AMERICAN AND INTERNATIONAL ATHLETICS. Athletics became popular in the United States in the early seventies. A movement soon arose to bring them under definite organization, and about 1880 the National Association of Amateur Athletes of America, was formed, out of which has grown the present governing body. In America, as in England, the colleges exert an important influ ence on amateur athletics. College training methods are on the whole more scientific than those of the majority of athletic clubs, and most of the leading athletes come from the colleges. Their governing bodies are the Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America and the Western Intercollegiate Association. Allied with them is the national body, the Amateur Athletic Union, with its eight sectional groups. It aims to maintain a uniform test of amateur standing, and in various ways to improve and promote sport. Its authority is universally recognized; besides track and field athletics, it claims jurisdiction over a few other sports. Con
tests have been held between representative American and English athletes on both sides of the Atlantic for over half a century, a full de scription of which will be found in an article in Outing for July, 1900, by the late William B. Curtis.
Consult: Anderson, The Making of a Perfect Man (New York, 1901) ; Sargent, Athletic Sports, Outdoor Library (New York, 1897) ; Cornish, All-Around Athletes, Spalding's Ath letic Library (New York, 1898) ; James, Prac tical Training (New York, 1897) ; Murphy, Col lege Athletics (New York, 1894) ; Dowdwig, Games in Preparatory Schools (London, 1900). Consult also the books in the Badminton Li brary on various branches of athletics. See, fur ther, articles in this Encyelopedia on the branches of athletics, as, for example, BASE BALL; FIELD SPORTS; FOOTBALL; ROWING; BASKET BALL, etc.