The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1916-01-07

There IS a belated story OF how Ted
Meredith of the University of Penn.
sylvania defeated Bill Bingham OF
Harvard in the half-mile race In the
intercollegiate championships, which
carries with II q lesson valuable to
participants in practically all lines of
sport the New York Times remarks
Meredith. 1t will be remembered, won
both the quarter and half-mile races
The quarter was won in his usual
style. Meredith allowed one Of his
competitors to go out and make the
pace. and then came like a streak in
the last furlong and won about as he
pleased.
When It came to the half Meredith
completely reversed the order of
things He raced at top speed in the
first quarter and had all the rest OF
the field on their toes and practically
beaten, doing the quarter in :54. He
then slowed down and even allowed q
couple of his competitors to pass him,
content with the fact that Bingham,
whom alone he feared, was plugging
along in the rear hopelessly out of
It. With him disposed of, Meredith
again sped up in the last furIong,
caught and passed the two who had
headed him for a short distance, and
won very clsverly without being ex-
hausted.
Meredith's overwhelming triumph
was due to the use of brains coupled
with his powers as racer. Before the
race he had taken the trouble to find
out the way in which Bingham, the
Harvard man, ran his races. He dis
covered 1t was his habit to take 1t
easy in the first quarter, running the
distance in about q minute nat, and
reserving himself for the final quar-
ter, which he would do in the neigh
borhood of fifty seconds. MeredIth's
heartbreaking pace in the first quar-
ter completely upset Bingham's plan
for the race, and so bewildered the
fleet Harvard runner that the latter
had no time to think out and put into
operation a new plan.
Possibly there is no better example
Of the superiority Of brain over Drawn
than in the career of George Bothner,
the wrestler His lack of bulk was
more than compensated for in the sbil-
ity to think quickly and almost I'M
cannily to anticipate and thwart the
particular hold" his opponent intend
| ed making.
| John McGraws success as a base
| ha hoe haan onffro1Ny duo ~
exceptionally acute brain power.
From the beginning OF his career on
the diamond he analysed every play
made In a game in which he partici-
pated or witnessed. 1t was the study
that developed the baseball strategy
he made his own, and which made
him so much of a clairvoyant in
foreseeing the breaks of game for
or against his team.
If Jim Jeffries had been possessed
of enough gray matter he might never
have lost the heavyweight champion
ship to Jack Johnson. But the punch
in the eye in the second round, which
was the turning point in the contest,
angered him. After that it was brute
force against brute force.
Football is so entirely a matter OF
brains that everybody familiar with
sports admits that the best eleven OF
the physical boxers or wrestlers, for
instance, would have no chance what
ever against an eleven such as repre-
sents any one of the great UNIVERSE
ties on the gridiron each fall.
The thinking athlete gets more
sport out of the game he happens to
indulge in, also, than he would II
merely an exceptionally good natured
athlete or one who is able to absorb
the ideas of a trainer and carry
them out in purely mechanical fash
ion.
To the young athlete the lesson
modern sports teaches US: Attend
as we'll to the cultivation of the mind
as to the training of the body and
its muscles if you would enjoy com
petitlve athletics to the full. The
first is as necessary as the last to be
come superexcehent at any sport, e
get the greatest enjoyment from spori