The Chicago whip. (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??, 1920-04-03
NEGRO ATHLETES
By Charles P. Howard.

ent is mer yer of the Football,
Baseball and Track Teams of Drake
University, Des Noines, Iowa, during
which time he has been close friend
and team mate of Howard p. Drew,
the famous Colored Splinter, who
has given him the benefit of his very
broad athletic experience; and also
while serving in France, during the
war, was brought in contact with
many of our boys who have made
athletic history and of which we will
tell more in the future.
Our people are so widely scattered
over this country that one section
probably knows very little of the
achievements of the other. Their
activities are as many and as varied
as any other class of citizens. 1t is
the aim of the writer to bring before
the country, and our people in partic-
ular, the achievements of colored ath-
letes during the last decade. We be-
lieve it would be source of knowl-
edge to the older ones, inspiration
to the younger ones, and pride to all,
to know of these achievements.
! Since we are going to deal pri
marily with amateur athletics, we will
confine ourselves almost wholly to
those members of our race who have
attended Universities and Colleges
throughout the country, and who,
from thier constant association with
other races, are creating feeling of
comradeship and better understand
ing. The boys who are making these
section of the country. Many of them
come from Southern schools and not
only make enviable records for them
selves in competition, but return to
their Alma Mater and are equally
successfully in the development of other
athletes. A recitation of the difficult
ties and some of the privations ex-
perienced by these boys and of the
results attained, sound more like fic-
| ton than real life. The old adage,
that you get out of the game what
you put in it, is as true in athletics
rs in any other line of endeavor.
Permit me to cite few of the out
standing features of the Negro ath-
| letes achievements in the last few
years:
An eminent sportswriter said, in
l'1913, that if the Colored Track ath-
letes, compel ng at that time, could
be brought together and a team
chosen from them, it would be strong
enough to defeat any College Team
or Athletic Club in the United States,
and would have taken at least two
thirds of the First Places. In 1915,
Half Mile Relay Team chosen from
the Colored sprinters competing at
that time, could have defeated any
Relay Team in the country, and have
set a new Worlds Record, as each
man could do better than % seconds
in the 900.
There is one class of events in
which the Negro seems particularly
adapted and that is the sprints. There
are many reasons for this, chief
among which are the facts, that the
Negro is of nervous and cxcitable
temperament, requisites which are
primarily essential in a Splinter; also
a less rigorous and exacting course
of events than in others, and finally,
it was in this class of events that
Negroes first made success, and this
inspired others to try the same. In
fact, all the records in running races
held by our people, are confined to
races not greater than a quarter mile
There has been no time in the past
ten years but what a Colored athlete
has been member of some College
Team in the United States, and a
Point Winner. They have secured
points in every Inter Collegiate or
National A. A. U. and Worlds Re-
cords. There is one goal, however.
which they have not attained, and
this is an Olympic Championship.
This is the ambition of every track
athlete. We have had members Of
Olympic Teams, but we have never
had winner, although we have had
men who have beaten Olympic win
ners. However, in the Inter-Allied
Games in France last June, we had a
winner in the Broad Jump, and in
winning it he came within two inches
of the Worlds Record.
Heretofore we have dealt largely
j with track athletes, but there are
other branches of athletics in which
the Negro has proven his ability be-
yond a doubt, and has gained the
highest honors.
There is no branch of athletics that
commands the admiration of the pub
lie more than Football. The high