Harper's Round Table, July 7, 1896

by Various

The reason for this is that Eastern athletes are not compelled to travel to Iowa in order to get up a representative championship meeting, because the majority of strong school teams are in the East. With the Iowans, on the other hand, or with any of the school sportsmen of the West, it is different. If they are the strongest team in their section of the country, and believe themselves stronger than any other scholastic team, they cannot prove this by challenging or inviting those who have shown themselves to be record-makers to come to them; they must seek out the Eastern athletes, and meet them on their own grounds.

Yale and Cornell have to go to Henley to row with English crews. They may feel that they are stronger than the Englishmen, but the Britishers are very well satisfied with their own rivers, and are content to race their own crews. They welcome the Americans, and are glad to contend against them; but they never would think of coming over here to race on the Hudson. We are as young in college sports, when compared with England, as the Iowa schools are young in interscholastic sport when compared with Eastern institutions. To win at Henley means much both for Englishmen and Americans. For an English crew to win at Poughkeepsie would mean little to the English public. There would scarcely be a paragraph about such a victory in the London dailies. In the same way there would scarcely be a paragraph in the New York papers if the National games were held in Cedar Rapids or Sioux City, because neither of these cities is of national fame or importance.

Therefore it is the wisest plan to hold the National games in the largest city of the land—in the city to which the dwellers of other cities are always glad to come; in the city which affords the best accommodations; in the city which can contribute the largest crowd (even if it does not do so at first); in the city which can offer the greatest entertainment; in the city where live the largest number of well-known sportsmen. No other city of the United States can boast of so great a number of amateur athletes as New York—men who have been famous when in college, and who now take a lively interest as officials in the welfare of sport. As one of these gentlemen said, on the day of the National games, when one of the Boston delegation asked his opinion about the location for next year's meet, "Crum is reported to have run the 100 yards, in 9-4/5 sec. in Iowa, but nobody believed it until he came to New York and won the event at the Inter-collegiate games."

There is a great deal of truth in the suggestion implied in this remark. If the National games were held out West somewhere, and all the interscholastic records were broken, few people would take much stock in the figures, because they would have but little confidence in the local officials. Not that these local officials might not be just as good as those of New York (although they probably could not be, for they are not able to have as much experience), but the general public interested in sport would not place full confidence in them, simply because those officials would be unknown to them.

In this discussion I have purposely made the comparison between New York and another city a comparison between New York and a Western city, because I think it makes the argument clearer and more forcible. Many of the objections to having the meet outside of New York would not hold for Boston or Philadelphia—because both of these are large centres, and to each of these cities New York officials of national importance and reputation could easily be induced to go. But, as I said at the start, it would not be fair to the other leagues in the National Association to hold the meetings alternately at the homes of two or three of its favored members. It would not be fair to Iowa and to Maine to hold the meet alternately at Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Unless the event is held always in the same place there is no reason why each league should not have a chance to see the games on their own grounds, but, as I have said before, very few Eastern athletes could be persuaded to travel as far as the Iowans did to come here. Another reason, although a minor one, why it is well to hold the meetings each year not only in the same city but on the same grounds, is that the comparison between records made is then an absolute one, the only error in the equation being one of weather or temperature.

The question of grounds is an important one, and one that should be discussed very carefully before any decision is arrived at concerning next year's meeting. There are two important factors to be considered. The first is that the grounds, considered merely as a track and a field, should be of the best available—that is, the cinder path should be well laid, should be firm and springy, and the turf of the infield should be "old" and well rolled. The second point to be considered is the convenience of access, the accommodations for spectators, the relation of the grand stand to the track, the general picturesqueness of the surroundings, and other minor conveniences. I am not at all certain that the Columbia Oval comes up to all these requirements—it certainly does not come up to some of the latter. There may be some points, however, in which the Columbia Oval excels other available ground for interscholastic meetings, and although I should not care to declare myself of that opinion at present, I think it would be well to discuss the question at greater length before coming to an absolute or final decision.

There are a number of other subjects concerning the National Association which need to be talked over—the choice of officials, for instance, the inclination of certain delegates to introduce politics into the affairs of the association, and the problem as to whether it is better to have the games in the future managed by a club, or by the schoolboys themselves. But, unfortunately, there is not space in the Department this week to go as thoroughly into the questions as the importance deserves. We must therefore leave them to another time.

An excellent step taken by the committee was the fixing of a date for all future meetings to be on the first Saturday in June. Next year, therefore, the meeting of the I.S.A.A.A.A. will be held on June 6. This will be much better than having it as late as was necessary this year, and because of the early date the attendance both of contestants and spectators will doubtless be very much larger.

The officers elected for the ensuing year were C. B. Cotting, of the New England League, president; Hugh Jackson, of the Iowa League, vice-president; J. D. Tilford, of the New York Association, secretary; George Smith, of the New Jersey Association, treasurer. The executive committee will consist of President Cotting, ex officio, C. F. Luce, of the Connecticut Association, F. Hewins, of the Maine Association, L. F. Herrick, of the Long Island Association, H. N. Dunbar, of the New England Association, and J. D. Tilford, the secretary.

Another important step taken by the delegates at this meeting was the formation of an alliance with the Amateur Athletic Union. The advantages to be derived by both associations may be gathered from the following clauses taken from the body of the Articles of Alliance: