every cadet is urged to join in some form of athletics instead of remaining in his dress coat along the side lines as an interested spectator. The efforts made in this direction have received a warm response from the cadet body, so that during recreation hours the Plain presents a busy scene of cadet activities. The green parade ground is dotted with the golfers in gray shirts and white trousers; the tennis courts are filled with animated figures; groups of happy cadets ride by on horseback for a gallop in the woods, while others prefer the more sedate hiking in the surrounding hills. It is a great temptation after the recitations and drills to be lazy, hang around one’s room, or “bone fiction” which means reading novels, but in recent years the men have become more and more sensible of the many advantages offered them during their cadet days, and a new spirit of _carpe diem_ has come over the Corps. [Illustration: The Athletic Field _Photo by White_]