Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-31
ATHLETICS AT
PENN MEDIOCRE
in PAST YEAR
Quakers Did Not Show
Championship Form in
Any Sports
AQUATIC T Fam GOOD
BY EDWARD R. BUSHNELL.

Nineteen fifteen was not bann,, -.
for University OF Pennsylvania e,h,.u.
teams, at least not II, as generaIlv 49,.
posed, intercollegiate happiness ia w..
ured by the number Of champion,h,n.
won Tho ouakers did not win sInp,o
championship outright The nearest tbsv
came TO It was a triple tie in sw,rr,r.
with Yale and Columbia.
In football the Quakers suffered Wa.
serious reverses than ever In their b,s,o.,,
as big team Baseball and rowing ,r..s
similarly unfortunate. the baseball team
keeping company with the football go.
in the ratio of defeats, In rowing bo,h
the varsity and freshman crews flnisbsd
last at Poughkeepsie. The track tean,
did n little better, tying with Prlncston
for fourth place.
In one sense there is nothing ertraor-
dinary In Pennsylvania's barren ethis,io
year The Quakers' experience rnere,,,
duplicates what every big university has
to endure at one time or another tborrs
1t is not usual for all the major sports
teams TO hit the toboggan the same wear
Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Cornsll
have at various times had years aImost
as lean as 1915 was for Pennsylvania
Wait Until Next Year
Dut Wnlle IL ID true that Pennsylvania
had bad year in nearly all spor+s 1aia
looms up full of exceptionally bright pros.
poets. In football the Quakers are look
Ing for team of championship propor-
tons while in baseball the ACQUISITION NJ
two remarkable pitchers from last wears
first year class strengthens what was the
fatal weakness of the Red and Blues 1915
team The track outlook Is bright
enough, though the most optimistic track
fan hardly looks -.
nell. In rowing there is at least lots OF
enthusiasm, due to the return of many
veterans and the engagement of Joe
Wright as the new coach
The football season has already been
reviewed to death Nearly every critic
has his own opinion as to what was the
teams major trouble. The two on which
most men are unanimous was the lack
of one supreme head coach and n trainer
The new football committee has already
taken steps to correct both of these err
rorS for 1916. Who the new coach and
trainer Will be have not been decided vet
but will be announced shortly after the
new year. 1t Is certain, however that
they will he men who will inspire conf
dence. They, in conjunction with n spen-
did lot of material, are the factors which
make Pennsylvania men look forward TO
the coming season with so much conf
dence
In college baseball the pitcher is about
three-fourths of the team. The Quakers
tried out fully dozen pitchers and did
not find a really dependable man in the
lot The team was good fielding COM
bination. and 1t was fair with the bat,
but having no frSt-class pitchers was
foreordaned to be badly beaten in Its
championship matches, All the important
series of the year with Harvard, Prince
ton, Yale, Cornell, Michigan, were lost,
principally for lack of pitchers,
Two Coed Pitchers
For 1916 the Qunkers have the promise
of two excellent pitchers. one is Swgler,
who pitched for the freshmen the other,
Light. Ineligible by reason of the first
year rule. Swigler was one of the best
first-year twirlers in college ranks and
next spring he ought to measure up with
the best in the country. Light is con-
sdered to be virtually as good. In pre-
vlous years. even when the team had a
good pitcher, 1t frequently fared badly
when two or more important games had to
be played in a single week, for college
pitchers are seldom able to pitch two
championship games in a week. II both
Swigler and Light make good the Red
and Blue will be better fortified with
pitchers than in a long time,
The track season was exceptionally
good barring the intercolle giate cham
pionships. The Quakers lost the dual
meet to Cornell, as expected, but they
beat Dartmouth. In the relay carnival
the one-mile team, composed of kauft-
man, Lockwood, lipplncott and Meredith
established a new world record. TWO
severe accidents We're all that prevented
PENNSYLVANIA taking second place to Cor
nell in the Intercollegiates. Both oc-
CURED during the preliminaries. In MS
preliminary heat in the l0O-yard dash
Captain Don Lippincott pulled tendon,
and with that accident went PenhsIl-
yania's hopes for eight or ten points by
him. A few minutes later Bob Fergu-
4, trimmed in his heat in the low hurdles
al sustained such bad fall that he was
unable to qualify for the semitinals. Pet-
guson did win the high hurdles, but ne
would have won the low hurdles, too Dut
for his accident. Had Ferguson ana lap
pincott escaped accidents the QuaNtrs
would almost certainly have scored I'oio
than 30 points which would have gwen
them n good second.
In two of the minor sports. rowing allu
soccer. PENNSYLVANIA did exception,
ally well. 1t was generally admttea
that Pennsylvania deserved to be rahheu
frst i'm swimming. though, technlcahy'
il had TO be satisfied with three-
cornercd tie with Yale and COLUMBIA, IN
soccer football Pennsylvania lost to nav
erford by a single point after having We"
in 1914. -...-
There was plenty of interest in the otheF
minor sports. and while winning no othsf
championships the Red and Blue at least
maintained the average excellence III
each.