TRACK AND FIELD SPORTS, a term used in the United States for those sports called athletic sports in England. For a full description of these athletic events in England and further description of the national athletic bodies in the United States see ATHLETIC SPORTS and also the separate articles on each sport. The article below covers only the track and field sports in the United States. They include foot-racing upon the flat and over obstacles such as hurdles, hedges and water-jumps ; jumping for distance and height either with or without the aid of pole or weights ; and the propulsion through the air by the use of the arms and body of objects and weights (the weight being sometimes called a shot) for distance or height such as the discus, javelin and hammer. The first national athletic body formed in America was the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletics of America. Founded in 1875 it had as its original members Am herst, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Trinity, Union, Williams, Wesleyan and Yale. A month later these were joined by Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, College of the City of New York, Brown and Bowdoin. Forty-one colleges and universities were members in 5928. The association holds two great annual cham pionship meetings, the May outdoor meeting, instituted in 1876, and the March indoor meeting, inaugurated in 1922. In 1917, owing to the World War, no meeting was held. At the first meet, held at Saratoga in 1876, the following events were contested : ioo-yd. dash, quarter-, half-, one-, and three-mile runs, one- and three-mile walk, 12o-yd. hurdles, shot put, baseball throw, high jump, and long jump. Ten colleges were represented by 28 indi vidual athletes. At the fifty-first annual track and field champion ship meeting, held at Franklin field, University of Pennsylvania, in 1927, the events were the ioo- and 220-yd. dashes, the 44o-, 88o-, one-, and two-mile runs, the ioo-yd. and the 22o-yd. hurdles, shot put, javelin throw, running high jump, pole vault, discus throw, running broad jump and hammer throw. A total of 707 athletes represented 31 colleges and universities. In the sixth annual indoor meeting (1927), held at New York city, 289 ath letes from 23 universities and colleges contested in the 70-yd. dash, 7o-yd. hurdles, one-mile and two-mile runs, one-mile, two mile, and freshman medley relays, and broad jump, pole vault, high jump, shot put, and 35-lb. weight event. The heavier men, out classed on the flat and in the jumps, were given another event on the introduction of the 35-lb. weight throw in 1922. The addition of the javelin and discus events to the programmes since 1922 is ascribable to their inclusion in the schedules of the Olympic games.
Among record-holders S. W. Carr (Yale) broke the world's record in the pole vault by vaulting 14 ft. at the outdoor meeting of 1927. Clarence W. Houser (University of Southern Cali fornia), holder of the world's discus record and Olympic cham pion in the same event, established the I.C.A.A.A.A. record for 151 ft. 3k in. in 1926. John Paul Jones (Cornell) in 1913 estab lished the American college record for the mile run, 4 min. sec. A large proportion of the winners of points for the United States in the Olympic games have previously competed in the meetings of the I.C.A.A.A.A.
The Amateur Athletic Union (1888) assumes jurisdiction over track and field sports in the United States (see ATHLETIC SPORTS : United States). Its amateur definition, the competitor's quali fication requirement (see AMATEUR), while rigid, is substantially the same as that of the I.C.A.A.A.A. The A.A.0 holds annual
national championship meets the schedules of which have been ex tended to include the javelin, discus and all-round events as affording opportunity for preparation for the Olympic games.
Certain college conferences and organizations also administer track and field competitions. The National Collegiate Association, which was originally organized primarily as an advisory body, has held (1928) seven annual outdoor meetings. Its programme is practically identical with that of the I.C.A.A.A.A. as regards the nature of the events. The N.C.A.A. meeting at Chicago in 1927 was entered by 183 athletes from 64 colleges and universities. The association affords to colleges, particularly those of the middle West and South, an opportunity for track and field competition that would otherwise be lacking. Its meetings are open to all and occasionally a few of the athletes who have competed in the I.C.A.A.A.A. championships compete also in the meet of the N.C.A.A. The Intercollegiate Conference ("Western Conference" or "Big Ten") has conducted some 28 annual outdoor champion ship track and field meetings at the last of which the programme was composed of the same events as the I.C.A.A.A.A. outdoor and the N.C.A.A. schedules. Its record-holders have included such col lege athletes as C. R. Brookins (Iowa), De Hart Hubbard (Mich igan), and others. All of these conferences and associations have followed the I.C.A.A.A.A. in definition, purposes and schedules of events.
The experiences of the I.C.A.A.A.A. with college youths and of the P.S.A.L. of New York city with elementary and high schoolboys have provided a stimulus to the widespread develop ment of track and field sports in America. Cities and villages, the nation over, are organizing schoolboys for track and field sports along the lines of the P.S.A.L. of New York city. The principal features of the work of the P.S.A.L. have been the insignificant requirements of its equipment, the adjustment of some track and field sport to almost every boy's capacity, the absence of public hysteria surrounding the competition, and the lessons of discipline and democratic associations that have resulted.
See ATHLETIC SPORTS, separate articles on the branches of track and field sports, and various team games.