Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-24
WITH THE COLLEGE ATHLETES
Doings in the Field of Sport in
East and West.
INDIFFERENCE AT PRINCETON
Something About Charles Wilson.
PrincetOn's New Track Coach,
and Men He VIII Have
This season.


The new track coach at Princeton.
Charles II. Wilson. has begun his work
there. Wilson succeeds such men as Wal
ter Christie, the late Jim Robinson and Al
Copeland in a place that Is by no means
easy TO fill Track sports at Princeton
have not been successful at all for years.
barring OF course. the team Of 1900. which
was second in the intercollegiate games
Wherefore many changes in coaches. each
In turn being taken up Enthusiastically.
subsequently to sever his connection with
the place with no, great feeling Of loss on
either side.
II need not be imagined thai his is in
variably the fault Of the trainer. some
trainers might easily have known a little
more or might have been willing TO be
taught by experience. There might have
been a trlfle more tact shown or a bit
greater tendency toward Cancellation or
coaXing. The men who tried to build IN
track teams at Princeton aid not fail be-
cause they wanted to. 1t was a matter of
a living and a pleasant situation IL they
could make good.
But there is, for one thing, a fatal in
difference 20 track sports at Princeton.
which comes as a blight on the hopes of
the average trainer. The men are there,
goodness knows. They can be seen In the
streets, on the lawn tennis courts, on the
scrub base bali diamond in the spring. or
on the foot ball fields in the autumn. or on
the lake in good weather. They are al
most everywhere but on the track in rum
ming suits. They tell you there prince
toms great spring sport is base ball. and
their part in it is to sit on the bleachers
TO watch the varsity playing. The ma
terial is there, but it remains stil for
Princeton to show anything much better
than a one man track team.
Not Enough Application.
Furthermore, some of those men who do
come out appear to feel that track and
field proficiency can be gained all in one
week, Husky foot bali men report a week
before a meet, as al especial favor, and,
undertake to become first raters in that
time. A well known weight thrower be-
longing to a club in this city-it was not
Flanagan, as will appear-went down to
Princeton once or twice in the last two
years to help coach. His impressions were
something like these: "A big foot ball
man, who hasn't trained a step since the
fall, comes out to throw the hammer in
the spring. and Just because he has a lot
Of strength he and every one else around
there gets the impression he ought to catch
ON right away and be throwing record
distances in no time. In fact, IL he doesn't,
the college will pronounce him a dub. Just
because he has strength they think he
should be doing in a week what John Flan-
agan has worked years to attain. That is
the spirit there with the field men,"
So 1t is, between Indifference and cock
sureness that Princeton track athletics
lave suffered. If Wilson, the new trainer,
is to do good work there, he will need help.
He cannot do everything all alone and I'M
less the undergraduates begin this autumn
to work for him, he won't have the chance
to do himself justice. 1t is hardly the right
thing to hire a mar to coach a team when
the material isn't supplied to him, too.
This isn't Wilson's first attempt at
coaching a college track team. He just left
Purdue, which is to the middle west what
Princeton is to the east. That is, it is the
weak track athletic college. Wilson did
good work at Purdue the last two seasons,
so he has a fair chance to cope with Prince
ton indifference until he strangles it. That
is his only way of making a success Of his
term at Princeton.
Wilson is much on the type of man that
James L. Sullivan said some time ago
ought to make a good trainer for a college.
He was himself an athlete around Chicago
for some years and competed in almost
everything. He wasn't a topnotcher as a
performer, but it doesn't take a worlds
champion TO make the best trainer. Will
son competed for the First Regiment Ath-
letic association Of Chicago. Abou eight
years g he quit the amateur side and
took up professional training.
Wilson's Career.
He had a good relay team Of the First
regiment at the Pan-American games in
Buffalo. After three seasons with the
First regiment, he took up work with the
Central Young Mems Christian association
of Chicago and after two seasons with
those athletes he was engaged by the Uni
versity of Illinois. After one year Purdue
wanted him, and ne went TO Lafayette for
two seasons.
So Wilson. who is now only % years old,
lean, keen-eyed and hardy looking, comes
to Princeton with some experience even II
not heralded as a world heater. Anyway,
it isn't so much what he has done as what
he will do that counts. Wilson looks as il
he could do much. He has taken hold
well at Princeton and there is enthusiasm
over his coming.
ANflgnn Nru uaaanawAaal.E 4.