Every year, the Penn Relays attract over 15,000 athletes and 100,000 fans to Franklin Field for one of the country's greatest amateur athletic events.
For Frank Dolson, a longtime Philadelphia sportswriter who passed away last weekend at age 73, there was little better in the world than the Penn Relays. While he was a fan of some professional sports as well, Dolson reveled in college athletics, and in Penn he found a place where the amateur ethic is admired and pursued.
When the Penn man passed away, I honestly did not know much about his life or his work. But after reading his obituaries, I was tremendously impressed by the admiration he earned from other writers.
Dolson loved watching individuals and teams compete solely for the purpose of competition. He searched for the story that was not evident based on who won or who lost. His desire was to find the story about how individuals pursued sports - and how sports pursued individuals.
What drew Dolson to Penn sports is truly what makes them special.
Penn sports provide fantastic opportunities but are primarily about the value of competition rather than the value of winning. While Penn has had its share of athletic success, it will likely never again be a powerhouse on the level of a Big Ten or Big East school - and I love that.
I always carry a smile at Quakers sporting events when I remember that Penn tries to truly achieve the student-athlete ideal. Penn does not sponsor an athletics department for the ultimate goal of winning championships. If that were the case, it would have adopted athletic scholarships long ago, and you'd likely never see any athletes in your lecture halls.
Penn and the Ivy League have invested in sports because they believe they are an essential part of a complete education.
And looking all the way back to Plato's Republic, we find that athletics were intended to compliment scholarly studies:
"Neither are the two arts of music and gymnastic really designed, as is often supposed, the one for the training of the soul, the other for the training of the body. . I believe, I said, that the teachers of both have in view chiefly the improvement of the soul."
There is something edifying about athletics, sportsmanship and competition. All too often, we students mock the athletics program for fielding teams in sports such as squash, fencing and sprint football.
The majority of Quakers fans will never attend a fencing meet or a sprint football game, and that is just fine. These sports allow student athletes to attain Plato's vision of a balance between advancement of the body and mind. Most Penn athletes will never play in front of large crowds or on national television. They play because they love to do so.
The late Dolson loved passion and the exhibition of it. At Penn and in the Ivy League, the only incentive to participate in varsity sports is a passion for the game. Dolson enjoyed watching these athletes compete and so do I.
While sitting in the bleachers during the Penn Relays, I have seen hundreds of high school students race around the quarter-mile oval in the 4x400-meters dozens and dozens of times. Most of these students will not get scholarships or race beyond their high school years. However, the races are always great. It is magical seeing the sparkle in their eyes as they step onto the track and see the crowd and get ready to race.
Dolson lived to see a flicker of joy run across the face of an athlete. At Penn we have the distinct pleasure of watching sport for sport's sake. We may not win or receive national recognition, but we should be grateful Penn provides the opportunity to observe that sparkle.
Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.
