The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-07-03
WELCOMED At WINTERS,
Manager North of Berkeley's
Athletes Given a Hearty
Greeting.
He Gives the Reason for the Teams
Repeated Triumphs In the
East.

WINTERS, CAL, July 2.-R. w. North,
originator and manager of the now famous
; Eastern athletic trip of the State Univer-
sity, arrived on to-day's train. His towns
| people have been much interested in the
trip, and accordingly this evening the
| Winters band, with its sixteen faultlesslY
| attired young men, paraded to Mr. North s
home, west of the town, and serenaded MIN
| until late hour.
"'How does your California team con-
tinue to improve under the continuous
| strain of travel p is the question which was
asked ME from Princeton to Denver, and
whose echo is dinned in my ears now
that we are at home" said Manager North
| to-day.
kindly disposed friends will take me
aside and ask how the boys did so we'll.
OF course, we all knew that it was a
fine team they venture; but in
our fondest dreams we only pictured
| them equaling their college records. Who
imagined that Fred would go under 81
seconds in the quarter, or Ted run the
furlong in q 2-5 seconds, or that Dyer
would make worlds record over the high
hurdles?' OF course l give them my
| theory of latent power which first led me
to advocate the trip, but since / have
rested my weary brain and Strengthened
out in my mind the trip l have arrived at
an additional reason: The men were more
than athletes. If ten ordinary athletes
had made such q trip they would have
gotten out of sorts and quarreled and
broken down, just as any party OF ten are
| bound to have disagreements and sickness
when they camp or travel together Tor
| over two months.
in the first place they were "a fine body
of men, because they had beer: brought:up
| in ten good American families and been
s,s4 ualt fol
| temperaments. Furthermore; none OF
| them were what could be termed drinking
men, and but one of them ever smoked,
even when out of training. Thus, given
| ten young men of an average age oil y,
clean, healthy, welt-born and well-tena-
pered and the foundation for success IS
laid. Then, let these young men have
their vacations. in good, honest work in
the fields, or in fine jaunts through the
| high Sierras, and their constitutions are
sure to be ironlike. Added to this they
! had had from one to four years of hard,
independent and individual training. Ger
| tainly with these qualifications the ten
crackeriacks from California should have
performed great feats.
"But California, with her generous
| lavishness, had bred in them the patriot
ism, energy and grit with which the '49ers
made her the great State. which we all
| love. Won by these happy traits, capri
cious fortune was induced to guide the: Cali
fornia bear to victory. Though am patri-
otto Native Son, and though | believe that
the success of CALIFORNIA; transcontinental
tour as opposed to the misfortune of Yale'.s
transoceanic tour was due to the superiority
of Western grit and modes Of living. still |
honestly believe that it would be hard to
! get together another team so strong, versa
| tile and fortunate as that which has just
scattered from Northern California to San
Diego. Had the ten been merely a, we'll
| trained team of athletes they would have
won single victory and then succumbed
to the unaccustomed heat, the changes of
diet and water, the incidents of travel and
the superior records of their opponents.
But, realizing that at such distance from
home they had the honor of their State, as
much as their college, to uphold, they won
contest after contest by their great deter
mination and sand, supported by their fine
constitutions.
Thus the ten were more than athletes
| thew were men,