Harper's Round Table, August 6, 1895

by Various

In the last set Whitman began to lose some of the timidity which had characterized his play up to this point, and in the third game, when Hovey had him 40-0, he worked it up to deuce, but unfortunately eventually lost on drives out of court. He kept his nerve, nevertheless, and earned the fourth game with steady, and at times, brilliant work. Hovey could not connect on the young man's serve and drove out. Whitman then ran up to the net and scored a beautiful side place, making it 40-0. I cannot help feeling that if he had done more of this work he would have kept Hovey playing an hour longer for his win. The score then went from 40-0 to 40-30, but Hovey followed with a drive out, and it was Whitman's game. This was the end of the latter's good work. Hovey took a brace and had it all his own way until the end, giving Whitman only two points in the next three games, closing the set with the score 27-13. Whitman is only seventeen years old, and goes to Harvard in the fall. His school in Boston was Hopkinson's, although for five years previous to this last he attended the Roxbury Latin School. Ware is a Roxbury Latin player, and also enters Harvard with the class of '99.

Besides Whitman and Ware another scholastic player at Longwood was W. M. Scudder, of St. Paul's. He has the making of a good player, but only got as far as the first round, when he met Paret, and was defeated, 1-6, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. Scudder played a good game in this match, in spite of his ill-success, volleying and smashing with a degree of proficiency that would have done credit to many an older player. Paret won by better head-work, but I am confident Scudder will be heard from later on.

The reference to New England football made in these columns two weeks ago has aroused the interest of a number of readers in that section, and several questions have been asked about the origin of the present association. The subject is of enough general interest to receive a little more space than it was possible to devote to it last time. It is of enough general interest, because this football league, with the possible exception of the New York Interscholastic track-athletic organization, was the first interscholastic association formed in this country. It came about in a very natural way in the fall of 1888. Harvard football men had for several years been deploring the necessity of devoting two or three weeks at the beginning of each fall term to the weeding out and selection of new football material, and the idea finally suggested itself that if the schools could be used for this purpose the university would gain much by such an arrangement. It then became clear that the way to use the schools would be to get up some sort of a football league that would train players who would eventually enter Harvard, and furnish material for the university eleven.

This idea of organizing an interscholastic league emanated from the fertile brain of R. Seaver Hale, then in college. He consulted with Captain Sears, of the 'Varsity football team, with F. C. Woodman, C. A. Porter, and A. P. Butler, members of the eleven, and with Fred Fisk, who took a living interest in the athletic welfare of the college. These six men discussed Hale's idea, and then decided to put in $25 apiece and to offer a cup which should be contested for by football teams from the Boston schools.

When the question was submitted to the school football players it was looked upon favorably at once by them, and the interscholastic association was formed. The schools to come in were the Cambridge High and Latin, the Roxbury Latin, the Boston Latin, Chauncy Hall, Hopkinson's, Nobles, and Hale's, Nichol's, and Stone's combined. The six Harvard men then got together again, and drew up rules and regulations which should govern the playing for the cup. Hale was the Thomas Jefferson of the crowd, and turned out a code of laws that suited the schools perfectly.

The formation of the league created a great boom in football in the schools. Up to that time playing had been of a desultory nature, and games had been arranged from week to week as the captains chose. There had never been any training or system. Now all this changed. Schedules were prepared and adhered to, and the players all made it a point to keep in as good training as possible. Each school had its eye on the cup. The Harvard men were much pleased at the success of their scheme, and the 'Varsity Captain looked hopefully toward the development of good material for the next year. The donors of the cup acted as a sort of advisory committee, and kept a general supervision over the league.

Things progressed fairly on this line for a while, until the sport was so generally taken up all over the country that the college players no longer felt the necessity for taking that parental interest in the schools which had prompted the offering of a cup. Succeeding 'Varsity Captains, who had not gone through the labors of Sears and his predecessors to get good material, did not quite see the necessity for devoting their time to overseeing scholastic matches, and so the schools gradually took the management of their league into their own hands. The teams belonging to the association increased so in number, that the association had to be divided into two parts, known respectively as the Senior League and the Junior League, the Seniors playing each year for the cup, the Juniors playing for a pennant. The winner of the Junior League entered the Senior League the following year. The latter was kept under the management of the donors of the cup, but the Juniors more or less ran themselves.

This method has now again been changed, as described in the Round Table two weeks ago. There is henceforth to be only one League playing in two divisions. In the first are six Seniors playing for the cup; in the second, all the rest playing for a pennant. At the end of the season, or at the beginning of the next season, the last team of the first section will play the first team in the second to see whether they change places. This arrangement will serve to keep the first division always made up of six teams.

The management of both divisions rests in one committee composed of three members of the schools, the Captain of the Harvard eleven, two Harvard men, who replace the original cup donors, and one graduate of the schools, who may be a Harvard man, but who at present is a Tufts College man, a graduate of the English High-School. This makes seven in all. It is well that one of the committee should not be a Harvard man, and so the presence of the Tufts man makes the arrangement as just as it should be. Harvard having offered the cup, should, of course, always retain a controlling voice in the councils of the association.

The High-School of Stockton, California, will apply for membership in the Academic Athletic League of the Pacific coast at the opening of the next school term, and as there is no reason to suppose admission will be refused we shall doubtless see some Stocktonians in the front ranks at the next semiannual field-day. Stockton H.-S. has a good record in athletics, and in addition to the regulation sports of the school list they indulge in rowing. The Stockton Athletic Club has for some time allowed the High-School oarsmen to use their barges, and the interest in aquatics has become so lively that a race may soon be arranged with the Oakland High-School. O. H.-S. has not rowed any yet, but there is a movement on foot to get the use of the University of California boats that are kept on Oakland Creek, not far from the school, and as this courtesy will doubtless be granted to the boys by the U.C. Navy, a water contest may not be far distant.