The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-31

desert the L. A. W. and give races un-
der sanctions from the N. C. a. or
c. A. c. c. BY correspondence with
the N. c. A. it was learned that that
! comparatively youthful organization
was not prepared to take control of
racing in this part of the country, SO
the Utah men turned to the California
association
That organization gladly consented to
take the Utah clubs under its wing. On
Decoration day the first race meet was
held. John and Iver Lawson of Chi
cago, Oscar julius of Sweden and Glenn
Turville of Philadelphia, who had been
racing on California tracks, competed
at this initial meet, which was held at
Calder's park and was quite success
full On June IL another meet was held
at Calder's and it, too, was fairly sue
cessful.
On July the new board track at the
Salt Palace was opened and the first
evening meet of the year was held. The
track proved very fast and the banks
were so high and steep that the races
were quite interesting from a spectacu-
lar point of view; crowds came to the
meet. The same day a successful meet
was pulled off at Callers park There
after there were weekly meets at the
Salt Palace and at each one the crowds
increased in size until soon there was
not room to accommodate those who
wished to witness the races. Seats had
been built all around the track, but it
became necessary to add several tiers
of seats in order to give accommoda-
tionS for the crowds of between 5000
and 1000 people who clamored for seats
at each meet.
John Chapman of Atlanta, Ca, and
Frank Cotter of Olympia, Wash, were
Chapman soon proving himself the
fastest man in the bunch. w. G. Fur
man of Los Angeles, Cal, came later
in the year and he also proved a speedy
rider.
Many Records Lowered.
Records were made and re-made at
every meet. On the night of July 4,
John Lawson, the Terrible Swede,"
rode the first mile that had ever been
made in less than two minutes in Utah.
He covered the distance in 1858 As.
Subsequently this mark was repeatedly
lowered until al the end of the year
the state record stood at 1:39.
Early in September, the sport having
become so popular, the Salt Palace
management decided to hold three
meets weekly, land thereafter until the
middle of October there were three
and sometimes four meets a week. But
this did not diminish public interest in
the game, for the same great crowds |
came to each meet.
On Sept. 20 the first motorcycle ap- |
peared on the track, and after that |
records were smashed nightly. On the |
night of Sept. 20, 5000 people saw a |
match fifty-mile race between John |
Lawson. 1.-The Terrible Swede," and |
John NJ. Chapman. Such excitement |
had seldom been seen at any athletic |
L.
idol when he won the race. A few |
nights later nearly as large a crowd |
saw Lawson defeat Chapman, his for
mer victor, who was still later beaten
by Oscar Julius. Thereafter popular
began to wane and cold wealth
er put stop to all racing for several |
weeks.
Late in October, F. A. Mcfarland.
the n. c. A. champion. with several |
other riders came to the city and sew
eral meets were promoted especially
for them. Cold weather prevailed, !
however, and the races attracted only
small crowds. Mcfarland established
new paced records for all distances up
to five miles.
Successful Amateurs.
The season brought out several prom
ising amateurs. William Samuelson of
Provo carried off the honors in the
earlier meets, but he met with several
accidents and did not continue through
the season. John Ensign then held
sway for a time and went into the
professional ranks. Fred Meakin was
next king of the amateurs for a few
weeks, but soon gave way to E. Z.
Smith, who during the latter part of
the year was never defeated
OF the local professionals, A w.
Caine, jr., o. Z. Emery, ]. p. Gum and
J. B. Edmonds did the best work of
the year and they all won goodly
in prizes during the season.
There was little interest in road rae
ng. The most important event was the
Decoration day road race, which was
over the Pennington course, and was
won by +. d. Smith. John Ensign won
lime prize in 1852, establishing a new
record for the course. A. W. Smith
won the Auerbach road race over the
Garfield course on July IL, in 2S:411k.
j. II. Lucas won the Y. NJ. c. A. road
ace over sheet course to Farming
on in 1921.
Tables of the Utah records. amateur
ind professional, competition and
against time, are appended. These ia
oles are corrected up to date and are
compiled from all the available data
They follow:
Professional Records-Competition.
One-fourth mile. O:31 A. W. Game. jr..
Salt Lake July "a, 1887.
One-half mile. LOO 2-5, W. p Fowler.
Ogden. July "a. 1897.
Three-fourths mile. 1929 j. NJ Chapman |
Salt Lake. Sept. 1. 1899. {
One mile. 1859. Oscar julius, Salt Lake
Oct 6. 1899
Two miles. s:55. Oscar Julius. Salt Lake
oct 6. 1899.
Three miles, 5:5S, John Lawson. Salt ]
AXE, Oct. T. 1899. fl
Four miles, S04 John Lawson. Salt /
AXE. Oct. f. 1899.
Five miles 1885. liver Lawson, Salt
AXE. Oct. Z, 1899.
Ten miles. 20:25, John Lawson, Salt '
lake. Oct. 4. 1899.
Twenty miles. 43:45, John Lawson. Salt !
AXE. Sept. %. 1899.
Twenty-Five miles. 54:4S, ]. NJ. Chapman.
'ait Lake. Sept 20. 1899
Thirty miles. 1:05:5S. ]. NJ. Chapman.
SALT Lake, Sept. %. 1889.
Forty miles, 1929. ]. NJ Chapman. I
'alt Lake. Sept. 90 1899.
Fifty miles. 1:49:4S, j. NJ. Chapman, Salt :
AXE. Sept. 20, 1889. .
Hour record, twenty-Seven and one-haff !
niles, ]. NJ. Chapman. Salt Lake, Sept !
3, 1899. {
Against Time-Paced.
one-half mile. O:52, Matt Collinson. Salt !
AXE, Sept H. 1893.
One mile, 1:39. F. A. Mcfarland. Salt !
AXE, Oct. p. 1889. q
Two miles. 3:2S F. A. Mcfarland. Salt
AXE. Oct. q. 1899 /
Three miles. 5:l4 Is, F. A Mcfarland. !
alt Lake, Oct q, 1889.
Four miles. 6:59. F. A. Mcfarland Salt |
AXE, Oct. q. 1899.
Five miles SAG 2-5, F. A. Mcfarland. t
alt Lake, Oct q, 1899.