The sun., 1916-04-09
MIKE MURPHY KNEW WELL
EVERY TRICK OF HIS TRADE
Patience and the Ability to Understand the Whms of
the Athletes Under His Charge Were Among
His Greatest Assets

eide to practise or how to- correct them.
The man who had received as much
| attention a. any one Of the athletes
| and had been carefully coached In every
move WAS told in the final week to go
away and forget everything until the
! eve Of the battle. The result justified
the means. for the man who went away
listless and without ambition came back
with a glow on his face, fre In his eye
and the vim that carried him over the
sticks fast enough to beat Godfrey Shaw
In one Of the closest and best races Of
the day. Few knew how near America
came to losing that event and marring
the most remarkable record ever made
by track and field team.
With the veterans on the team Muir
ply bothered very little. such men as
George Gray. who won the shot put, and
Jim Mitchell. who was victorious with the
hammer, were heroes OF hundreds OF
contests. Moreover, there was no ore
or the visiting ,tam considered to nave
a Chance OF beattns them. Mike Swec-
ney. too. knew his game to perfec,ion.
and the fact that he needed little In the
way OF coaching is evidenced by his
position to-day as the best all around
coach In America. or at least In the East.
There never was a prettier or fasrcr
high Jumper than Sweeney and he was
conscientious to fault The same could
be said Of Gray and Mitchell. and Murphy
had nothing TO do for them but to chan
and keep them in good humor
Eddie Bloss. the Harvard man who
came down to win the broad jump was
another good worker. but I have no
doubt ne got useful hints on style which
helped him to victory. There was one
young man on the team who at that time
required more attention than any other
nNo because. though grand natural
runner. he knew nothing OF the nne art
OF pace and was more likely to run
a badly Judged race than a good one.
This was Charley Fitzpatrick. ON whom
America had to depend solely for the
half mile. No one on the home team had
a chance with Fitzpatrick. but 4 was
realized that in Horan he had q danger.
Gus opponent. especially az the English
man was said to be a good Judge of
pace and a slayer as we'll as a half
miller.
Realizing early the fu,iii'y If trying
to teach Fitzpatrick how TO tell how fast
he was running. Murphy hit on che eN-
pedicnt Of using his second string. Harry
Lyons. AS a pacemaker. This was not
new. but at the same time II threw away
all chance for the pacemaker to win in
oroer that the main dependence should
nave every advantage. Lyons was able
to rate along for the hrst quarter OF a
mile in a little better than 55 seconds.
and this was considered good enough TO
give Fitzpatrick his opportunity 10 win
and bring out the best there was in him
The scheme worked beautifully. kilpat-
rick followed his instructions. which were
10 follow Lyons and a, the end OF the
first quarter cut loose with power and
speed that surprised every one. The
result was runaway victory and a
worlds record OF $50 20 that stood for
years.
In the quarter much the same plan
was pursued. although IT was not so i'm
peratlve for Tommy Burke TO have a
man TO follow as IL VAS for Fitzpatrick
Little George Sands. a reliable middle
distance man and with plenty Of short
speed. was the goat in this instance. He
cut out with a dash that surprised the
Englishman and when they went after
him II was only to And that the real
contender for the Stars and Stripes was
Burke. who came along in the last 100
yards and Just managed to win. II was
that spirit OF team work that served to
make the score a clean one and for
keeping up that spirit Capt Baxter and
Murphy were largely responsible.