The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-25
Track Athletics.
BY WALTER A. SCOTT.

Away back in the seventies Jack Belcher ran
quarter of mile in so 3-5 seconds, which is
yet the Pacific Coast record. Bob Haley,
genial "Bob," whose innate good-fellowship
cut him off in his prime, ran 100 yards in 10
seconds, which has been equaled but never
excelled on this coast.
Peter Mcintyre, since professional and now
trackmastel OF the Olympic Club, ran mile
close to 4 40, which at that time crowded the
American record, and the Olympic Club I'M
successfully endeavored to match him against
the premier distance runner of the New York
Athletic Club.
These and other meritorious performances
were accomplished in the face of great diff
culties. Little was known of even the rudi-
ments of training, competitions were few and
far between and were held on rough, heavy
horse tracks, with horse stalls for dressing
rooms and stable buckets for shower baths.
Hired "rubbers' had not been thought of.
Haley and Belcher, with Mcintyre Us trainer,
We're sent by their club to compete in the Ma
tional championships. Horace Halves, an
other Olympian, accompanied them on his own
account. The trip and the Eastern weather
prevented their reaching their true form and
their trip was failure.
The old half-mile track on the Cliff House
road, and later the Recreation Grounds at the
Mission, were favored spots for the Spartan
band. In the early SOS the Olympic Club
opened the Fourteenth and Center street
grounds in Oakland, and for the first time Pa
cifc Coast athletes had racing track, but
the bulk OF their training still had to be
done on this side of the bay-principally at the
Bay District Track. Those of US who recollect
stripping" in the judges stand and adjacent
stables while the 4O-mile breeze drove the fog
through the knotholes and cracks, then pelt-
ing around the dreary mile circle, sometimes
sinking to the ankles In the loose earth, and
again Earring our vertebr9 on the finty stretch,
/ later taking turns at rubbing each other down,
feel that we have been ''tried by fire" and are
entitled to the full need of credit for the per-
| formances accomplished under such adverse
| circumstances. There was no club college
rivalry to spur US on, no unset diamonds or
suits of clothes to arouse our financial instincts
simply the enjoyment and rivalry of honest
competition.
| The Fourteenth and center street grounds
witnessed the lowering of the distance records
and the advent of the peerless Southeastern,
who ran 100 yards in 10 seconds and cleared
% feet 21I inches in the running broad jump.
! His club sent him to compete in the National
championships. He won the Western cham
pionship in the 100 yards at st. Louis, was
second in the 100 yards and running high
! jump in the Canadian championships at To-
! ronto and won the broad jump in the National
less than two inches of the worlds record; he
was third in the 100 yards at the same meet.
| ing.
The sudden change in climate and the con-
| troversy between the A. A. U. and the n. A. A.
A. A. interfered much with the success of his
| trip.
| After the formation of the Pacific Athletic
| Association. the first real rival of the Olympic
| Club was the Merton Cricket Club, of which at
| t1a% ty,.,o n
| dent. The Merions won the championship
| banner the first two years, 1885 and 1886. The
! Olympics took first place in 1887, with the
| Golden Gates second and the University of
California third In 1883 the U. G. had be-
come formidable rival and was defeated by
| the Olympics BY only few points, in 1889
| and 1890 the Olympics again defeated the
| U. c., the Alpine A. G. taking third place in
the latter year. After 1890 the Amateur Ath-
! letic Union, which had absorbed the Pacific
| Association, abolished the giving of team
prizes, and the four handsome banners which
now hang on the U. C.'s walls are mute wit
nesses of the time when the supremacy of the
| Olympic Club in track athletics was unques-
| toned.
To the old-timers the perfectly appointed
| grounds opened by the Olympic Club in
1890 south of Golden Gate Park came like
dream, but from that year-I say it with re.
| gret-dates the beginning of the decline in Pa
cific Coast track athletics $50 far as The athletic
! clubs are concerned), which has terminated in
! their present 'innoeuous desuetude." The
| college men, by friendly rivalry, have accom-
| plished wonders and the University OF Califor-
MIA now possesses one of the strongest athletic
teams in the United States. Stanford Univer-
sty also has many star performers on the path
and field, and when their track is completed
| will doubtless push the Berkeleyans for the
athletic supremacy.
During the past summer the University of
California team made highly successful East
ern trip, defeating many smaller colleges, as
| well as Princeton and University OF Pennsyl-
vania; they also made splendid showing in
the intercollegiate championship against
heavy odds.
Our athletic records will in future be greatly
bettered from the fact that an association has
been formed of the various high and prepare
tory schools in the vicinity of this City, This
association holds yearly competitions, which
turns the attention of our boys to athletics
much earlier than in former times when thew
had to wait until they were old enough to at.
tend college or join an athletic club II is
the promising youngster of Is or 16 who de.
yelops into the record-breaker of 19 TO 81 and
this earlier Introduction 10 athletics cannot
fail, in few years, to produce great improve
ment in the performances of our athletic
teams
The present Pacific Coast records in the yari
Gus events included in the championship pro
gramme are as follows:
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