Evening star., 1909-04-11
LEADING TOPICS IN
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
Army and Navy Fencers Too
Expert for the Varsity
Boys.
By Edward r. Bushnell.

| Judging from the comments of the vaH-
Gus college men who took part in the last
| intercollegiate fencing tournament, the
1910 championships. will be fought without
| the presence of the Army and Navy
teams. -1nasmuch as the representatives
| of the army and navy are usually the
| weakest members of the intercollegiate
/ associations, this attitude on the part of
the collegians may seem odd. But fenc-
/ ing is so nearly a part of the curriculum
at both West Point ana Annapolis that
| the soldiers and sailors have a decided
advantage over their rivals. So superior
are they that they have never allowed a
| college team to win the championship.
With the cadets and middes fencing is
| required subject. With the collegians
| it is only an elective.
| 1t is not true. as one might surmise.
| that the college men are thinking of this
solution of their difficulties because of a
jealousy of the two academies. They are
not necessarily chagrined that they never
win the championship. On the other hand,
they think that continuance of present
conditions merely means the death of
fencing as college sport When it is
known in advance that one academy or
the other is bound to win the champion
ship there is no incentive to the collie
gians working for the team. Not only
that, but the spectators fail to enthuse
over the fencing championships. Very
rarely has there been more than cor
porals guard to see the intercollegiate
bouts.
A sentiment is gaining ground that
there should be complete reorganization
of the fencing association, with West
Point and Annapolis left out The col
1ege men feel that if the sport is TO
flourish it will flourish only through COM
petition. and this competition cannot be
had If the Army and Navy continue to
monopoliZe all the honors.
nj hav
other grievances. One of them is the diff
ferent styles of fencing that are allowed.
In this connection may be inStanced the
experience of the University of Pennsyl-
vania. The Quakers this year had one
of the best teams i'm their history. They
won practically all of their dual meets
and won the additional distinction of
being the. only college team ever to de-
feat the Naval Academy.
Yet, strange to say, the Pennsylvanians
were eliminated in the preliminary round
at the intercollegiate meet The Quakers
have an Italian fencing master. who
school. They insist that the style of
fencing taught at West Point and An
napolis is not the pure style. and in this
they are backed up by some of the other
colleges They insist that there should
be set of uniform rules for fencing and
a uniform Interpretation of them, and
that until this is brought about there is
bound to be dissatisfaction in college
fencing circles. 1t is for these reasons
that fencing is now face to face with a
crisis.
College Mines Under Way.
Within the last week practically
every big university in the east started
it's collegiate schedule. Two members
of the big six have already come TO
grief. These are Princeton and Penn
sylvania. Villanova College proved the
undoing of Princeton and Holy Cross
simply swamped Pennsylvania. Al
though these early defeats do not al
ways mean Il lot, the colleges concerned
dislike them. for when the experts be-
gin TO rank the various teams these
early defeats count heavily-more heav
ily than they should
The Princeton team has not impressed
those who have seen it in action with
the usual Tiger strength. 1t appears
to be weakest in the pitching box.
1t feels the loss of Heyniger very !
keenly. This big twirler, who has been
it's standby for the last two seasons.
is Ineligible this year and has left the
university. with slight prospect of his
wearing the Orange and Black again.
With Heyniger gone the pitching burdens
have fallen on DreweS and Cunningham.
Drewes did excellent work a year ago
and may prove the equal of Heyniger.
Cunningham is the old Wesleyan pitcher
and has yet TO prove his worth at Prince
ton.
The PennSyIVanla team does not give
very great promise. The wholesale dis
qualification of five stars by the faculty
athletic committee for playing summer
ball. and the subsequent action of the
faculty In disqualfying seve al more
men, have about wrecked the Quaker
team. There is now only one coed pitcher
on the nine, and he is temporarily under
the ban for scholastic defects.
This is Schultz. who Is touted to be one
of the best twirlers in college ranks. Al
though the Quakers have been working
under Roy Thomas, a professional coach, |
they have not yet shown much ability to
hit effectively. 1t is pretty generally UNI
derstopd around Franklin field that the
present base ball committee is on proba- !
tion and that IL it fails to utilize properly |
the base ball talent the university pos |
sesses there will be a grand shake up
some day.
The two big teams that have done the /,
best to date are Yale and Cornell. The |