The Washington herald., 1916-12-23
WORK OF YALE team
| THE UPSET OF 1917
Tad Jones Eleven Sprans Real Sur
prise of Sporting Season.

New York, Dec. 2-only a brief span
now remains OF the good year Of 1916,
and within that scant segment no event
Of real importance in the world of sport
Is to be settled. Wherefore frenzied
fans may even now begin the annual
debate, as to what single record for 1915
deserves to be pointed out as the pre-
dominating stunt of the year
A process OF elimination will enable
Us TO get down to cases more quickly.
Hence the elimination. In turf matters
no one equine stepped to the front with
enough force to draw away from this
field to a pronounced degree. Scanning
the field Of the cue and ivories. Willie
Hope continues on his way as the
greatest living exponent of the game.
But Hoppe is merely keeping a pace al
ready established.
So far as golfing Is concerned the work
of Chick Evans surely stamps the Chr.
cago wizard as real marvel. His
trick of winning the national open cham
pionship was a real achievement But
to make his honors the more impressive
he followed up his triumph in the open
with another victory in the national
amateur clash. There surely is glory
aplently for one in gaining such honors.
However. Evans was only laying for
NAL claims to conquests to which his
friends and admirers felt for two or
three years he really was entitled on
performances they had seen him put up.
In other words, Evans, admittedly the
greastest shot maker in the country at
his favorite game, at last succeeded tn
delivering his remarkable wares in
tournament competition and the result
was nothing more than was expected.
In the boxing arena there was no par
ticular performance that stood oui
prominently this year. The two most
talked of the title holders, Freddy Welsh,
king of the light-weights. and Jess VIII
lard, heavyweight champion. passed
through an uneventful year. Welsh
made a showing that proves he Is still
the ruler OF the class. He held his own
with the cleverest men in his division,
although he did not decisively defeat
any of them. Willard in one show pum-
melled Frank Moran, regarded In ad-
vance as the most likely candidate to
seize the crown.
But neither Willard or Welsh delivered
anything that would entitle them to step
into the forefront OF the general field of
sport activities. The same goes for their
brothers of the roped arena. With the
exception OF Kilbane. Brftton and Will
liams, who performed vafantly. Ertle,
Mccoy and the other fstic warriors who
lay claim to distinction in their classes
failed to weigh in with exceptional per
formance. Kilbane stopped his most
formidable rival, George CLANCY. in
three rounds. Britton beat all chaIlen-
gers for the welter title and Williams de-
Tended his title by beating six Of the
leading bantams in the country since his
bout with Johnny Ertle in St Paul
In baseball and football. however. there
are one or two angles that commend ac-
tive attention. The Red Sox had a tight
run for their money. but repeated despite
the loss OF Iris Speaker and Joe Wood
However. the Bostonians had to be held
even choices with anything else in the
field at the opening OF the season.
In the National League the situation
was different In delivering his Dodgers
home first under the wire by a narrow
margin Manager wilbert Robinson ac-
Quired quite a healthy bundle of credit
and glory. Winners more than a score
of years ago. the Dodgers had Of recent
years been looked upon as chronic trail
ers. True, Uncle Robbie drove them into
the first division last season and was re-
garded as a real contender. but real fat
odds could have been obtained at the
springing of the barrier last season
against the F1atbushers' chances of lead
ing the field home in 1916. Manager Rob
lnson and his charges deserve quite a
prominent spot in the glare Of sport hon
ors for their steady grinding race to vic
tory
AS we see It the most scintiIlating
record of the entire year of sport was
the great rejuvenation OF things effect
ed by Tad Jones in gridiron circles up
at New Haven. BY dint Of real
achievement the New Haven coach
left a wider gap between his start
a nd MI ho hnG Ath
nent light in the sport procession for
the year.
Jones has drawn column after col
umn of praise. to say nothing of the
great volumes spent over him in YER
bal eulogies. Not only Yale men but
the football public generally has been
very generous in its glad acclaim of
the wonderful success of the Bulldog
instructor this year
Whatever has been said and written
was richly deserved. Within the scope
of a single season Jones lifted the
Ellis back into a position than which
none hold higher. Furthermore. he
covered quite an extensive span in
so doing. 1t is quite a jump from FIVE
defeats in one season, with no less
than three OF the so-caled smaller fry
participating, to a single defeat in the
following. In addition the two real
OBJECTIVE games OF the season were
Chalkcd up as victories in this rehabili-
tation Of matters.
AS we view il the record of Jones
and his charges in boosting Yale grid
iron activities from a very low ebb to
the front rank IN a single season Is the
real sensational trick of the year.
Not a few experts who set them
selves to the task OF picking an all
star baseball team for the 1915 season
have given Charlie Herzog a job at
the second station. This means of
course that Herzie's play at the middle
bag measured quite well up to the
standard of what the wise ones want
ed. Yet there is one man who isn't
satisfied with Charles way Of playing
the bag. He is HerEog himself
Herzie admits that ne can play that
old bag pretty well. He believes he
can do anything in a fairly successful
manner to which he sets his hand, es-
pecially as regards baseball. But he
also is satisfied that he can improve
on his work around the sack. Only
few days ago. talking of his new
position with friends, Herzog ex-
pressed the sentiment that within an
other season he will show the boys
quite a few new anglesfas TO how the
l.