Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-01
Month of Travel for the Athletes
International Meets Up of
Cup Defender Yachts Will Begin

New York. May 31-In the athletic
calendar the present month might apt
" be termed the month of travel since
it is the period of the year at when
the movement of amateur sport teams
and competitors is at its maximum
No better Illustration of the remark
able growth of intersectional and in
ternational competition can be cited
than is shown in the thousands OF
miles of land and water covered by
entrants journeying to central poihts
for competition in a score or more
different sports. Several decades ago
a trip of a few hundred miles for the
purpose of entering sport event was
a mile stone in the life of an anna
teur competitor. So rapidly have con-
ditions changed in recent years, now
ever that the average memoen or
school team sees nothing unusual IN
such tour of conquest. Since their
elder brothers travel thousands OF
miles for the purpose of competing
in a boat race, track meet or base
ball series the schoolboy, with his
modern athletic ideals, views his lit
tie Journey of two or three hundred
miles in the same light that his grand
father planned to cross a city or
township for a baseball game in the
long ago.
That the picture Is not overdrawn
is proved by the fact that many col
lege or club combinations as well as
private competitors are today speed
ing over long stretches of rail or wa
ter and the same situation has pre-
vailed for several weeks and will con-
tinue throughout the month OF June.
Beginning with the college teams IL
Is possible to gauge the present var
sity athletic activity with few strlh-
ing examples. The University OF
California track and field squad. con-
sisting of a dozen of the best ath-
letes of the Pacific coast, are today
on the homeward swing of a 1Ooo-
mile circuit after competing In the In
tercollegiate track meet In HarVards
stadium at Cambridge on Saturday.
Long before these spiked shoe attn
letes reach Berkeley, Cal, the Uni
versity of Washington eight-oared
crew will be journeying across the
continent from Seattle to Pough-
keepsie for the Intercollegiate Regat-
pionship of the United States Is de-
cided. Twelve oarsmen and Coach
Conibear will comprise the squad
which will travel more than 5000 miles
for the purpose of meeting the best
crews of the east and middle west Tor
rowing supremacy. The trip will cost
at least $4,000 and the transportation
of q sixty odd foot racing shell Is not
the least of the problems Of Conioear
and his crew captain. The case or the
University of Wisconsin crew Is
parallel one with the exception that
the Badgers travel but ope-hah the
distance that the Washington oars
men must cover.
The crewmen are not the only atm
letes to make transcontinental tours,
however for Leland Stanford univer-
sity is sending the best members OF
its track team to the conference meet
in Chicago in addition to competing
at several other sectional meets en-
route. Even the tennis players come
in for similar jaunts for Stanford,
Michigan and several other racquet
welding teams are now playing on
courts far from home. Neither is the
travel restricted to this country, for
foreign tours are almost as popular
as those made within the limits of
the states. The Union Boat Club OF
Boston is sending to the English Hen
lev an eight cared crew consisting OF
former Harvard oarsmen: the pres
ence of American golfers at the Eng
lish amateur title tournament made
that event an international compeu-
ton; American club and college track
stars will compete as individuals in
the leading athletic meets of England
and the continent this summer and
the list might be continued with many
an added Illustration of the spirit or
the American sports competitor to
seek new fields to conquer.
1t must not be concluded, however,
the American has a monopoly on this
desire to test his skill and endurance
against the world. The athletes and
sports devotees of other lands are
inoculated with the travel and cup
hunting germs as we'll as our own
amateurs From foreign shores will
come this summer an English polo
team, Davis cup tennis team and Sir
Thomas Upton In his fourth quest