the Athletic Association; and four faculty members to be selected as follows: one by the dean of the Department of Literature, Science, and the Arts, one by the dean of the Department of Engineering, one by the dean of the Department of Law, and one by the deans of the Department of Medicine and Surgery, the Homeopathic Medical College, the College of Dental Surgery, and the School of Pharmacy.
The Regents confirmed the nomination of Professor Ralph W. Aigler as the representative of the Law Department on the Board in Control of Athletics in May, 1913. It is unlikely that anyone suspected at the time what an important event this was to prove in the athletic history of Michigan. Professor Aigler continued as a member until May 31, 1955, a period of forty-two years of service.
In 1912-13 the agitation on the campus became acute, and for the first time since the withdrawal, the student members of the Board in Control of Athletics, elected by the student body, were in favor of resumption of Conference membership. Sentiment among the four faculty members was evenly divided. Two of the three alumni members, as well as the director, were strongly opposed to the proposed return to the Conference. In the fall of 1913, an effort to effect an organization favorable to return failed.
Two years later, at the May, 1915, meeting, the Regents amended the legislation creating the Board in Control of Athletics so that the four faculty members were elected by the University Senate rather than appointed, as had hitherto been the case, by the deans. This seemingly unimportant amendment had far-reaching consequences. In the first election by the Senate under this amended provision, only one of the then four faculty members of the Board in Control was continued in his position, and the four members elected by the Senate were all known to be favorable to resumption of membership in the Conference. At the next meeting of the Board in Control thereafter the one faculty member who had been continued by the action of the Senate was elected chairman. With four faculty members and three student members thus favorable to resumption of membership in the Conference, the next step was to secure action by the Board of Regents whereby the Conference might be satisfied that Michigan had the requisite faculty control of athletics.
In 1916 the Board in Control directed the chairman to confer personally with faculty representatives of the nine Conference members in order to discover what terms the Conference would require. As a result it was reported that the Conference would be satisfied if all actions of the Board in Control were reported to the Senate Council of the University, subject to veto by that body. Early in 1917, the Board of Regents adopted the recommendation of the Board in Control of Athletics requiring such report to the Senate Council and giving that body veto power. After the Regents had taken this action, the Conference in June, 1917, invited the University of Michigan to resume membership therein. This invitation was accordingly accepted by the Board, the resumption of membership to become effective as of November 20, 1917, before a scheduled game with Northwestern.
The most important step in athletic control and management at Michigan was taken in 1926 as the result of an exhaustive and outstanding report on athletics prepared by a Senate committee (appointed by Acting President Lloyd) of which Dean Edmund E. Day, later president of Cornell University, was the chairman. That report, which was largely the work of Dean Day, has
