The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-10-28
SPORTS IN WICHITA
Greatest 0ut-of-Door City in
the Whole West.
PEOPLE ALL TAKE A HAND
In One or Another Kind of
Diversion.


come city of athletics and sportsman
ship. More than any other city in the
west it takes time from strenuous COM
mercial effort TO enjoy itself at a contest
Of one kind OF another.
The year Of outdoor sport is now on
its final cog-the football season. Wich-
tia has awakened on football. The great
game last Monday between Fairmount
and the Manhattan Agricultural College
eleven gave it a big boost, and next
Thanksgiving Day. when Paramount and
Friends University are scheduled for a
game. the occasion viii be a gala one
here and everybody whose turkey dinner
will allow him 10 navigate will turn out
to root for the club Of his choice.
The colleges here have given a decided
athletic turn TO Wiehita's inclination 20
sports, and in the future will dominate
the field, with the possible exception of
the harness races.
The outdoor season in this part Of the
country opens up as early as April and
as Is evidenced by the weather Of the
last week. does not close until Novem-
Der l. Seven or eight months are avail
able for good sport
The winter months are given over to
the shotgun enthusiast The hunters are
not organized. They leave the city in
pairs and seek the bosky hedges and the
creeping quail, have regular and exciting
contests with irate farmers and bring in
bags of game. Most all of them have
hunting outfits, suits, hats, boots. bags
dogs and guns. They may be seen on any
crisp day Flooding through stubble or
cycling the long, dry blue-stem
However, in the early spring the first
outdoor enthusiasts to break into sur
plus energy ingeniously directed into
contest are the baseball fans The cities
OF Kansas and Oklahoma are too small
and too far separated to maintain
leagues, although this has been attempt
ed. and will be attempted again The
baseball given Wichita is strictly Of the
amateur and college variety.
And that is the kind which Wichita en-
Joys the most Tire college mines are
carly tramping down the daisies. the So
cial organizations of the city have to
have their nine, the fremen are trained
early for all corners. the Eagle force puts
our hall-pounders, and a general all
around rivalry sets in
After the first baseball craze the tennis
players begin TO hammer the rubber bub
bic with stretched fiddle strings. and
serve and return and enjoy the techni-
calities of the game.
Then come the track athletics of the
collegians, the running high jump and
the running broad jump, putting the
shot and so on.
About this time the fishermen begin to
blossom. If you stroll into their haunts
in Wichita you will hear a great deal
about brown heckle and spoons and min
now cans and split bamboo rods. and
''the cast that I made
No casting contests have ever been held
in Wichita. but an effort is to be made
next year to hold one. A nice stretch of
lawn is selected and the contestant takes
his place on a given spot and with des-
ignated weight on his line and throws his
line far out on the lawn just as far as
he can. 1t is astonishing how far line
may be thrown off the reel by an expert.
This next year Charles Smyth Governor
Stanley, 10 Houston and other Wichita
fishermen who hide their talent at Cairo
along the Walnut and out in the noun
tains will be asked to give an exhibition
in the park here. Similar contests are
held in Chicago and other eastern cities
When the season of the fishermen is on
the men with greyhounds begin coursing.
The man who gets the greyhound craze
will listen to nothing else while it is on
and a coursing meet is as enthusiastic an
event as can be pulled off
BY this time the golf club is in action
on its links. Golf reached Wichita only
this year, but it has grown in popularity
quickly. The golf links on Paramount are
beautiful. A rolling stretch Of pretty
prairie lies east of the starting point and
IF the long walk between the holes ana
the exertion of smashing fourteen differ
.ent kinds Of rainbow out of the ball did
not improve the health. the surrounding
scenery would Golf with its good start
this year, is going to occupy a front
place next year In all probability fine
club house viii be built near the links
Then come the harness races at the
track Wichita has more fine driving
horses than any city of its size In the
world. not excepting any community in
Kentucky. 1t has produced the fastest
horses in the world and has more COM
ing The interest in races here is intense.
Every horse is known well. and there are
a hundred men who can rattle of Dedi-
grees of the better known steeds as the
average child can his A C's. Records
here are always being broken This is
partly because Of the superb late sum
mer weather and a track which has no
equal in the west It is Of n resilient
quality which makes it very fast. What
Wichita wants now is driving park
where the men who think they have
horses which they think can so and want
10 prove it, can take their road wagons
and so after each other. Before the new
park was established tie old Riverside
track was used and proved highly sue
cessful. There is talk of finding another,
Usually about the time Of the horse
races the shoot occurs. The man who
enters a shoot doesn't talk anything else
or have another interest IN the world for
the time being. He has his gun put away
IN q fine leather case ana goes out To the
grounds with a determination To break
every clay bird that goes up that woala
conquer a city If directing an army.
some oT the finest shots IN the world live
in Wichita. and II frequently happens
that every bird which is thrown upward
is broken.
Last in the long list Of games come the
football games The average business
man over 40 years of age has seen
football game. the old kind the KIND
where the ball was round and the PLAYER
kicked his shoe-strings OF trying 10 III
II over the moon II was. a tame game.
and the older citizens long ag0 concluded
IT was not good Il Is wonderful how
many people have not seen the modern
game of football. which is by far the
most exciting thing ever devised, outside
a bayonet charge
No doubt the Wichita version az foot
hall is at it is played everywhere. The
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