What is the significance of the Bolenciecwez incident in "University Days" by James Thurber? I would like to understand the Bolenciecwez incident...

In the “University Days” chapter from his autobiographical
work My Life and Hard Times, James Thurber describes a fellow
student named Bolenciecwez, who would come directly from a physics class to a class in
economics in which Thurber was also enrolled. Thurber notes that
Bolenciecwez

was a tackle on the football team.
. . . At that time Ohio State University had one of the best football teams in the
country, and Bolenciecwez was one of its outstanding stars. In order to be eligible to
play it was necessary for him to keep up in his studies, a very difficult matter, for
while he was not dumber than an ox he was not any
smarter.

His
professors tried to help Bolenciecwez pass their classes, and this was especially true
of the economics professor, who asked him ridiculously easy questions. Students also
tried to give Bolenciecwez very obvious hints about correct
answers.

In relating the
Bolenciecwez episode, Thurber implies a number of points about American higher education
at the time, including the following:

• success in
  sports often becomes more important at colleges than
  education


• this obsession with success in sports often
  leads to the admission of students who are educationally
  unqualified


• this obsession with success in sports can
  become an obsession not only for coaches and athletes but for fellow students and even
  for professors


• although professors have a particular
  obligation to uphold the educational standards of colleges, often they succumb to peer
  pressure and/or to their own enthusiasm for sports and thus compromise those
  standards


• the vocabulary used by the professor described
  in the Bolenciecwez episode suggests that this man is intelligent, but he is obviously
  willing to compromise his standards when trying to assist the football
  player


• even the professor’s name – “Mr. Bassum” – seems
  part of Thurber’s mockery, since it resembles the words “pass
  him”


• Mr. Bassum is willing to go to embarrassing lengths
  to make sure that Bolenciecwez can answer a simple question, but the other students are
  similarly willing to embarrass themselves for the same
  reason


• in fact, the only one who seems embarrassed by the
  whole episode is Bolenciecwez himself. His embarrassment actually makes us think better
  of him; in some ways he is the only person who doesn’t compromise academic standards
  (because he has none to begin with)


• Bolenciecwez seems
  unable not simply to answer a factual question but even to follow a very simple train of
  logic


• When Bolenciecwez finally does succeed in answering
  Bassum’s repeated question, Bassum is pleased, suggesting how thoroughly his standards
  have been compromised