Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-30
HONORS WERE EVEN
Four Major College Titles
Equally Distributed.
HARVARD IN FOOT BALL
Crimson Gets Most Coveted Honor,
While Princeton, Penn and Cornell
Win in Important Sports.
BY EDWARD r. BUSHNELL.

BY EDWARD r. BUSHNELL.
The intercollegiate athletic year of 1912
has been one of the most remarkable of
recent years in many respects. Not only
has it witnessed notable performances in
nearly every branch Of sport, but it has
seen an almost equal division of athletic
honors in the four major sports. COM
monty referred to as foot ball, base ball.
track athletics and rowing. Harvard was
supreme in foot ball, Princeton in base
ball. Pennsylvania in track athletics and
Cornell in rowing, Better yet, there re-
manned at the end of each season not a
doubt as to which university was actually
supreme. Every championship was de-
cisively clear cut.
| 1t IS not an easy matter to decide which
| college deserves the greatest portion of
| the years athletic honors, but reckoning
/! on the basis of championships won and
their relative merits that title can best
be evenly divided between Princeton and
Pennsylvania Each institution won a
major and two minor championships. In
addition to winning the supremacy IN
| base ball Princeton likewise finished first
| in tennis and hockey, while Pennsylvania
cleaned up in track athletics, cricket and
swimming Yale also won three cham
pionships, but all of them We're in minor
sports. so that the Ellis hardly deserve to
rank with Princeton and Pennsylvania.
The following table shows at a glance
fourteen of the leading sports and the
colleges, which won championships IN
them:
Foot ball, Harvard; base ball. Prince
ton; track athletics, Pennsylvania; row
ing, Cornell; cross country, Harvard;
| soccer, Yale; cricket, Pennsylvania; golf.
Yale; tennis. Princeton; wrestling, Cor
nell; hockey, Princeton; fencing, West
Point; gymnastics, Yale; basket ball, CO.
lumbia.
There are a number of other sports
fOstered by the colleges. but some of them
can hardly be called intercollegiate. For
instance, shooting is now participated In
by only three institutions, Yale. Harvard
and Princeton. Lacrosse, while a popular
sport at some colleges, is not taken up by
many of the larger universities In addl-
ton to which two divisions of the old
association do not always meet to settle
the championship. Chess is frequently re-
ferred to as a college sport. but 1t does
not come under the jurisdiction OF any
athletic association.
Harvard Supreme on the Gridiron.
OF all the champions hips that in foot
ball is the most desirable and gives most
distinction to the college winning it.
There is no such thing as an intercol-
legiate foot ball association to conduct
series of games for the sridiron cham
pionship, but this year Harvard showed
such superiority to all other eastern
teams as to deserve the title without
bubble. The Crimson did not lose game
all season. and had it's goal line crossed
only twice. Princeton deserved to rank
second, Yale third, Pennsylvania State
College fourth and Dartmouth fifth
In addition to the record of the Har-
ward eleven the Crimson furnished the
greatest foot ball celebrity of the year
in Brickley. who as goal kicker. end
runner and line plunger made himself
famous for all time. The only other
player of the year who approached him
was Thorpe of the Carlisle Indians. THESE
two men stood head and shoulders above
all others and were among the greatest
players ever developed. Indeed. IL any
one was capable of selecting eleven play
ers who would comprise the strongest
team since American college foot ball was
first played it would be very difficult to
as for she 81 stss Of season OF
1912 was a distinct disappointment, for
there was very little progressive foot
bali dispayed. There was a disposition
on the part of coaches everywhere to
follow in the beaten paths and to attempt
nothing new unless some other college
coach had tried it first.
base ball honors to the same extent that
Cornell does in rowing and that Yale was
won't to do in foot ball. Not more than
half a dozen times in the last twenty
years has any other college team been
able to wrest the base ball championship
from the Tigers. This year they had an
unusually fine team. and after winning
most of their games with the minor col
leges defeated Harvard. Yale and Penn
sylvania.
It is likely that some critics will aues-
ton the award Of the base ball cham
pionship to Princeton on account of the
splendid showing which some of the
minor colleges made. Although Princeton
was beaten by some of the minor col
leges which went through the season with
a smaller proportion of defeats than the
Tigers the fact remains that Princeton
played big teams and more of them. 1T
Is not difficult matter for a small col
| lege equipped with a fine pitcher, to
win a midweek game from a big uni
versity team and then by winning all or
most of its games with its own rivals TO
claim first rank. But the writer gives the
place to Princeton on the seasons work.
Fortunately there was way to decide
| the track championship, the annual meet
| ing of the 1. c. A. A. A. a. leaving no
doubt on this point. The University of
Pennsylvania won with a score of % Cor
| nell being second with 17k. Pennsyl-
vania this year had the best all-around
team in the country, although Cornell
might have made better showing at the
championship games had the Ithacans
not been obliged to take such long risks
in the placing of their men in the distance
events.
There were five intercollegiate records
broken at the 1912 championships. In the
quarter-mile Reidpath of Syracuse won
his event in forty-eight seconds, clipping
four-fifths of a second off the best pre-
vious record. In the half-mile j. p.
Jones Of Cornell clipped full second off
the mark, going the distance in 1.03 40 In
the two-mile run =. r. Wilmington of
Harvard took nearly second off the
record of T. s. Berna of Cornell.
The other two broken records were in
the field events. In the pole vault Gard
ner of Yale cleared the bar at Il
feet IA inches. 1t looked as though this
record would stand for a good many
years. but unfortunately for Gardner,
Wright of Dartmouth added one inch to
the record at the Olympic tryouts one
week later. In the shot-pnt Beatty of
Columbia did 4S feet 1O% inches, making
a record which is likely to stand for
some time.
In crosS-country running, sport close
| ly related to track athletics, the year was
Cornell by Harvard. 1t was Harvard's
| first victory in this sport and the SECOND
! time that Cornell has failed to win since
| the first run, in 1899. The only other
| team that ever beat Cornell was Yale,
! the Ellis turning the trick in 1902. -
There was no doubt about Cornell being
| the champion crew Not only did the
| lthacans sweep everything before them
/ OF po,,ghk eenSie but thew beat Harvard