The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-06-06

ever known, director of the largest
coaching staff ever gathered under
one head, leader in giving wounded
men in the convalescent %centers work
which helped them to regain normal
life, DR.. Joseph. E. Raycroft, chairman
OF the athletic division, WAY depart
ment commission on training camp
activities, will complete we vars in
this service while returniog to the
United States from abroao. May 26,
1917, the commission ordq.ed him to
"go abroad" with the athletic pro-
gram he had outlined al he second
meeting of the organization headed
by Raymond B. Fosdick. On the 26th
of May, 1919, he was on The George
Washington, returning from Europe
after seeing the program for which
ne was responsible carried to compile
ton along the distant banks of the
Rhine.
Between the dates, two years apart,
he gathered together a staff Of head
coaches and instructors numbering one
hundred and eight men, and through
these, by intensive training courses
within the camps, taught other thou
sands to be instructors in games, hand
to han dfighting and physical devel-
opment. When the toll of war be-
gan to drift back from France in
broken men, these same forces were
modified in the convalescent centers
and wounded men by the scores were
helped back to normal life by the un-
derstanding of these men who have
made the coordination of mind and
muscle a life study.
Develops Physical Fitness.
The first duty imposed upon the
athletic division was physical fitness
Of the men in the army. Work in
the camps developed that the athletic
director and the boxing instructor
working together were the men to
work out the program in hand to hand
fighting and with the bayonet instruc-
tor, many of whom were from the al
lied armies, to coordinate the bayou
ct fighting. This gave an unusual
burden to the men at the head of ath-
letics in the camp and only the pres
ence in the camps, as members Of the
national army, of many men trained
in athletics and boxing made possible
the efficient completion of the pro-
gram. These men were former di-
rectors of college and high school ath-
letics. The college athletics, men who
had learned the fundamental lessons
of body building in their sports were
the backbone Of the teaching staff.
They were assigned to the schools of
the athletic director, the boxing in
structor, and the hand to hand fighting
instructor, by the hundreds, and in
some Of the camps this corps of spe-
cial teachers numbered as high as a
thousand men.
Marvel of Completeness.
To handle this number needed an
efficient organization. The athletic
council of the camp is a marvel of
completeness. Before the first thirty
men were sent to the camps as ath-
letic directors, they were called to-
gether. 1t was a new problem for one
man to take the leadership in the
training of from 10000 to 10000 mer
and these men, called from the larg.
est college positions in the United
States considered it long and earnest.
ly before they decided upon the form
Of the business organization or rath'
err the promotion organization to be
the athletic head of the camp. The
{ council as defined at these conference:
met the need so thoroughly that it i:
| in use in the army at the present time
! not only in the United States but il
the organization of the A. E. F. il
France. In this council, the athlete
: director and a staff officer are thu
) head, the positions sometimes being
l consolidated as the athletic director!
: were commissioned in the army. Eacl
! regiment, or similar organization il
the camp or base is represented by F;
: man with power to speak for them
! usually the athletic officer of the reg
, iment, and under these each company
! or similar unit is represented by one
I officer. This council is the directing
: mind of the camp or base, and as i
represents every man in the camp il
, also has the power of direction under
the approval of the camp commander
l This organization, with DR.. Raycrof'
and Captain John l.. Griffith at it:
head in this country, and with Colone
Waite G. Johnson and DR.. Raycrof.
, at its head in Europe, is at the pres
u ent time in charge of an athletic or
= ganization which extends from CAM
Kearney, California, the farthest poin
from the war at which soldiers wer,
e trained, to the bridgeheads of tn
l Rhine. Because of the work of thi
organization, 100000 are marchin.
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