The San Francisco call., 1909-12-26
ST. MARY'S TO TAKE
UP ROWING AGAIN
Movement Begun to Re-esfab-
Iish the Sport at Oakland
Catholic College
By WILL SCARLET

one of the postholiday possibilities at
ST. Mary's college. A number of stu
dents in the engineering department
branch of athletics and they are anx-
ious. to start interclass matches in the
early, spring. The matter will be
taken up at the first meeting of the
athletic association of the Oakland
college next year.
st. Mary's has not been represented
in an intercollegiate rowing contest
since 1895. On that occasion, which
devotees of this most dignified of col
lege sports still recall, the Oaklanders
made a very favorable impression, and
it is difficult to understand why boat
racing has not been taken up since
then.
The Oakland college at the present
time should develop a crew that could
compare favorably with any local anna
teur rowing aggregation. In 1898,
when st. Mary's last took up the sport,
the college was temporarily located
out on the Mission road in San Fran
cisco at considerable distance from
any satisfactory practice ground. The
fact that the students at that time sue
ceeded in putting a crew into the in
tercollegiate race reflects fayorably on
the college spirit that then existed.
Big advantages today favor the for
nation of a rowing club at the Oakland
college. The campus is only a short
distance from picturesque Lake Mer-
ritt, a body of water admirably fitted
for safe and spectacular racing. When
one considers the splendid possibilities
afforded, by Oakland's city lake it is
surprising that ST. Mary's has not long
since availed itself of its opportunities
and made a record in boat racing as
enviable as its already well established
records in baseball and Rugby.
The, establishment of boat club is
eminently in line with the athletic pol
icy now obtaining at the Oakland col
lege. The avOwed aim of Brother Jo-
seph, who controls the athletic activi-
ties at ST Mary's, is the well rounded
and symmetrical development of the
young men who attend the institution.
The old policy of specialization, which
resulted in q crack baseball team and
little else, has given place to theory.
now generally accepted in the local
Catholic institutions, which holds that
the ideal of college athletics is an all
around interest in sports rather than
slavish devotion to one or a few.
It is just here that rowing will
serve to strengthen and uphold the ex-
cellent athletic policy pursued at St.
Mary's and to aid materially in carry
ing that policy out of the domain
of theory and into the region of facts
accomplished. The formation of a
rowing club will do what the introduc-
tion of track and field events has al
ready done-give convincing proof that
liberal ideals obtain at st. Mary's.
The definite attitude of the powers
that be to the proposed rowing club
can not be ascertained at the present
moment, as the Christmas vacation is
on at ST Marys and most of the stu
dents are spending the holidays at
their homes. Brother Joseph and
George C. Faulkner have both left the
Oakland campus for few days of rest,
so that no progress in the measure can
be reported until after the resumption
of studies a week from Tuesday.
In the event of the rowing club idea
gaining favor among the student body
and the faculty directors at st. Mary's
and it is difficult to see why it should
not-the first move will be the institu-
tion of interclass and interdepartment
races to be held on Lake Merritt dur
ing the spring and early autumn. These
preparatory contests would serve to
bring out the very best material for
potential varsity crews.
The entrance of ST. Mary's into the
race which is pulled Or annually Dy
the universities would undoubtedly
rivet general attention on the yearly
event and serve, at least in some de-
gree, to bring rowing into the degree
of prominence among college sports
which is it's inalienable right.
The unvarnished fact is that boat
racing, especially considered as a COL
lege sport has not received here on
the coast the recognition and support
to which it may lay just and valid
claim. The sporting public and the
academic public alike need to be edV-
Gated up to it. In the English univer-
stiles rowing is the premier sport and
the annual race between the crows
from oxford and Cambridge is the big
event of the collegiate year. In our
own eastern universities, though
closely pressed for first place by foot
ball, rowing is conceded to be the
cleanest and most dignified sport in
which collegians can engage.
There appears to be no serious rea-
son why the big success of the yearly
boating contest between Harvard and
Yale can not, to a considerable extent
at least, be duplicated here on the
coast. The movement about to start
at ST. Mary's. let us hope, will be the
entering wedge which will result in
several of the local colleges and uni
versities putting forth each year we'll
trained crew to battle for rowing su-
premacy.