The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-14
OUTSIDER NAY WIN
OLYMPIAN EVENTS
College Athletes May Be Surprised
by a Plebeian Capturing
the Title.

Before college sports were ever thought
OF athletic meetings were held by the Pile
beians. In the brightest days of the Roman
Empire, sports were held in the armies of
Caesar and Nero. they were likewise in
the days of ancient Greece, when colleges,
as they are known to-day, were not in ex-
istence. AS the centuries grew in number.
athletic tests continued in progress, and
finally made their way into colleges. School
boys took up the sport, and it grew under
the supervision of the teachers of the low
schools until the colleges began to make
offers to all first-class athletes, and tried
to show them the superiority of one college
over another In order to influence them
toward entering an especial college, says
Charles j. p. Lucas I'm the Chicago Inter
Ocean.
Take the ordinary American boy; the boy
as he is upon the street; play him against
a trained athlete in race in street clothes,
and what is the result The little gamin
wins the race every time but yet he is not
n collegian. Because a man goes to college
it does not follow that he is the best ath-
lete in the land If he runs mile in record
time. There may be some one in the back
woods. a true American, who could beat
him easily If he were compelled to COM
pete under the same conditions that the
woodsman does. Some maintain that if il
were not for colleges there would not be
any good athletes athletic meetings. The
fault among colleges to-day, as a factor in
sport is that they are too select to be of
any use TO the athletic world, and that Sc
lectness is growing year by year. Take the
Western colleges. for instance how many
of them hold open athletic meetngs-that
is, open to the world?
Not one. Michigan, Minnesota, Chi
cago. Wisconsin all confne their meetings
to themselves, and render the athletic
world at large not one bit of good. They
may hold athletic meetings for schoolboys.
but even they are select, for in order to
compete boy must be an attendant at
school when he may not be able to attend
high school. and, though he desires to Sc
cure exercise in competitive manner, he
cannot do so because of the conditions he
must meet. Not even Yale, Harvard, Cor
nell. Williams or any of the big Eastern
schools holds open athletic meetings save
Georgetown. Columbia, Boston College,
Holy Cross College and colleges of the
kind
TO what, then, must the American bow
look In order to participate in athletics after
he has left school or college? To nothing
more than the common athletic club from
which the college originally secured it's
start In athletics. In the East, especially
around Boston and New York, athletic
meetings are successfully held both sum-
mer and winter, and the aid of the colleges
Is not required to bring them to a success
full issue. During the summer some OF the
best athletic meets in the country are con-
Quoted by the municipalities of Boston and
Cambridge, which believe in catering to
the people and not to a few. Were IL not
for the common club OF the common peo-
pie, preparatory schools would be unable
to secure the material which they do to-
day, and. in turn, the colleges would be di-
vested OF their athletic material Plenty
of examples of this kind exist in this coun-
coaches who, like DR.. Williams, maintain
that college sports are In a class by them
selves. the truth Is hard TO down and will
not be downed. The Olympic champion
ships are open to every athlete in the
world-pebeian or college man-and IL may
be that in the coming Olympiad a plebeiafl
athletic club may take from the hands OF
a honor mi tod
and all Europe will strive to attain-the
Olympian championship of the world.