Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-15
By Percy 81. Whiting.

brute Of an Englishman-5 feet
10 tall. ITO pounds in weight.
twice as big around the chest as
around the waist-rolled into Atlanta.
With him came a crate Of bicycles
and retinue of trainers. He hooked
up at a hotel and at once got in touch
With the bicycle brigade, then many
thousands strong in Atlanta.
"Htn race any man ere 20 miles
for hundred pun a side" said he.
Nobody was interested.
"Hill race any four in relays-any
ten-any twenty"
Still nothing doing.
"All right, Hill race 30 running
horses, in relays"
The horses having no say IN the
matter, this was easily arranged up
to the point OF selecting place
We've no track" they told him;
mo place but an old ball park out on
Jackson Street"
That's all right" the rider agreed.
but there's no track"
"All right, Ht'll build a track"
And so he did, circhng the field
where the Jack Prince Motordrome
stands to-day. out at what became the
Show grounds" He raced 20 miles
against 80 thoroughbreds. running in
relay, and beat them. A huge mob
saw the race and cheered madly for
the big, game, rollicl0ing good-na-
tured Englishman.
And that Englishman was Jack
Prince, back now after 20 years, as
the builder and part owner of the
Atlanta Motordrome-soon to be the
head-of the Southern circuit Of. mo-
tordromes, with tracks at Birming-
ham, Nashville and Memphis, as we'll
as at Atlanta
TOHN sHILLINGTON PRINCE-do
) you get that SHILLINGT0N?-
was born at Birmingham, England, In
1866 or thereabouts. His father was
a celebrated musician, and from him
Jack Prince inherited a talent for
music-so much talent that ne can
play any old piece on the piano by
ear and can gesticulate a tune out of
an old English concertina that sounds
Ike something on an organ
OF Jacks early career nothing much
Is known-until he took to cricket.
This he did at the age Of II. A year
later he turned professional and in
good time bowled for the North Elev-
en- OF All England against w. G.
Grace's famous South Eleven. This
doesn't mean anything to you. but to
him II was equivalent to pitching
against a picked team composed of
Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Hans Wagner,
iris Speaker, Napoleon Lajoie and
Eddie Collins.
To this good day Jacks hands are
bent and gnarled like those OF an old
time catcher, as a result of his cricket
performances in the early days
a ND now zee how things work
II around. It was to get speedily TO
cricket matches that Jack began to
ride a velocipede. He graduated nat
ura1ly to the high bicycle. That led
70 the safety. To ride in races he
came to America, to Atlanta The
bicycle was followed by the automo-
bile. After that came motorcycle
racing. And here is Jack with as
again at the head OF the Southern.
circuit of motorcycle tracks.
But getting back to the veloclpede-
II wasn't the sort Of three wheeled af-
fair that the kids ride nowadays, but
a two-wheeled grandfather of the
present-day bicycle, made Of wood
with wood frame, wood spokes in the
wheels and a direct drive from pedals
20 front wheel
On this freakish old contraption
Jack Prince did his first racing and
ierful muscle that was to win the
championship OF the world. At one
time--back in 1888, that was 30 years
ago-he raced on a velocipede at As
ton Villa, the famous football town,
before 10000 people.
D ACK in the days when ]. Prince
II was still a cricket player some
body discovered the old high wheel"
best known in America as the Co
Iumbia," but called in England the
spider wheel" bicycle. And naturally
Jack Prince bought one, not that he
was crazy to ride one, but because he
could use it to go to cricket matches
But having learned to ride the
Desky, tricky thing. Y. Shillington
naturally Joined the local bicycle club
This club gave one great race a year,
from Red Cross Tavern to Beggars'
Bush and back again, and to the
winner went the honor Of being cap
tain Of the team for a year. Natural
ly Jack entered the first run against
a hundred or more competitors, and
strangely enough he won.
II remember It Ike It was yester-
iay." SAYS Jack. THE ride out, the
dropping of a check at Beggars' Bush,
to show ia been there; the grind
back, the crowds yelling Princey
wins, Princey wins!' All, It was big
stuff"
L IRED by ambition as result Of
L his first big victory, Jack took to
riding in amateur high-bicycle meets
IN one season he won SO medals. 19
silver cups and more watches, and, as