The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-05-14
M E N, " OM E N
 A ND THIN G 5

some flne sport.
 I went for three reasons; First wanted to see the field, the, gift of one of Birmingham most beloved citizens. Second, l was desirous of catching the inspiration which comes from mjngling with a crowd of college boys and girls. Third, l wanted to get the thrill of the contests.
 Munger field is destined to be one of the bright spots in southern ath- letics. In talk with the donor dur ing an intefmission of the games he told me that if he lived, he was going to still make further improvements which would greatly add to it as the sporting mecca of the college boys of the south.
 Nature has done much for the field. The bowl rests on the top of the hills, and all around it are virginal trees. IL will be easy to seat the crowds so that every one can see and be close to the kcontestants. This means much in the popularizing of field. Munger field
 
 has already become widely known throughout the country, and deserved ly so. In the course of time 1t will be enlarged to a quarter mile track
 The term athletics includes all out door sports indulged in by man; while gymnastics refer to the feats of strength, skill and endurance of the turn hall, and are usually carried on indoors. The Birmingham Athletic club is wise in combining the two, thereby giving to it's members the advantages of both forms of exercise and enter tainment It deserves better support than it is receiving at the hands of the citizens of Birnin gham. I count myself fortunate in having and indoor sports. think that the two should be combined as far as possible. The human body needs the training which comes through gymnastic work in properly cared for gympasiums jus, as it-responds to the freer play of the games on the field. I attribute my good health and joy of life largely to the fact that from my boyhood up to this good day have taken a pride in my body and kept it fit through gymnastic and athletic exercises.
 
 ran across a new word to me, ath- letism. If had not found it in a repu- table encyclopedia, I would have thought that it shoud have been ath- leticism. It applies to exhibitions of mans physical prowess in games of skill and endurance, and though in the. passing century. it has undergone many phases, t is practically the same today as when the Olympian games. which were resumed at the Pan-Ameri- can exhibition at Buffalo in 1901, were originally given 2,5Oo years ago, when Greece was in her prime.
 Then not only Greek met Greek, but the influence of the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian games was felt to the farthest extremities of Asia. It is an established fact, however, that various sports were cultivated many the Egyptians and several Asiatic races, from whom the early Greeks undoubtedly adopted the elements of their athletic exercises which reached their highest development in the Olympic games, and other periodical meetings of the kind.
 
 Students in preparatory schools, high scchools and colleges have been in fluenced by the physical prowess of the Greeks and the Romans as we'll as by their classics. The greatest ex- ample the greatest peoples of the old world knew is followed today by our young boys ana girls and young men and young women, for athletics is no longer the sole pursuit of the male as the female is showing an aptitude both for indoor aand outdoor games which to me is good sign for the health and spirit of the twentieth cen tury woman
 The Greeks ran foot races, hurled weights and indulged in many of the competitive games which are now taught in modified form. No exact comparison can be made between the records of the ancient and modern athlete. The Greek ran naked (our boys only run near naked) over sand tracer, while the modern runner pre- fers cinder path, but knew nothing of stop watches, and then the distances were not the same as at present At the track meet here the Greeks lived again in the throwing of the discus, but even in this form of sport, there ic n M tn a1I |, ,ztl, +, thrower is as expert as the ancient ones as among the Greeks the weight of the discus varied.
 But l am not going to enlarge on the classical games. After the fall of Rome, the mantle of physical prowess which tht nation had inherited from the Greeks. fell upon the shoulders of the sturdy Norseman,~ whose chief glory was in his individual capacity to bear unflinchingly the stress and strain of contests and the clements. They bred into the bone. the hardihood and love of personal achievement which in turn carried the currents through the dark ages, even into those of the exaggerated chivalry. which Cervantes killed with ridicule in Don Quixote."
 While the spirit of the Greek, Roman and Norseman planted it's seeds in the hardy Anglo-Saxons, who in turn transplanted them into Virginian and New England colony soils: it is we'll known that the original Celtic inhah- tants of Great Britain were an athletic race, and the earliest monuments of Teutonic literature abound in records of athletic prowess. After the Norman conquest of England, the nobles de-, voted themselves to the chase and to