Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-01-01
THE SPORTS CORNER

SPORTS OUTLOOK
BRIGHT FOR 1918
"The year 1918 is going to see
more athletic competition than at any
time in the history Of our country"
says Charles A. Dean, president, Anna.
teur Athletic Union Of the United
States. "Most of it will, however, be
of a different nature than the compe-
titive athletics we have been accus-
toned to for many years. The United
States government is developing the
greatest lot of athletics that the world
has ever known and although they
may not have the systematic physical
training that the Germans have had,
it will not take this country many
years to surpass them, il the athletic
training in connection with the mill
tary training at our various army and
navy camps is kept up the same as in
the past SIX months.
1T has been proven the past few
months that athletic training and
competition are as big an essential
to military training as shooting or
bayonet practice. Instead of our
biggest competitive games and meets
being open affairs this coming year
most of these are going to be in con-
nection with army and navy camps.
Nevertheless Just as many athletic
meets should be held and believe
will be held as in former years. The
performances may not be as classy
but we still have the athletes to draw
from who are either under or over the
draft age besides the athletes now in
the service and adjacent to centers
where meets win be held.
"As regards championships all the
national championships in every line
of sports will be held and an endeavor
made to have the fourteen different
associations of the A. A. u. hold all
their sectional championships also.
These championships as well as all
the big open athletic meets the COM
ing year should be, and ninety per
cent Of them will be, run for the bene-
fit Of athletic equipment funds for the
different camps or for the camps for
our soldiers across the water. The
football season just closed has netted
thousands of dollars for this fund for
the different camps and the indoor
season which Is so much longer should
net thousands of dollars additional.
these camps are all badly in need
of athletic buildings to play basket.
ban, volley ball, hold boxing and
wrestling and other sports. Everyone
OF the thirty-two camps have two or
three of these buildings large enough
to mark on at least three basketball
courts. These buildings would prob
ably cost in the neighborhood OF $685.
900 each. So it can readily be seen
what a large amount Of money will be
required These buildings are an alb
,solute necessity, especially in the
northern camps where outdoor ath-
1etics can not be INDUCED in for pos
sibly six months out Of the year. All
competitive athletics should be kept
up during this war as We can not al
ford to let our athletes lose even one
year and deteriorate physically. This
is President Wilson's wish and we
who are vitality interested in the vel
fare of amateur athletics are going to
do everything in our power to keep
the games up to standard.
"I have been asked many times
what viii all these athletes that the
government Is making do after the
war is over. We will take care Of
them. Where one meet a week is
held now three or four a week will be
held in all the large centers and then
when we get the much needed univer-
sal service let physical education and
competitive athletics be a part Of mill
tary training"
iNrERcoLLEGIATE FOOTBALL.
Walter Camp, secretary, Intercolle-
giate Football Rules committee, has
the following to say about this branch
of sport:
"If one has had the opportunity to
see what has been done at the camps
and stations this last fall, he can not
help being convinced that there was
actually a great deal more football
played, and more men engaging In the
sport than ever before in its history
in this country. In no college or uni
versity were there ever half as many
the training camps and naval stations.
In some cases. as many as fifteen
teams were playing regularly in sew.
eIal Ol LNSSc UdSeS. NOW Iuc IutCi-
esting feature of this is that the pre-
paration for war has not only utilized
the sport of football but. it has given
many men, who had, on account Of
their entrance into professional or
business life. abandoned the game. an
opportunity of taking it up once more.
And q great deal of pleasure did they
have out of it. 1t was, as it were, a
renewal of youth. All this indicates
something along the line of the pros
poets for the game next season. ::
The outlook is that all the colleges
which kept up their game and sched-
ules this year will continue in 1918,
and that if we continue the develop
ment of men for the army and navy,
all these cantonments and stations
will have teams in great numbers.
More football would have been played
this last fall had it been possible to
secure sufficient equipment, and now
that we know something OF what is de-
manded. it is safe to say that pre-
parations will be made in the late
summer to SUch an extent that wa