There has been much criticism of carrying football on this year. Many have said this on the grounds that amusements have no place in our wartime schedule. Some have said it because they think that all men of that age should be in service at this time. One paper has even gone so far as to state that anyone winning his letter in football this year is a slacker.

We believe that most of such opinions are written or expressed by those who do not have a working or even a talking knowledge of conditions. Besides their lack of personal knowledge they also fail to take in to consideration the fact that men in authority have advised that at least a part of the college students remain in school, and many that college students be not taken into service until absolutely necessary.

In the meantime these men advise all college athletics to be continued and to be emphasized this year. Not only do they emphasize all college contests but they also ask that special emphasis be placed upon the class of athletes which reaches all of the people in the college community. These recommendations are made to the intercollegiate committee on athletics by President Wilson, Gen. Pershing, and secretary of war Baker. We will put the names of these men against any who think it should not be continued.

Those giving such criticism are probably under the impression that a good football player is nothing else and does nothing else. They say that because he is fit for service that he should be there. The football player as a rule is not here alone to play football even though that may be a strong factor toward his being here. Does he amount to anything outside? Statistics in many cases show the football players average above that of the outsider. In another case it has been seen that a football players average was slightly higher during football season than it was out. Football requires skill and is a game which develops it. It not only keeps a man physically fit but in a mental development as well.

The football player of today will be one of two places tomorrow, he will either be in the service or, with his college education he will be one of the leaders in the reconstruction work. For either of these places he is getting physically and mentally fit to do his part. He is not loafing nor putting his time [in] vain. He is doing his duty and will continue to do his duty.

—10 Nov 1917

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This editorial from 1917 takes the stance that football still had a place among collegiate life even as the Great War continued in Europe. Some schools did drop the sport both this year and the following year, but Iowa State and its surrounding schools did not.