Newark post., 1920-02-04
NEWARK SOLDIER
BASKETBALL STAR
AT WALTER REED
1t. G. II. Ferguson Recovered
From Wounds Is In
Fine Form

account OF the athletic prowess of
1t. George Harvey Ferguson of
Mr.. and George Ferguson of this
town: =
Lieutenant George H. Ferguson,
of Newark, Del, has been playing
basketball with the Walter Reed
Hospital five, of Washington d. c.,
and together with Captain Edward
j. StacBpole, also a patient in the
hospital has formed a team which
is cleaning up around Washington.
Captain StacBpole before joining
the army, was for three years the
star forward on the Yale Univer-
sity team, and during his last sea-
son, acting as captain, led his five
to the intercollegiate championship
OF the east. Lieutenant Ferguson,
the old Delaware College star and
, three-letter athlete, has been play
ing the other forward, and these
two have proved too strong for
practically every team that Walter
Reed haS met. Lieutcnant Fergu-
son has recovered from his wounds
suffered in the war, and by hard
training has rounded into great
form. He is awaiting ASSIGNMENT
to duty with his old regiment, now
stationed at Atlanta. Ga.
Captain Stackp0Ic is not in as
good shape as Ferguson, and is still
under treatment for his wounds,
but believes that the basketball
training and games are helping him
to get back into form.
At first the officer patients could
only play a quarter Of the game.
Gradually the length Of their stay
in the game was heightened until
now Ferguson goes through a
whole game at top speed, and
Stackpole always lasts a half.
On Friday night, January %,
the Reed five defeated the Irish
RamblerS, one of the best indepen-
dent teams in Washington, by
% to 26 score. The game was
played at the hospital gymnasium,
and over 1900 wounded men and
their nurses saw the Reed team
win.
Ferguson played back guard
during the last half, and held the
Ramblers to four goals, and thus
enabled his teammates to win. The
score at the end of the first period
was: Irish Ramblers, 16; Walter
Reer, 20.
Stackpole also went in at the
start Of the last session and counted
four times from the field. A fea-
ture of the game was a long shot
by Ferguson from past the middle
Of the floor in the last twenty
seconds Of the game, which won the
game.
Last Wednesday night Lieuten-
ant Ferguson was the main cog in
the Reed five, when they beat the
team from the Army Medical Col
lege Al to Is. During the first
half Ferguson played center, did
all the scoring for his team and
ended up with eight baskets to his
credit.
The Walter Reed team is COM
posed for the most part Of corps
men at the hospital, but several
convalescent patients are in the
squad. Ginger, former Brook
lyn High School player, and
Duryea, who captained the Phillips
Exeter five in 1916, are able run
ming mates Of the oficer-patients.
Muller, from Jersey City, and
Stumpf, from Philadelphia, are
the other first team men.
Besides playing in most Of the
games, Lieutenant has coached the
team, and has turned out an ag-
gregation that has won twelve of
the thirteen games played. The
Aloysius Club, of Washington,
reckoned as the independent cham
pions of the city, took Ferguson s
men down on the Aloysius floor
and won by three points earlier in
the season.
Games are now pending with the
Follaudet College team, Catholic
University and Camp Humphries.
The basketball games at Reed
have proved to be exceedingly pop
ular with the soldier-patients, and
every game is attended by hun
dreds of them, many coming in
wheel chairs. The nurses often ap-
pear with their charges, and the
coming games whereby the hospital
five hopes to claim the champion
ship of the District of Columbia
1o,,,o. f,11o-o1