Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-05-01
A Palisadian's Idea OF
The Penn Relay Games
Held Last Week
By Randolph E. Brown

The Twenty-frst Annual Relay
Carnival of the University of Penn
sylvania was held last Saturday,
April "a, at Franklin Field, Phila-
delphia. These games are, perhaps,
the most important factor in the
realm of track and field athletics
aside from the Olympic Games. A
bewildering galaxy OF university, col
lege, preparatory, and high school
stars gathers every year to partici-
pate in the numerous relays and
special events, and one gets in two
days enough running or jumping or
weight throwing to Iast whole year.
For the first time in twenty one
years, the games were spread out
over two days, many minor events
taking place on Friday, the twenty
third. But it was on Saturday that
the big events came off. First came
the high school relay races. All of
these were one mile races. Teams of
mile, represented each school. In
order to facilitate the running of the
races, and also to make the contests
as fair as possible, the high schools
and colleges teams were assigned to
various classes, according to the
strength of their teams the previous
year.
| had the honor and the good for
tune to make the Englewood High
School one mile relay team which was
sent to Philadelphia by the school.
The order in which our team ran was
Stuart Vanderbeek, myself, Thomas
Dibble, and Lincoln Lobeck, Captain.
AS we have always had pretty good
teams, we were placed in the first
class of high schools. This meant that
there was only one high school class
above us: the championship division.
Our race was called at 2:48 p. m.
There were nine teams competing, and
we had the misfortune to be placed
in ninth position, or on the very out
side of the track. This meant that
each man on our team would have to
run several yards more than the cor
responding members of the teams
nearer the pole, or the inside of the
track. Each man on each team had
to carry "baton" or light wooden
stick, of about eight inches in length,
and he had to pass it to the next man
on his team. This was to make sure
that every man on every team ran his
full quarter mile. Worcester Class
ical High School from Massachusetts,
won our race, with Erasmus Hall, of
Brooklyn, second, De Witt Clinton, of
New York, third, Providence, R. l.,
Technical High School, fourth, and
Englewood, fifth. The time of the
winning team was minutes, "a As
seconds. The Englewood team did 3
minutes, 40 seconds.
AS all the details of the meet came
out in last Saturdays papers, | shall
only give an impressonistic descrip-
ton of the Carnival. The day was
ideal; one of those days you read
about, with a cloudless sky, hot sun,
and gentle breeze. At 1880 the first
high school event started the days
program, and the 10000 spectators
were kept in an uproar from then
until the final race, the four mile col
lege relay championship of America,
at $50.
The track was very fast and good
times were made throughout the
afternoon. 1t was worth the whole
trip to see Richards, of Cornell, clear
the bar at feet, 5 inches in the high
jump, to see the polevaulters flying
through the air IL feet inches above
the ground, and to see records broken
by Pennsylvania in the one mile col
lege relay championship and by
Princeton in the two mile.
1t will be a long time, another year
at least, until such an aggregation
of athletes is again gathered together
which will compare with Saturdays
gathering. They came from north,
south, east, and west, and the world
of sport received wonderful boost
from their clean, eager, fair, sports
manlike attitude.