Harper's Round Table, February 11, 1896

by Various

Two-hundred-and-twenty-yard Hurdle Race—31 4-5 seconds, E. M. Brooks, Harvard, 1892.

High Jump—5 feet 8 1-2 inches, S. A. W. Baltazzi, Harvard, 1895.

Putting the Twelve-pound Shot—37 feet 5 inches, E. Bigelow, Wilson and Kellogg, 1895.

Pole Vault—9 feet 4 inches, E. F. Simpson, Barnard, 1895.

These are the records, therefore, some of which we may look to see broken at the big meeting in March. The rules that are to govern eligibility of contestants are, as I announced last week, to be those of the New York I.S.A.A. They are as follows:

"Art. XI. Sec. 1. No one shall represent any school as a competitor in any athletic contest who has not been a member of that school from the 1st of January of the school year in which the contest is held; or who has actually been paid wages for services during the school year; or who has been enrolled as a member of any college; or who has attained the age of twenty years; or who is not in good standing with the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. Sec. 2. Having been a member of the Sub-Freshman Class of the College of the City of New York does not debar a scholar from competing.

The game of basket-ball is a comparative innovation this winter, but in many sections of the country it has sprung into great popularity. In New England, especially, is this the case. The reason for the game's success is that it offers to those who wish to keep in training during the winter months an ideal recreation, affording a greater variety of exercise than any other kind of gymnasium work. It furnishes an opportunity for all-round physical development such as cannot result from even a systematic use of dumbbells, Indian clubs, and pulley-weights.

Another reason why basket-ball has become popular is that it may be played upon any kind of a ground, in-doors or out-doors, in a gymnasium, a hall, a back yard, or a ten-acre lot, on a dancing-floor or a stubble field. I have seen the game played in a room 12x20 feet, and I have known it to be played on a football field. Furthermore, it is allowable for any number of men to join in a game, although the regulation number of players for a team is five on a side. Where a match is not being contested the number on a side may be increased to the capacity of the field, and two balls may be used. This adds to the fun, perhaps, but, of course, the true science of the game is then lost.

Let us consider basket-ball merely as an in-door game for the present. It is probable that wherever the game may be taken up it will be played in a gymnasium. The floor should be well cleared of all apparatus, and if there is a running track around the building the baskets may be hung upon it, or, if there is no track, they may be suspended from the wall, ten feet above the ground. The "baskets" now most generally used consist of hammock nets of cord, eighteen inches deep, suspended in metal rings eighteen inches wide. Any kind of basket of that approximate size, however, will answer just as well. The ball is round, and made of an inflated rubber bladder covered with leather, and it should be between thirty and thirty-two inches in circumference. It may be just as well to insert at this point that the object of the game is for the men of one team to put the ball into their opponents' goal. This may be done by tossing or throwing or batting the ball from any part of the field with one or both hands. Boundary-lines must be drawn around the room several feet from the walls, and when the ball goes outside of these lines it is out of bounds.

The game is started by the referee, who throws the ball into the middle of the field. It is then in play—as in polo. The energies of the players are exerted toward getting the ball into their opponents' goal or basket, but no player may kick the ball or run with it. He must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, although allowance is made for momentum in a running catch. Shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking is, of course, not allowed, the penalty for such conduct being a foul called, with disqualification for the second offence. A player has the right to take the ball at any time while it is in the field of play, but he may only touch the ball, and not the opponent.