New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-06
Kelly FAVORED to Win
Singles SOULS Title

include Fred Plaisted, Jim Rice, Jim
Wray, George Gaisel, John FltzpatrlcK'
now assistant coach of Princeton UNI
versity, and a dozen others who flock
back to me.
Giants in Old Days
The men of ten years ago, Fred
Shepherd, Fred Fuessel, Lon Scholes!
of the Don Rowing Club; Bennett, OF
Springfield; Frank Greer, of Boston, ana
others, were Of higher grade than
those now rowing. There was Con-
stance Titus. of the Nonpareil Rowing
Club, for instance. Titus was htte
man, but a remarkable oarsman. he
won as many races with his head as
the average man to-day could win with
his shoulders. Ed Butler, of the Argo-
naut Club, was another man OF great
ability, who probably could beat the
best In the country to-day.
The mode of living has much to do
with the decline of rowing Time there
was when the young fellows joined a
boat club to row. Now they join It
for social reasons. The dances are
more popular than the regattas.. 1t
surely is more pleasant to do fancy
one-step than to row time trial.
There is no royal road to success in
the rowing game. One must tram
hard and faithfully to win. 1t is no
fun to 90 out and try to beat the
watch over the full distance, but II you
can't last in practice, how can you do
il in a real race? | always rowed the
trials myself, and my crews always
rowed trials, and the Harlem Rowing
Club crews were always feared and
respected.
A movement is on foot to interest
the schoolboys in rowing. Too much
cannot be said in favor of such thing.
The first race for high school boys
was rowed in 1907, and the High School
Of Commerce won over De Witt Gin
ton, Stuyvesant, Townsend Harris Hall
and Morris. | coached Commerce and
Clinton, which finished first and sec
ond. They trained at the Harlem Row
ing Club, without expense to the
schools. Thirty-five thousand specta-
tors saw that race. 1t was the larg-
est crowd that ever attended Harlem
regatta.
Erril S. Bird, who stroked the Clinton
crew in that race, later rowed at Cor
nell, and won in the varsity four-oared
crew. which he stroked, and also in the
stroked the Commerce eight to victory
in that race, and again in 1908, estab-
fishing a record Of 4:35 for the mile.
which still stands, joined the Harlem
Rowing Club, and stroked the club crew
TO victory in the Wanamaker Cup race,
in Philadelphia, in 1910, and also COM
peted for the national championship.
Herman Steinkampf, another Commerce
boy, has won several races, and is one
of the best oarsmen along the Harlem
River.
Had Real Experience.
Lockwood and Moore, who rowed at
Columbia, were in the De Witt clinton
High School eight, and Roy Wood, the
coxswain of Clinton, won his place with
Jim Rice's boys. Some OF the other
boys in those school crews went TO col
lege, and when they, reported for the
crew work they had real experience.
They all made good. | have tried TO
interest the college authorities in
scholastic rowing in New York. 1t is
only fair that they should be interest
cd for the colleges will reap the ben
eft !,
Rowing, without question, is de-
veloper of men. Take all your athletes,
and the oarsman will stand out There
;s NOT a muscle which is not used in
nropellinr your boat through the water.
The hands. the arms, the shoulders,
bsck and legs all do their share. II
Seenen. the chest and makes for great
or lung power, and that, after all, tells
the tale in a test Of endurance. Jim
Riley, of Saratoga. is one example OF
what rowing will do for man, He is
seventy years of age, yet he gets ogt
every day and paddles around bit. lie
is hale and hearty, and a lot younger
in spirit and health than some OF our
citv men who have not seen sixty years
on earth. Peter j. McManus, OF hioany,
is another man. lie Is over my ye'
looks like a man OF thirty-nve.