Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-29
1900 AMERICAN |
ATHLETES enter
PERSHINC MEET
Yankee Boxers, TraCkmen and
Physical Culture Opponents
in All Lines Ready for
Opening Today.
By KARL LEE.


A great little thing that would
have made the heart of the late
James E. Sullivan, king of American
athletes, throb wit joy, is happening
these days in a great big stadium
Pershing Stadium-in the small sub
urb of Paris, Joinville le-Point.
One thousand five hundred Amer
lean athletes, every one of them red
blooded fighters, who either have al
ready or had stood by ready to
smell the smoke of battle, are gath
cred representing the United States
of America in the worlds rst sold
ier meet"
Fourteen Nations Entered.
The fighting cream of IA nations.
the wealth of the athletic blood of
the world, is gathered her to COM
pete in a simple carnival for the
honor of being the worlds best sold
Ter athletes. And America, early re-
ports say, is leading the field.
Old John L. is dead. But his
spirit lives on. Those words he
spoke at Stockholm. in 1914 when
he scorned other than American
competition-particularly German
are being mounted in letters Of gold
by such athletes as Bob" Simpson,
pat" Ryan, William Sylvester, Earl
Eby, C. E. Johnson, Charlie Pad
dock and Sol Butler and a hundred
other American cracks.
Those days at Stockholm and
Athens, when it was the joy of the
sporting world to behold, die into
insignifcance as the progress Of the
great meet, now on, is watched and
the efforts of those brave warriors
who dared with their splendid
physiques to resist that which the
Hun developed poisoned gas,
scrapnel, submarine and bullet.
Eleven Competitions Listed.
Besides track and field events the
sports that are given the most
prominence are:
/. Football. 6. Tug-of-war.
2. Fencing. !. Equatics.
3. Boxing. 8. Base ball.
q. Wrestling. 9. Basket ball.
5. Gymnastics.
The greatest interest, however. is
in the track and field events. Col.
Joseph A. Thompson, four times
wounded in battle with the Ameri-
can Expeditionary forces two weeks
ago, led IS athletes, the best talent
in the service of the United States
on this side of the Atlantic to the
Paris stadium. The entire track and
field team for this nation numbers
$50.
Representatives from the Mis-
souri, Valley, several of them we'll
known, have entered in six different
events as follows:
High jump: c. Rice of Parsons,
Kan.
ll0-meter high hurdles: Rober..
Simpson, University of Missouri.
200-meter low hurdles: William
Sylvester and Robert Simpson of
the University of Missouri.
l50-meter run: V. Booth of Mint.
S. D.
Pole vault: L. Erwin of Des
Moines, la.
Pentathlon: E. L. Vidal of Madi-
son, S. D.
Great Hurdlers Perform.
Bob" Simpson and William Syl-
vester both hold the worlds record
for the 100-yard hurdles, collegiate
competition and so far in prelimi-
naries Sylvester leads the world in
the 22O-yards hurdle. Running me-
ter time perplexes matters bit but
it offers greatest opportunities for
establishing new records.
The meet opened last Sunday with,
an elaborate ceremony at the, dedi-
cation of the new Pershing stadium
at which President Wilson, Presi-
dent Poincare of France and Pre-
mier Clemenceau of France attenl-
ed. The stadium is the largest built
in the world and was built by Amer
lean engineers now in France. 1t
will be presented to the French
government at the close of the meet
The meet closes next Sunday.