Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-03
RESUME OF THE YEAR'SSPORT
A Brilliant Record Of Events on Both Land
and Water,
The DELIGHTS OF SIX DAYS RACING
Fitz's Lncl of Action-specuIntion on
the Prospects of the BIg Mill
The Man who stood
on sullivan.

vi hVAtOh-SneNuIhNtOn on
the Prospects of the BIg Mill
The Man who stood
on sullivan.
as have observed in these columns dur
ing it's progress / now reiterate after its
close, that the year 1896 was the greatest
sporting epoch of the century. In all parts
of the world have in and outdoor sports and
pastimes nourished with unusual vigor, and
much International excitement was Infused
into many of the struggles for supremacy,
and at no time during the year was interest
in such matters allowed to flag There
have been many great performances and
more record-breaking by both man and
horse than was ever chronicled In similar
period Man has run, ridden, fought and
jumped better, and the horse reached within
an infintesnal fraction OF the ideal stand
ard of equine speed. That John II. Gentry
paced a mile in 2:00h has been heralded
to all quarters of the civilized globe, and
this marvellous feat alone lifted the light
harness racing campaign far above the
level OF mediocrity, ana adding to this
Robert Us 2:O1h, Star Pointers 2:O2R, Joe
Patchen's 203 and Frank Agans 2:O3R,
makes a year of brilliant achievements
likely to illuminate the corridor of time on
through the century.
Among the thoroughbreds the racing sea-
son does not loom up with a magnitude
commensurate with that of the other lines
of sport, and still 1t was far from proving
a disappointment, and there were many
really meritorious performances to engross
the attention of the sport-lovlng world. In
the early part Of the season 1t was eX-
pected that Hama, Ben Brush, Clifford,
Henry OF Navarro Hastings, Handspring,
Keenan,, Requital and other aged and youth
full Jumpers would set the running turf
on fire But they all fell short of eXpecta-
tons, with the possible exception of the
Belmont wonder, who won in the suburban
the one great and sensational race OF the
year.
While we have but little opportunity out
here on the prairie to see any boating or
rowing all lovers of this popular pastime
have kept in touch with the dongs at more
favored localities. Seven or eight years ago
the Omaha and Council Bluffs Rowing as
sociaton furnished with considerable
sport in midsummer and fall, but OF late
years they have fallen into innocuous
desuetude and shell cutting the blue waters
of Manawa today would probably be taken
for come abnormal creature of the deep
This association, | might add, is still in eX-
istence but absolutely inactive. OF course
the fact that there was no Americas cup
race had decidedly deeterious effect upon
aquatiCs, but even the lack Of this grand
worlds feature came in nowise near of dis
cOuraging the sport, and there were quite
as many boats in commission on both sides
Of the continent as ever. While the Dun
raven snarl brought about a cessation of
racing among the frst-classers there was
plenty of argument going on between the
small fry and two international affairs that
caused no little general interest. In both
of these affairs, however, 1t is humiliating
to record the United States craft were
clearly outsaled by their Canadian relatives.
The oarsmen. however, made up for all
discrepancies on the water, the amateurs
being particularly in evidence. From the
Decoration day regatta of the Harlem as
ISOLATION, when the University of Pennsyl-
vania crew triumphed over the famous
Bohemians, down to the announcement
few weeks ago of HarvardS sweeping re-
form in her rowing policy the season has
been one continuous round of sensations.
81 The Yale crews failure to capture the his
toric Grand Challenge cup at the Henley
regatta was the one blot and disappointment
of the year. The intercollegiate four
cornered race at Poughkeepsie cut a big
figure in the years incidents, as the crew
least suspected, Cornell, carried off the
honors. The amateur uarsmen also created
quite a furore during their regatta at
Saratoga, when young Ten Eyck, the scion
of an old rowing family made name for
himself. In the professional realm the one
big event was the winning of the worlds
championship by the old st. Louis sculer.
Jake Gaudaur, in England from Stansbury,
the big Australian champion. | might add
that the beating of the English four by
Gaudaurs quartet at Halifax, August /, was
also worlds championship affair, and a
very interesting one at that.
There has been but little indulgence in
the Scottish game of golf in or about Omaha,
the Patricks, at Happy Hollow, running the
only links, | believe. to be found here
abouts. But because this simple game has
found but a mOdicum of favor with Oma-
hans Is no reason that II did not flourish
elsewhere, for 1t did, In the effete east it
created quite furore and on the coast was
also extensively played In fact, the game
boomed out Unexpectedly all over the
country, with the exception of this inter
mediate district, and the year was memo
rable one on this side of the wet for the or
gauzation of new clubs and the laying out
OF new links.
OF the two foreign national pastmes, the
Scot s golf and the Johnny Bulls cricket the
latter has run away with the former. But
that Is to be little wondered at. for cricket Is
a game and a popular one. old as the hills
themselves and in certain sections of the
United States has from time immemorial al
most been firmly entrenched. The past
season at the wickets was an unusually
successful one both locally and in the
east and west, and extremely interesting
from an international standpoint The
visit from the great Australian eleven, which
we came within ace of seeing here in
Omaha. gave the old game a big boom and
the present year Will likely see much more
OF the sport on this side the pond than ever
befara
But of all sports of the calendar no
branch has enjoyed such exaggerated con-
spicuity as that of athletics, here abroad
and everywhere. The revival of the OIym-
pic games at Athens, Greece, of course was
instrumental in giving athletics generally
a remarkable impetus. and the effects OF
this wonderful tourney are TO be felt
through many decades. The plucky Ameri-
can athletes who travelled thousands of
miles to meet the sturdy Greeks covered
themselves with glory by making an al
most clean sweep of all the events They
Jbled up all the sprints. jumps. hurdles,
discus throwing and revolver shooting, be-
sides a large number of less consequential
d. 80.