Evening star., 1914-07-18
SPORTSMANSH|P HERE
IS HIGHLY PRAISED
British Writer Says American Ath.
lete Is Better Glass Man
Than the English.

Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.
| LONDON, July 10.-The London Truth,
discussing international sports. declares
| chat while for years it has been an arti-
Gle Of faith with the British that Ameri-
cans are not sportsmen, one thing after
another lately has gone to disprove this
| charge. The writer reviews many in
stances Of friendly competition. including
the recent polo matches, when the Ameri-
cans acted from spirit of sportsman
ship which was IDEAL in insisting upon
the postponement OF the first match be-
| cause Capt. Cheape had been injured in
practice
In the line of athletics he recalled the
| traces OF old prejudice that were seen at
the last Olympic games, and added:
Founders in sport there must be on
| both sides of the water. But taken all
| round. the average American athlete Is
a better class man than his English an
| tagonist"
| He continues:
L am SO sick when advocating rational
| Improvement in athletics of hearing the
twaddle about specialization. especially
as practiced by the Americans, that
want to point out that without specialize
ton, ton and organization that .tpolo) cup
| would never have been lifted
He pointed to the success which Guy
Nickalls. the past president, of the Ok
ford University Boat Club, had had in
reorganizing rowing at Yale along Eng
lish lines.
May Be International Race.
1T was big job he said. 1T seemed
practically impossible that success could
| attend his first efforts. Undergraduates
are ticklish people to deal with, even
though their loyalty and good will may
| be assured Well, Yale has won, and
believe with fixed rowlocks, but only by
foot. They must have learned to finish
| race and there was one good old Eton-
| Ian rowing for Harvard. If Yale is wise,
1t will once again get Guy Nickalls to
help. If he Is prepared to do SO. And
| II 1t does, and II it gets hold of our Eng
| lish style. then there will be an occa-
| sional international university boat race
worth seeing.
The way in which these alterations
were carried through was characteristic
cally American. Having decided that
English methods were best the old ones
| were to be scrap-heaped. and some one
| who could teach had to be found Then
OF course. English oarsmen were respect
ably Mortified. Nickalls had forfeited his
amateur status. AS he knew he would
| do so. there was no reason why he should
not The fact that he has done SO has
not affected one atom of his social posi-
| ton In the states. Nor will it over here
rather expect that by thus breaking new
ground he will find that the attitude of
| Englishmen to this specialization in pro-
| fessionalsm will be materially altered.
| Perhaps in athletics we shall now hear
less nonsense talked about professional
coaching for university sports. Dir Lau-
der Brunton advocates the properly in
| Structed games master for schools. I
| cannot see why gentlemen should not
undertake work in teaching any sports
without being tabooed and written down
in the social scale. They may make
money by teaching a sport. by writing a
BILE for words. This is insular prejudice. -