Won in the ninth

by Christy Mathewson

But he had a particular interest in the boys and he was especially fond of getting up classes for poor young fellows who were, as said before, undeveloped and weak. He taught these youngsters for nothing what he knew about the fine results of taking exercise regularly, and many a poor fellow who would have died young, he developed into a strong and healthy young man who lived long and became prominent in business and politics.

Among the young fellows who came to the attention of this Professor Mitchell was young Harriman, who by this time, however, was so weak that he couldn’t join any of the classes. In fact, Jerry couldn’t walk across the room without holding on to a chair or something, and even the Professor had some doubts as to his ability to do anything for him.

However, the case interested him and he came every day to the house for some weeks and had Jerry do such exercises as he could. At first there was no improvement that could be noticed, but after a couple of months of the most careful and lightest exercise possible, a very decided improvement began to be noticed. Very soon, by carefully doing exactly as the Professor told him, Jerry began to get stronger, until by the end of the first year all trace of his heart trouble had disappeared and the Professor told him that if he would only make it his business to take his exercises every day he would some day be as strong as any boy.

It is not the idea of this chapter to go into all the details of how Harriman became a strong young man. It is only fair to say, however, that to him his regular and systematic exercise became as important as his meals or washing his face, night and morning. When he saw how exercise was improving him physically he became almost a crank on the subject.

At any rate, he made a resolution that some day he would be just as well developed physically as any athlete in the world, and he kept this idea foremost in his thoughts, because he could see that if he had a perfect physical development, his mental capacity would increase in proportion. In the end he became a wonderfully well developed lad and was a living example of what exercise will do for a boy, or man either, for that matter.

During this time he went to school, and soon was able to join the games of the other boys. In the High School and in the Preparatory College he went in for athletics, and by the time he entered Lowell, even he laughed when anybody recalled the fact that seven or eight years before the doctors had given him up to an early death from heart trouble.

It has been necessary to give this much of the details of this part of his life in order to show what it meant to Harriman to become the greatest pitcher who had ever been in the box for any college in the country, and also to give the boys who read this good reason for his great interest in college athletics, after he had gone into business and become wealthy, as shown by the scholarship prizes which he gave each year to the best athletes in the various colleges of the country.

A Jerry Harriman Scholarship meant free tuition and Five Hundred Dollars per year for living expenses at any college in the country selected by the winner, for the complete college course. Mr. Harriman was liberal in the number of scholarship prizes offered. Several young fellows, generally poor boys, were presented each year with a complete college education. There was a scholarship for the best all-round football player, for basketball, for hockey and each of the track and field events.

The scholarships were awarded by the Intercollegiate Athletic Association, and were given without restriction to the one chosen by the Association, except that a nominee’s college had to submit to Mr. Harriman a record of the prize winner’s standing in his studies. In this particular a good average standing was required. It was the argument of Mr. Harriman that the pursuit of athletics in college need not interfere with a fellow’s studies and that if you give a boy a well developed body his brain will get the benefit of it, and with an average record as a student, any boy might be expected to make his way in the world.