The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-07-29
SPORTS COME BACK
; WITH BIC WHOOP
1920 Is Greatest Year in His
tory of Sport-Multitudes
Attend Shows.

NEW YORK, July 20.-When the cur
tain rolled up on the year 1920 it was
generally predicted that this would be
the greatest year in the history of
sport the world has ever known.
That prediction is more than holding
good.
Sports have come back with a bang
10 enjoy more popularity than they
have ever known before. Every sport
ing event of any consequence that has
been held to date, both in this country
and in foreign lands, has attracted
crowds that have been beyond the Wild
est guests Of those who have been
sponsors.
~ Baseball magnates, especially in the
major leagues, are dizzily enjoying
prosperity that dwarfs the golden days
OF basebalrs best previous years-the
period between 1909 and 1913-by COM
parison.
:. Attendance records in no less than
crashing into the discard since the sea-
son opened. The New York Yankees,
Tor instance, have broken the attend
ance record at the Polo grounds on two
occasions. And these same Yankees
took both Chicago and st. Louis by
storm on their last Western road trip,
not to mention Cleveland, where they
were greeted by the greatest turning
out OF fans to Sunday game that the
Forest City has ever known.
IlOioe IdClllg Is literally WdllOWlHB
in flood of attendance, especially at
the Metropolitan tracks, where the
ponies draw crows of from 10000 to
$4,000 whenever there is a race of i'm
portance on the program. The great
Man o. War galloped to several new
worlds records amid the frantic cheers
of between 10000 and 10000 wild-eyed
racing fans.
At Ithaca, where the intercollegiate
regatta was rowed on beautiful Lake
Cayuga, the Orange varsity of Syracuse
flashed across the finish line, while the
crowd, estimated at $4,000, looked on
with varied emotions.
At New London, where Harvard de-
feated Yale on the Thames fully &c.
900 people lined the course, and earlier
in the rowing season, at Philadelphia,
when the American Henley and the
Childs cup races were rowed on the
Schuylkill river, more than $4,000 de-
voices of rowing were present.
The great athletic meets that have
featured the season, borrowing impor-
lance because of their bearing on Sc
lections for the Olympic team, have at
tracted bigger crowds than athletic Of
ficials could have hoped for.
The greatest single gatnerIng OF the
year saw the classic English Derby at
EPSON Downs. There was no accurate
way to estimate the vast crowd, but
the British critics who have scanned
the masses at the historic EPSON
COURSE Tor years recorded tnat the
fhrong closely approached the million
mark. .----
> Horse races such as the great Ken
lucky Derby and the Latonia Derby
drew unprecedented crowds. Fifty
eight thousand people saw Paul Jones
win the Kentucky event.
In France, where Coz Gaulois won
the Grand National Steeplechase, on
June 20, 10000 people gathered at the
track.
In England. where the American
Davis cup players forged their way to
so many victories, the tennis courts at
Queens, London at Wimbledon and at
Eastbourne, were thanked by solid
masses of humanity, and thousands
failed to secure accommodations.
Yet the year is young. There are
many great sporting. events on the
calendar to be decided. The classic
olympic track and field games at
Antwerp will be witnessed by thousands
upon. thousands of people. The ma
tional golf and tennis championships in
this country; the coming world'c Sc
ries and the classic football games of
next fall which promise to draw the
greatest attendance in history, will add
hundreds of thousands to the attend
ance figures in sport for this most
Wonderful Of wears