The San Francisco call., 1908-11-27
GARDEN CITY BOYS
PROTEST DEFEAT
St0ppage of Meet Because. One
Man Was Not in Place Held
to Be Unfair
By Herbert Hauser

The so mile relay race between the
teams of 81 runners each. representing
the San Francisco and San Jose Young
Mems Christian associations. was a de-
cided success in spite of the fact that
it has ended IN protest from the San
Jose representatives, who lost.
The race was started by H. ]. Mccoy
after the first two runners, Morton
Fraser Of San Jose and ]. B. Clarkson
of this city. had been handed Mayor
Taylor's message of greetings to Mayor
Davidson of San Jose. Running out to
Market and Valencia. thence out to Six
teenth, the local boy took q few yards
lead On the next relay Thompson. the
San Jose runner opened up a gap OF
200 yards. This was gradually in
creased by successive relays until the
seventh, when big. husky Rakestraw
of the local team tore up the steep hill
10 Hillcrest and cut down his oppo-
nents advantage to so yards His sue
cessor, L. Pennock, overcame this, Civ
ing San Francisco the lead. This was
increased to three and half minutes
by the time the leader reached Redwood
City. Arriving here, Hardesty, the local
boy, could not find his next relay man.
The officials stopped the race and auto
mobiles and horsemen were sent out
scouting the country round for the lost
runner, who was finally found at the
finish of his distance instead of the
start.
The next set of relays were then
started, the San Francisco team being
given the ~ minute lead it had when
the runners reached Redwood City.
The San Jose boys then gradually be-
gan to creep up on the leaders, Howard
Fleming in the thirty-ffth relay max
ing probably the greatest gain over
his opponent. S. F. Stanley. who had
started off at too great a clip in the
beginning of his mile and could not
last out the distance. When it came
down TO the half mile relays. the San
Francisco boys were about two minutes
in the lead, but this was cut down by
JEFF Maloy. the old Stanford athlete.
who is now practicing law in San
Jose. One or two other speedy Garden
City boys lowered the record further
until but a short block separated the
contestants. Then little Ashley, who is a
member of the Lick school team. and
Tooker, from the same school, opened
UP the gap for San Francisco, and r. c.
Smith crossed the line two minutes in
the lead over Ollin Ofield.
Leaving out the 80 minutes delay at
Redwood city, the actual time con-
sumed in running the race was 4 hours
81 minutes and 35 seconds. The aver
age time for the mile relays was 5
minutes and 80 seconds and for the
half miles minutes and % seconds.
Down as far as Redwood the going
was extremely hard on account of the
mud and slush, which in many places
was up to the ankles of the runners.
All along the line enthusiastic specta-
tors cheered the boys on and when
San jose was reached the streets We're
crowded with people, leaving but a
narrow lane in which the two runners
could finish. Mayor Davidson was
waiting at the finish line to receive
the message, and was loudly cheered by
the crowd.
San Jose has protested on the
grounds that the officials had no right
to stop the race at Redwood city and
that q similar mistake had occurred
at the relay which ended near Tanfor-
an in which the San Jose team got the
worst of IT. No decision has been
reached as yet. but 1t is up to the local
committee Of the Y. NJ c. A. League of
North America OF which H. NJ. Strick-
Ter is chairman. H.. NJ Strickler, ]. ].
White, J. G. King and Walter Brown
acted as Judges. The total distance
was so and 6-1o miles.