SPORTS, United States.) Athletic sports are now usually understood to consist of those events recognized in the championship programmes of the differ ent countries which, in their turn, are based upon the Olympic games schedule of events. This, however, does not apply so far as England is concerned. Apart from the numerous champion ship meetings and international, inter-county and inter-club matches, the majority of sports meetings in England are con fined to flat race handicaps, the field events and hurdle racing are entirely ignored and it is true that only during the last few years the whole of the Olympic field events have been in cluded in the A.A.A. open and district championships pro grammes, nor are the whole of these events even yet practised at Oxford and Cambridge, whereas in America nearly all of the items have been added to the A.A.U. and I.C.A.A.A.A. champion ship programmes as soon as they were raised to Olympic status. The events included in the Oxford and Cambridge sports are iooyd., 44oyd., 88oyd., Im., 3m., I2oyd. high hurdles, 22oyd. low hurdles, high and long jumps, pole vault and shot put. Of the above list the A.A.A. Open English championships do not include the 3m. run and the 22oyd. low hurdles, but add 4m. and Iom. walks, 44oyd. low hurdles, 2m. steeplechase, throwing the ham mer, discus and javelin, hop, step and jump, tug of war (catch weights), tug of war (Ioost.), 440yd. relay race (4 x ioo), and im. relay race (4 x 44oyd.). In 192o there was instituted an annual relay meeting between Oxford and Cambridge. Up to 1927 no Blues had been awarded for this match, which now comprises 400yd., fm., i m., 2m., 4m., 48oyd. high hurdles and 88oyd. low hurdles, four runners, each covering an equal quarter of the dis tance, representing either university in each event. (For the United States events, see the article TRACK AND FIELD SPORTS : United States.) Long before annual championship meetings were instituted in any country the desire to pit the athletes of one nation against those of another was clearly in evidence, and England was vis ited in 1844 by George Seward, an American professional run ner, who achieved some signal successes, and in 1863 by Louis Bennett, called "Deerfoot," a full-blooded Seneca Indian, who established running records up to II miles. In 1884 a team of Irish athletes, among them the late Dr. W. J. M. Barry, a mag nificent exponent of the heavy-weight field events, visited Canada and won several championships. In 1888 the Manhattan A.C., New York, sent to England a team and the Gaelic A.A. despatched a team to America. In 1890 the Salford Harriers were the guests of the Manhattan A.C. in New York, and the following year the Manhattan athletes went again to England. The first matches of a truly international character occurred, however, in 1894 and 1895, and were arranged by the famous Yale sprinter, C. H. Sherrill, who invented the crouch start. In 1894 the universities of Yale and Oxford met in London and the English blues proved successful by winning 51 to 31 events. The following year the London A.C. took to New York almost the strongest team that could be mustered in the British Isles. They competed against the New York A.C., but did not win a single event. Twelve thou sand people witnessed this match on Manhattan Field. Fourteen events comprised the programme and three world's records were broken and one equalled. Two weeks later Cambridge was de feated by Yale in America by 8 events to 3. In 1899 Oxford and Cambridge combined forces for a match in London against Harvard and Yale, who were beaten by the odd event.
A summary of the most interesting meetings follows:— 1894 Oxford 5i Yale 31 in England 1895 Yale 8 Cambridge 3 in America 1899 Oxford and Yale and Harvard 4 in England Cambridge 5 1901 Yale and Harvard 6 Oxford and in America Cambridge 3 1904 Yale and Harvard 6 Oxford and in England Cambridge 3 1911 Oxford and Yale and Harvard 4 in England Cambridge 5 1921 Yale and Harvard 8 Oxford and in America Cambridge 2 192I Oxford and Yale and Harvard 5 in America Cambridge 5 1923 Oxford and Yale and in England Cambridge 61 Harvard 51 1925 Oxford and Yale and Harvard 6 in America Cambridge 6 1925 Oxford and Princeton and in America Cambridge 9 Cornell 3 1926 Oxford and Princeton and in England Cambridge 7 Cornell 5 1927 Oxford and Yale and Harvard 4 in England Cambri,Igc 7 1929 Oxford and Yale and Harvard S in America Cambridge 4 1929 Oxford and Princeton and in America Cambridge 3 Cornell 9 It is from the enterprise of such bodies as the Salford Harriers, Gaelic A.A., London A.C., Manhattan A.C. and New York A.C. and the early meetings between English and American universities that the present series of international matches between all coun tries throughout the world, apart from the Olympic Games, has grown, until no athletic season passes at the present time without each country engaging in several international matches with one or more other countries. The most important of all international festivals is, however, the revived Olympic Games. They were instituted by delegates from the different nations who met in Paris on June 16, 1894, principally at the instigation of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the result being the formation of an interna tional Olympic Games committee with Baron de Coubertin at its head which resolved that games should be held every fourth year in a different country.
Since that time, however, coloured athletes have attained to a remarkable prominence. At the Stockholm Olympiad, 1912, James Thorpe, an American Indian, won the pentathlon by a margin of 14 points and the decathlon with 8,412.955 points, which latter performance would have stood for many years as a world's record but that Thorpe was unfortunately declared a professional on the technicality of once, as a youth, having accepted a small pay ment for playing in a baseball game. At the same Olympiad, Louis Tewanami, another American Indian, finished second in the io,000 metres world's championship. More recently France has produced one and America three negro long jumpers who have beaten 2 5f t., while two of the best sprinters Great Britain has had since the war are H. F. V. Edward, a West Indian, and J. E. London, a native of British Guiana. A regular championship meeting is now held annually in Kenya Colony for East African natives, and there are also Egyptian championships.
The Greeks, however, were not altogether satisfied with the cosmopolitan character of the revival of the celebrated games of their ancestors, and resolved to give the revival a more definitely Hellenic stamp by intercalating an additional series to take place at Athens, in the middle of the quadrennial period. Their action was justified by the success which attended the first of this addi tional series at Athens in 1906. This success may have been partly due to the personal interest taken in the games by the king and royal family of Greece, and to the presence of King Edward VII., Queen Alexandra and the prince and princess of Wales; but to whatever cause it should be assigned it was generally acknowl edged that neither in France nor in America had the games ac quired the same prestige as those held on the classical soil of Greece. In 1906 the Governments of Germany, France and the United States made considerable grants of money to defray the ex penses of the competitors from those countries. The 1906 inter calated games aroused much more interest in England than the earlier ones in the series, but although upwards of 5o British competitors took part in the contests, they were by no means representative in all cases of the best British athletes. The Amer ican representatives were slightly less numerous, but they were more successful. It was noteworthy that no British or Americans took part in the rowing races in the Bay of Phalerum, nor in the tennis, football or shooting competitions. The English fencing team (epée) was composed of Lord Desborough, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, Edgar Seligman, Charles Newton-Robinson, Lord How ard de Walden (spare man) and Theodore Cook (captain). They fought France to a dead heat in the final. The Marathon race, by far the most important event in the games. was won in 1906 by a British athlete, M. D. Sherring, a Canadian by birth. Nine hundred and one competitors, representing 19 countries, took part. In accordance with an unofficial method of scoring adopted by the special correspondents of the press, America finished first in the athletic section with 756 points, Britain second, 41 points, Sweden third, 28 points and Greece fourth, 272 points. The Greeks have never been able to repeat the intercalated series of games at Athens, partly owing to the expense, partly because the Athenian Stadium is not built for high speed round the corners.
The London Olympiad of 1908 may, however, well be regarded as marking the commencement of a fresh athletic era throughout the world. It is worthy of note that the United States, in pursuit of a progressive policy, has always at once included in the Ama teur Athletic Union and inter-collegiate championship programme any new event which might be added to the Olympic syllabus. The English Amateur Athletic Association (A.A.A.), on the other hand, for many years ignored such events as throwing the javelin, discus and 56 lb. weight and the hop, step and jump, and allowed to fall into disuse, through lack of encouragement and facilities for competition, such excellent exercises as pole vaulting, shot putting and hammer throwing, and gave but little more attention to high and long jumping and hurdling.
In 191 o the English Amateur Field Events Association (A.F.E.A.) was formed and authorized by the A.A.A. to hold championships. The new championships instituted were standing high jump (J. E. Boyde, 4ft. 6in.), standing long jump (L. H. G. Stafford, 9ft. 114in.), hop, step and jump (M. D. Dineen, 41ft. 6in.), throwing the javelin (F. A. M. Webster, ii8ft. 'dn.), and 440yd. hurdle race (E. B. Grier, 63isec.). By 1914 the purpose of the A.F.E.A. had been fulfilled, for in that year the A.A.A. incor porated in its championship programme the javelin, discus, hop, step and jump, and the 44oyd. low hurdles, but even then these events were not taken so seriously as the others.
It is significant that at the Stockholm Olympiad the United States finished first with a total of 85 points, Finland second with 29 points, Sweden third with 27 points and Great Britain fourth with 15 points. American athletes were again in the ascendant, but with their supremacy challenged by Finland and Sweden. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark had now become defi nitely athletic countries; while France, Germany and the lesser European nations, such as Italy, Belgium and Holland, were all showing steady progress towards national athletic efficiency.
In England championships were abandoned from 1914 to 1919. Athletic meetings of a sort continued to be held under an unoffi cial general amnesty, which allowed pure amateurs and those soldiers who had forfeited their amateur status to compete together. In Great Britain the London Athletic Club contrived to carry on the public schools sports meeting right through the war, thus assuring for Great Britain the nucleus of a fine supply of athletes of international standing when the days of war should be ended. This public schools sports meeting, which has done more than anything else to induce British boys to pay more atten tion to athletics, commenced in 189o, in which year C. H. Mason presented a quarter-mile challenge cup to be competed for annu ally by public school boys at an L.A.C. meeting. In subsequent years other cups were given and in 1897 a number of L.A.C.
members presented public schools challenge cups to commemorate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. A public schools meeting was promoted that year and now the public schools sports meet ing comprises loo, 44o and 88oyd., im., im. walk, I2oyd. hurdles, 4m. steeplechase, high jump, long jump and pole vault, and junior competitions for boys between 14 and i6 years of age, at iooyd., 25oyd. and high jump. This meeting is the most important fixture of the public schools athletic season.
In 1916 at Evanston, Ill., R. I. Simpson brought the I2oyd. high hurdles record down to 14 ssecs., owing to certain modifica tions he made in the then accredited style of hurdling; and in 192o, a young Canadian, Earl Thomson, who had served in the Royal Air Force, still further reduced the record time to I4ssecs. Two of the most noteworthy achievements of the war period were the performances accomplished in 1916 by J. E. Meredith (Uni versity of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), who set up new world's records for the quarter-mile, which he ran in 47 5secs., and the half-mile run in 'min. 5 2 s secs. At Magdeburg, in 1913, A. R. Taipale (Fin land) threw the discus 158f t. 1 iin. This performance is duly rec ognized as a record in Scandinavia, but has never been passed by the International Amateur Athletic Federation. Otherwise it would stand as the world's record.
Shortly after the signing of the Armistice, a great inter-allied military athletic meeting took place in the Pershing Stadium at Paris. Of signal importance at this time was the step taken by the authorities of the British services, who decided that the pre war custom of rewarding athletic proficiency among soldiers and sailors by money prizes must forthwith cease. An inter-services athletic sports meeting was held in 1919, at which some of Great Britain's dominion soldiers, not yet demobilized, proved clearly that the dominions themselves would hold a strong hand at the next celebration of the Olympic Games. It is interesting to note that even after the United States had entered the World War, the national A.A.U. championships were not abandoned, whereas, in Great Britain, no championship meetings took place between 1914 and 1919.
In Great Britain the sterling post-war work of the Oxonians, A. N. S. Jackson and B. G. D. Rudd, coupled with the exertions of the Cambridge men, P. J. Baker, G. M. Butler, R. S. Woods and W. R. Seagrove, was responsible for inducing university ath letes to take a healthy interest in open competitions generally, and championship meetings in particular, outside the limited scope of their own university sports.
In 1919, the Inter-University Athletic Board of Great Britain and Ireland was constituted, comprising the universities and uni versity colleges of Aberystwith, Bangor, Birmingham, Bristol, Car diff, Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield; other universities, including London, have since joined the movement. At these provincial universities the whole of the Olympic events are practised, and year by year the records, espe cially in the field of events, improve.
The keen promotion of and competition in athletics at the pro vincial universities is having a far-reaching effect upon British sport. Sidney Best, of Leeds university, has been one of the most prominent people in the movement; and it is largely due to his efforts that there has been laid out at Westwood, Leeds, a ground which caters for every form of sporting activity, and which has an athletic track and field that is the equal of any to be found in the world. Other provincial universities are rapidly acquiring their own grounds, and as these are made available at certain times for the use of the general public, it follows that the nation must de rive the greatest benefit from the I.U.A.B. movement. Lack of suitable tracks, playing fields and pitches is a factor which is seriously handicapping the athletic development of England, but this state of things is being slowly remedied by the work of the National Playing Fields Association. Much remains to be done bef ore Great Britain reaches the level of the Dominions in this respect.
The participation of the University of London in the cham pionships of the Inter-University Athletic Board had the effect of raising the standard between the years 1925-27.
At the conclusion of the Antwerp games, the United States was first, Finland second, Sweden third and the British Isles fourth, the same order as obtained at the conclusion of the Stockholm games, but in the other positions there was a marked difference. France, for example, eighth at Stockholm, was now fifth, while Italy had moved up from the eleventh to the sixth place. Amer ica's strength lay in the sprints, hurdles, relay races and jumps. Finland gained honours across country, in the middle-distances races and the throwing events. Sweden scored heavily through the magnificent team work of her men, and Italy came into promi nence by the fine walking of Ugo Frigerio.
Further proof of the taste which the public was acquiring for international competition was exemplified immediately after the games by the match between France, Sweden and the United States, which took place in Paris, and that even greater match at Queen's Club, London, between the United States and the British empire, which ended in a dead heat. This latter match has evi dently come to stay; repeated in London in 1924, after the celebration of the eighth Olympiad at Paris. In 1921 the Interna tional Amateur Athletic Federation held an important congress at Geneva. New rules for international competitions were passed and the Olympic programme at last standardized. The years that followed the Antwerp Olympiad were years of wonderful progress. This is conclusively proved by the existing world's records.
A direct outcome of the influence of the Achilles Club is that British athletics have become less individual by the introduction of that team spirit which is so wholly in accord with British tradi tion and temperament. A cautious decentralization of authority recently embarked upon by the A.A.A. marks a further step in progress, since it has led to the formation of county amateur ath letic associations, holding certain administrative and judicial powers within their own territories.
The essence of the county administrative scheme is found in the internal management of the sport by counties within their own areas, inter-county contests being an essential adjunct to the movement. At present Bedfordshire, which county instituted matches in 1925 with the London Athletic Club and the Univer sity of London A.C., has probably achieved the most signal prog ress. In this connection it may be stated that England has for years past been divided into northern, midland and southern areas for administrative purposes, and that the furtherance of the county scheme lay at first entirely in the hands of the south, a circumstance strongly resented by the northern and midland dis tricts. The Midlands are now more strongly represented, but the north still holds aloof.
In 1925 the first English inter-county relay and team athletic championship, for the trophy presented by the Achilles Club, was held at Stamford Bridge, London; Middlesex proved the winners and have never since lost their championship title. The position, however, was an entirely unsatisfactory one. The fatal policy of booming certain events at the expense of others was once again fully- in evidence, such events as hammer, discus and javelin throwing, the pole vault, hoc, step and jump and the 44oyd. low hurdles being excluded from the programme. The result was that Bedfordshire, exceptionally strong in the field events and hurdles, and several other counties, refused to take part in championships which were not considered fully representative of English ath letic sport. A pronouncement was made subsequently that the championship programme would not be in any way augmented in 1926. Consequently the midland counties, comprising Bedford shire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Shropshire and Stafford shire, for the time being, abandoned all thought of taking part in the inter-county championships. The north also, although possi bly from different motives, refused to have anything to do with the county scheme. In deference to the views of the counties, however, it was finally agreed to include in the 1926 programme the pole vault and throwing the discus, but this still leaves ham mer and javelin throwing, the hop, step and jump and the 44oyd. low hurdles outside the scheme.
The essential fact is that, up to 1906, the Amateur Athletic As sociation, which is the governing body of the sport in England, had been unable to establish any liaison with the English public schools, which should prove the great recruiting ground for future Olympic teams. On the other hand, the counties, by reason of their more personal local contact, have in a few years begun to till this field, as is witnessed by the number of schoolboys who gained their county athletic colours during 1927, and the far greater number of school authorities who sought the advice and assistance, for the coaching of schoolboys for the annual sports, of old champions and other county experts. Notable examples of the value of coaching promoted by county associations are found in the cases of H. A. Simmons, Taunton's school, Southampton, and G. M. Moll, Bedford, aged 15 (high jumpers) both capped for their counties in 1927, and F. R. Webster, Bedford school, who, at 12 years of age, achieved 7ft. in the pole vault and set up new junior records in Yorkshire, Norfolk and Bedfordshire. G. M. Moll's winning high jump of 5ft. 5in. in the public schools junior competition constitutes a world's record for a boy of under 16 years of age.
The year 1926 was notable in that it marked the readmission of Germany to international competition with the former Allied Powers. At Basle, Switzerland, in August of that year, a trian gular international match took place, Germany winning with points, France being second (891) and Switzerland third (68). A month previously the first German athletes who had been allowed to compete in England since the war appeared at Stamford Bridge, London, to contest the English championships and were well received. That the German people had already made up their minds to signalize their readmission to the Olym pic Games at the ninth Olympiad at Amsterdam in 1928 was at once evident. Five German sprinters and one single British rep resentative qualified for the final of the English A.A.A. Iooyds. sprint championship, which was won by R. Corts, Germany, in in the 88oyd. race Dr. Otto Peltzer, Germany, not only defeated the Boo metres Olympic champion, D. G. A. Lowe, Great Britain, but, in doing so, set up a new world's record of 1min. 515secs. Later in the afternoon the German doctor was but nar rowly defeated in the 44oyd. race by J. W. J. Rinkel, of Cam bridge university. In several other events German athletes placed prominently. In 1927 the Germans made an even more successful raid upon the English championship titles ; H. Kornig won the 1 ooyd. in I o H. Houben, the 2 2oyd. in 2 I tsecs., R. Dobermann, the long jump at 23ft. I14in. and G. Brechenmacher, the shot put at 46f t. 64in., while the Preussen Krefeld team took the 44oyd. relay race (4 x I 1 oyd.) in 42 secs. In the case of the 1927 international match in which Germany defeated Switzer land, the German 40o metres relay team equalled the world's record of 41 secs. France, also, was met and defeated, the result being Germany 89 points, France 62 points. In addition to his half-mile record, Dr. Peltzer set up a new world's record of Imin. 3ssecs. for soo metres. J. Schlokat, after only two months' prac tice, made a new German javelin throwing record of 2o4ft. II in., H. Hoffmeister, a new discus record of over 154f t., while G. Brechenmacher is a shot putter of the 5oft. class and R. Dober mann a long jumper of the 25ft. class. Athletics have rapidly at tained an amazing degree of popularity in Germany; the country is starred with new, well-equipped tracks and grounds, and there is no doubt that Germany is becoming an athletic force which even America will have to reckon with in the very near future. Mean while Great Britain and her dominions overseas are steadily im proving, as is proved by the running of D. G. A. Lowe, J. W. J. Rinkel, R. Leigh-Wood and H. H. Hodge and the hurdling of Lord Burghley, F. R. Gaby, S. J. M. Atkinson (South Africa) and G. C. Weightman-Smith (South Africa), while the American de velopment in such field events as throwing the discus and javelin, which, in the past, have been considered almost purely Scandi navian pastimes, is no less remarkable.
The general improvement throughout the world, and the re sultant number of records which have been recently broken, is due partly to more intensive competition, but even more largely to the direct application of science to athletic sport. Coaching, elsewhere than in Great Britain, is now a recognized and remark ably lucrative calling. This state of things obtains on the Con tinent. Capt. Helge Lovland, athletic director to Norway, won the decathlon at the 192o Olympiad. In Great Britain alone is the profession of athletic coach regarded as an unfit means for a public schools or university man to earn his living, and, conse quently, British athletes do not enjoy such efficient instruction as is obtainable in other countries.
The teaching of athletics has now become a highly specialized art, in which all the aids of science are being fully utilized. Medi cal men and dieticians play their part ; massage is freely employed to improve the athletes' condition and cinematography, slow-mo tion films and fixed cameras are used in the study of technique, to record faults, and to make plain to the athlete himself his own shortcomings. Scientific exercises are designed by physical cul turists, and questions of temperature, as affecting athletic per formances, are well understood, as also are the stress and strain involved in certain athletic performances. Recently Prof. A. V. Hill, F.R.S., University of London, has perfected an electrical apparatus which enables him to calculate the rate of speed of a runner at any given point of a race or training run. This appara tus consists of a series of vertical plane coils set up at measured intervals beside a running track and connected in series electri cally with a galvanometer. The man whose performances are to be studied wears a thin strap of magnetized steel round his waist and the exact instant at which he passes each coil is registered by a flick of the galvanometer and recorded as a sharp wave on photo graphic paper. The moving paper is furnished with accurate time marks to enable readings to a Tooth of a second to be made. By this means can be recorded:— at the Hellenic Festival, Athens, 1906. The events comprised weight lifting, wrestling (team and individual), 1,50o metres walk, rope climbing and tug of war. At the Stockholm Olympiad, 1912, the pentathlon was revived, the events contested being long jump, javelin, 200 metres run, discus and 1,500 metres run. In that year was added to the Olympic programme the decathlon, comprising Too, 400 and 1,5oo metres runs, 110 metres hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, discus, javelin and pole vault.
The conditions of the present pentathlon are such that all en trants compete in the first three events, in each of which the win ner receives one point and the second man two points, and so on. The total points of the competitors are counted and the 12 men with the lowest scores qualify to compete in the discus throw ing; after the discus throwing the best six compete in the 1,5oo metres flat race. At the end of all five competitions the competi tor having the lowest score is adjudged the winner.
The winner of the decathlon is the one who scores the highest number of points in the ten divisions. At the third congress of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, Geneva, 1921, it was decided that for a result similar to the best result obtained at the 1912, or previous, Olympic Games, I ,000 points should be awarded, other results to be valued in accordance with the decath lon table. If a result exceed the best "Olympic" result, corres pondingly higher points to be awarded. The basis of scoring, therefore, works out as follows:— Other instruments are in process of perfection which will de termine correct angles of departure and flight in the jumps and throwing events, and yet other apparatus which will enable the coach to see at a glance exactly where his pupils are going right and where they are going wrong.
Much has been done in the way of athletic research; but, even yet, the processes at work in the employment of the athletes' mus cles are only beginning to be understood; science and its applica tions, however, are proceeding hand in hand and it is certain that performances still more remarkable than any that have preceded them will be produced by future generations of athletes.
For list of world's records, see OLYMPIC GAMES and RUNNING.
An all-round championship was instituted in America in 1884, comprising Iooyd., 44oyd. and rm. runs, 88oyd. walk, I2oyd. hurdles, high and long jumps, pole vault, throwing the 16 lb. hammer and the 56 lb. weight and the shot put. This contest has now been abandoned in favour of the orthodox pentathlon and decathlon run on Olympic lines.
The ancient athletic pentathlon was revived in modern times Among the best decathlon performances so far returned are those of the Finns, P. Yrjola and E. Jarvinen, 1st and 2nd in the 1928 Olympiad; J. Thorpe, the American-Indian who was disquali fied after the 1912 games and H. M. Osborn, U.S.A., the Olympic winner in 1924. The schedules of performances are as follows:— In 1935 the official world's decathlon record was held by H. Sievert of Germany (established in Germany, July 7-8, whose score was 8,790.46 points. At the Olympic Games of 1932, in Los Angeles, the decathlon was won by James Baush, of the United States, with a score of 8,462.235 points.
In addition to the above all-round athletic championships there is in the Olympic programme a modern pentathlon comprising:— I. Revolver shooting, rapid at 25 metres (8 2 f t. of in.) with the competitor's best hand.
2. Swimming, 30o metres (328.o9yd.) free style.
3. Epee fencing.
4. Riding, 5,00o metres (5,468. I I yd.) . (Horses provided and drawn for by competitors.) 5. Cross-country running 4,00o metres (4,374.61 yd.). A modern pentathlon championship of Great Britain was insti tuted in 1924.
See also ARCHERY ; ATHLETICS, WOMEN IN ; BOXING; CRICKET; CYCLING; DISCUS THROWING; FENCING; FOOTBALL, ASSOCIATION; FOOTBALL, RUGBY ; GYMNASTICS AND GYMNASIUM ; HOCKEY; HURDLING; JAVELIN THROWING; JUMPING; LAWN TENNIS AND TENNIS; OLYMPIC GAMES; POLE VAULTING; POLO; PUTTING THE SHOT; ROWING; RUNNING; SKATING; SKI; STEEPLECHASING; TRACK AND FIELD SPORTS ; WALKING RACES; WEIGHT THROWING; WRESTLING. (For Marathon Races see RUNNING).
The Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of Amer ica, commonly called the "I.C.4A's" and organized in 1875, is a supervisory and executive body composed of 41 colleges and uni versities, about three-quarters of which are situated in the eastern States. Declaring its "absolute jurisdiction among its members over all forms of track and field athletics," it conducts under its own rules two annual competitions; a February indoor meeting, and a May track and field championship meeting. The I.C.4A. veterans division is composed of former college athletes and offi cers of the association. It occupies a position somewhat analogous to that of the Achilles club in England. In 1927 some 88 varsity track and field meetings, 17 freshman track and field meetings, and 7o cross-country runs were held under various auspices accord ing to I.C.4A rules. Among national bodies the National Federa tion of State High School Athletic Associations endeavours to link together the athletic associations of the high schools in the several States for the improvement of competition in all sports and for freedom of action within the field of secondary school athletics. A total of 29 such associations are thus federated. In addition, the American Federation of Labor is doing much to bring sport into the leisure of its members.
For schools, each of the 4S States has its own inter scholastic athletic association which, bearing many resemblances to the college conference. exercises an increasingly strict super vision over school competition in all sports. In Alabama, Cal ifornia. Delaware, Florida, Louisiana. Maryland. Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Missouri. New jersey, New York. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia and West Virginia, the State High School Athletic Association is allied with the State department of physical education, which is a part of the State department of public in struction. Each State high school athletic association holds an nually at least one State-wide track and field meeting and many send representatives to compete in inter-scholastic meetings held by various national bodies. Attempts to estimate the number of inter-scholastic football, basketball and baseball games have proved futile. although one authority has given So.000 as a possi ble annual minimum. authority In each larger American city there exist one or more amateur athletic clubs, which possess houses often luxuriously appointed. with facilities for all forms of indoor athletic exercise (gym nasiums. swimming pools. running tracks. squash and tennis courts, etc.), as well as outdoor playing fields. Such clubs. usually affiliated with the A.A.U. through its regional associations. draw many of their more expert members from the ranks of former college athletes. Many industrial and commercial establishments make much of athletic sports and games, and some provide foot ball and baseball fields for their employes as a branch of com pany personnel or welfare work. Besides the State and local associations that unite in the A.A.U., the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Men' Hebrew Association are provid ing centres for all branches of sport.
The central problem of athletic. administration is generally con sidered to be financial. Athletic revenues range from as low as $4,300 at a small college of 229 undergraduates to $1,104,000 at a large university of 4,283 students. As at Oxford and Cambridge, gate receipts from varsity. football games provide the great bulk of the support for all other branches of inter-collegiate athletics. At a few eastern institutions inter-collegiate football pays also for intra-mural sports. For example, although at the United States Military academy (West Point, N.Y.) intra-mural sports are considered to be of great value in the training of army officers, the current expense of all athletics is borne principally by sales of football tickets and not by appropriation from public funds. Most of the State and western universities make the cost of intra mural programmes, except the use of facilities, a charge upon their instructional budgets. When the use of facilities is in ques tion, preference is almost invariably given to candidates for inter collegiate teams. The situation presents sharp contrasts with the practice at the older English universities of financing college sport from subscriptions to amalgamated clubs. American profits from football, after all expenses chargeable to that sport have been paid, have ranged (1925-27) to as high as $500,00o at a few larger universities, and football profits of from $200.000 to $300, 000 from a season's schedule or fixture list are by no means un common at colleges of moderate size. Exceptions should, how ever, be noted in the case of a comparatively small number of institutions where because football has either not been sufficiently exploited, or in spite of exploitation has not yielded profits, the game shows a deficit and athletics are mainly supported by student fees. In most of the colleges of the United States, there fore, football is made to show a profit. When this consideration, respecting not alone football but any other sport, receives an emphasis that makes it paramount in the shaping of an institu tion's athletic policies, the result is a commercialism which no amount of "faculty control" appears powerful enough to abate. From the necessity of providing, out of football gate receipts, large sums of money, not alone for other inter-collegiate sports, but also equipment used in programmes of intra-mural athletics and of "physical education," has developed the need of accom modating huge numbers of spectators at even the less important football games and hence the building of great stadiums, or arenas, of reinforced concrete and in many cases of much archi tectural merit, owned by college athletic associations, in which matches take place. Statistics concerning the largest or most famous stadiums are as follows:— Prompted in part by large increases in funds made available from football gate receipts, many universities have embarked upon ambitious athletic building programmes, opened golf courses, erected "baseball cages" and "field houses" (huge barn-like struc tures of brick for practicing track and field events, basketball, cer tain features of baseball, etc.) , enlarged gymnasiums and installed indoor tracks, basketball courts, swimming pools, tanks for indoor practice at the oar and other facilities, built training quarters, boat houses and locker accommodations, acquired increased acre age for playing fields, and generally augmented material facilities, indoor and outdoor, for all branches of athletics. Accommodations for women's sports have not kept pace with those for men ex cept in a few instances.
The medical supervision of college athletics is receiving in creased attention, and at a few institutions, notably Stanford university, the physiological health of the student is being closely interwoven with the athletic programmes. In figures collected for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, football exhibits the highest incidence of athletic injuries and accidents, with a total of 12 serious injuries (chronic sprains, fractures, concussions, exhaustion, internal injuries, m_yositis ossificans) among each Too players,—17.7% among inter-col legiate contestants, 5.1% among intra-mural players; boxing, the next highest, 5.2%; lacrosse, 4-7%; association football, 4.0%; wrestling, 3.4%; baseball, 2.2%; cross-country running, 1.5%; ice hockey, 1.4% ; basketball, 1.3%; track and field, 1.2%; row ing, 0.2%; and swimming and fencing, no serious injuries. The proportion of injuries for all sports is about 3%. Serious injuries are, of course, much more common in inter-collegiate than in intra-mural sport. Usually, injuries to varsity players are treated at the expense of the athletic association, which also provides, notably at Dartmouth, Harvard, Oberlin and the United States Military academy, facilities for team surgeons and trainers. Whatever the incidence of athletic injuries, the disadvantages that they imply should be judged, not absolutely, but in comparison with physical and moral values received by participants. Because no trustworthy method of measuring such values has been devised, they remain a matter of personal conviction.
With the growth of the notion of "faculty control" of college athletics, there has developed a tendency to exalt the position of the coach, not alone in respect of his status and tenure, but also as regards his relative importance as a member of the college family. Because it is widely recognized that the influence of the coach, whether salutary or debasing, among college students is very large, an increasing care is taken in the selection and appoint ment of men for such posts. Among Europeans the impression seems to be current that the widely known college coaches in the United States are men of some medical training, whereas they have come from all walks of life, business, medicine, the law, teaching and the profession of arms,—and many have risen from the position of trainer or even of rubber and masseur. The leaders in the calling, including, for example, those most prominent in the councils of the American Association of Football Coaches, are men of university and in some instances of medical training, but the man of achievement in the field is as likely to he of more humble origin as he is to belong to a more select. group. Recent recruiting to the ranks of college coaches from among graduates of schools of physical education, like the Young Men's Christian Association Training colleges at Springfield, Mass., and Chicago, Ill., and the schools at the University of Illinois and Teachers college (Columbia university), Oberlin, Michigan, and most of the other State universities, is changing the situation. State uni versities are led to offer courses in physical education because State laws require that the subject shall be taught in public schools and teachers must be trained for the work. The number of coaches who with a hope of bettering their position have at tended summer schools of coaching and physical education, no matter of what attainment such schools may be, is growing rapidly. Salaries of coaches vary over a wide range. On the whole, head coaches employed on a seasonal basis without ap pointment to faculties receive the highest pay. Of these, 12 have (1928) salaries running from $10,000 to $12,000, although one professor of physical education on permanent appointment as director and coach is paid $14,000. The maximum salary among college track and field coaches is $8,000. With faculty status, typical salaries ranged between $5,000 and $10,000, the majority being found at the lower levels, with a minimum of $2,400 or $2,500. Considering the unprecedented rise in salaries paid to college professors in the United States, the average of coaches' salaries is not alarmingly high, except when contrasted at indi vidual institutions with the compensation of teachers of academic subjects. Most universities and colleges have from 3 to 20 coaches for all branches of athletics taken together. Coaching in intra-mural athletics, where less is at stake, being regarded as a less specialized task, is generally entrusted to assistants and to major students in graduate or undergraduate departments of physical education. Such departments and schools are provid ing an increasing supply of trained men for college coaching and for the teaching of physical education in schools, but the value of their training varies widely.
In the United States college sports are classified as major or minor. A major sport is a branch in which public appearance or distinguished service as a representative of a university or col lege on a team or crew is adjudged to be worthy of an award of a "letter" (the right to wear the initial of the college; e.g., "C" for Columbia, "M" for Michigan, "P" for Purdue, etc.) upon a sweater or athletic uniform. For the minor sports there is the lesser award of "numerals" (of the class of the year in which graduation is anticipated), or second-string or other insignia. Major sports universally include football, basketball, rowing, track and field athletics sometimes embracing cross-country running, rowing, baseball (declining in college popularity in some sec tions), and occasionally fencing (Columbia), ice hockey (Dart mouth), and swimming (Yale). Minor sports usually are reckoned to include lacrosse, tennis, wrestling, boxing, swimming, association football, golf, polo, fencing and occasionally rifle shooting, gymnastics, water polo, trap shooting, and on the Pacific coast English "rugger." Programmes of intra-mural sports may include any or most of the major and minor sports and also volley ball, soft ball, touch football (a variant of Ameri can football without tackling), speedball, handball, any of the six varieties of indoor baseball, foul throwing or shooting adapted from basketball, horseshoe pitching and occasionally, squash, bowling and hiking. Awards for intra-mural sports take the form of "numerals," medals, cups, plaques or pennants. All awards in major and minor sports are generally made by committees of athletic associations on nomination by captains or coaches or both. The University of Iowa has abolished distinctions between major and minor sports. Sports for women, played under women's rules, include field hockey and basketball, in which most women's inter-collegiate matches take place, swimming, running, jumping and volley ball. Wellesley college (Mass.) rows. Certain colleges and universities (e.g., Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Minnesota) especially favour winter sports, like skiing, snow-shoeing, ski-jumping, skat ing and ice hockey.
College sport is essentially amateur, and all conferences and practically all individual institutions have strict regulations to protect the amateur status of contestants. Rules of eligibility ex hibit a tendency to uniformity: (1) an athlete must have com pleted one year's academic work before entering inter-collegiate competitions ; (2) the playing of transferred students, migrants or "tramp" athletes is discouraged and has been in fact practically eliminated; (3) competition in inter-collegiate contests is gen erally limited to three years for each athlete; (4) a reasonable standard of academic work must be maintained; (5) an athlete must conform to the rule that "an amateur sportsman is one who engages in sport solely for the physical, mental or social benefits he derives therefrom, and to whom the sport is nothing more than an avocation" (part of the N.C.A.A. rule; the I.A.A.F., A.A.U., and I.C.4A. rule is not dissimilar). (See AMATEUR.) In spite of this amateur rule, athletes in the past have received money payments, scholarships and aids in the form of clothing or nominal jobs, generally in a covert and devious manner, and seldom with the open approval of college or university author ities. Such practices are decreasing, but there is still room for more common honesty in college sport, among the more rabidly partisan college alumni, and among needy young men who aspire through athletic subsidies to the advantages of a college educa tion.
The part played by the undergraduate in college sport in the United States involves far less responsibility than at English uni versities and even at certain English public schools. The strategy and tactics of all branches are almost universally the affair of the trainer and the coach. The paternal attitude of the college, manifest for many years in the academic and disciplinary aspects of university life, extends even to athletics. Thus has been lost much of one of the greatest benefits that college sport can con fer. As regards inter-collegiate contests, the proportion of students participating has not greatly changed since about 19oo, about 20 to 25%. Owing, however, to the fostering of intra mural athletics the country over, the total percentage of participa tion in all sports now lies between about 45% and 65% of all undergraduates, a proportion which is still rather below some esti mates for Oxford and Cambridge. Much of the increased partici pation in intra-mural athletics is due to the fact that a student who takes part in them to the satisfaction of the department of physical education thereby satisfies one of the "credit" requirements for graduation.
Although the formal relationships of American college athletes with college athletes of other countries find expression through the A.A.U. and the Olympic games, even more promising for in ternational amity is the series of university track and field meet ings inaugurated through the efforts of Dr. C. W. Kennedy, of Princeton, John T. McGovern, of Cornell, and Bevil Rudd, old Oxford blue, whereby in each year except Olympic years athletes from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale compete alternately in England and the United States. The athletes lodge together, dine and train together, and exchange coaching suggestions where such assistance proves helpful. The plan, which provides a near approach to the ideals of amateur international competition, has led to further contacts between Oxford and Cambridge, and Cor nell, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Syracuse universities in lacrosse, tennis, golf and other sports.
See articles : ATHLETICS, WOMEN IN, ATHLETE, OLYMPIC GAMES, TRACK AND FIELD SPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES and ATHLETIC SPORTS BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, GOLF, TENNIS, etc.
(H. J. S.)