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Danville, Kentucky, Feb. 28, '94 [February 28, 1894]
To the Sec'y [Secretary]of the K.I.A.A. [Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Association]
Dear Sir:-
Writing under instructions from our Athletic Association, I beg to say that reports have come to me through several sources to the effect that professional ball-players are being matriculated in some of the colleges belonging to the League with the intention of playing them in the Spring games of the League. This report has naturally given rise to considerable apprehension of unpleasant and unseemly disputes as likely to arise after the opening of the ball-season; and a number of our members have been strongly in favor of our withdrawing from the League at this time to avoid the possibility of our being concerned in any further dissension. The Association has however decided to remain in the League for the present season already arranged for - without however binding itself to remain longer than the current collegiate year or to accept any arrangements for next year's games - and has instructed me to communicate with the Secretary of the League and with the athletic associations of each of the colleges on the subject of the reports referred to, and in regard to the action taken at the late meeting of the K.I.A.A. at Lexington.
While we question the legality of certain act of the Ex. Com. [Executive Committee]of the K.I.A.A. at Lexington, as not having been provided for in the call
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for that meeting, we nevertheless accept them in every particular except in so far as they concern arrangements for next year which we are not ready now to enter into. We write however to say that we accept these new rules and arrangements for the Spring games on the understanding that they are to be carried out to the letter, and we shall therefore insist that the regulations as to certificates and affidavits be strictly conformed to by every college with which we play, and we shall of course be strict in our own conformity to them and furnish the same guarantees that we require of others. Failing to have a satisfactory understanding in any case, we shall reserve the right to at once withdraw from the league - in case, that is, of any violation of agreements or regulations - and we hope that with this mutual understanding among the colleges all trouble may be happily averted.
We are yours very respectfully,
W.D. Berry [Walter D. Berry]