At the time that he wrote the article on how to educate boys, he was a professor of English at Providence College. Classic works he has translated are Dante’s Divine Comedy, Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things, and Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. The article and bio follow. A good friend sent it to me.
https://stgregoryshistory.wordpress.com/peace-on-a-mountaintop/
www.crisismagazine.com/author/esolen
Esolen says, “That rugby championship, though, is most intriguing. It’s an inspired choice, to have the boys concentrate on rugby and soccer. Rugby especially is a sport that requires no unusual hand-eye skills, and no long experience. It’s quick to learn, and anyone with a body can learn to play it. The result is that the boys are not separated into the lucky few who are good at sports and the rest who sort of disappear.
“Some of the boys may arrive at St. Gregory’s stronger or faster than others, and no doubt some leave that way too. But when everybody plays rugby, and plays it all the time, then unless some serious physical ailment gets in the way, everybody is going to end up impressively strong. The same thing happens to boys on farms and used to happen in boot camp.”