Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-13
SPORTS fhrOu6hI
<laL~h~EfE&S1

sprinting champion Of 20 years ago.
tells me that when his boy was in high
school he absolutely refuscd to allow
him to play football, and limited his
running to two or three sprint races
a year, and even stopped his sprinting
for two years or SO until he was Is,
when he let him start again. At all
times he had the boy go through light
exercise with chest weights SO ar
ranged as to develop his chest and back
muscles.
The result is that young Wefers to-
day is as fine a physical specimen as
iou could find in any college. IN good
health and with plenty Of speed and
athletic ability. Being fully developed,
he can now compete without danger
of overstrain.
] ave known scores Of famous col
lege and club athletes who died through
heart trouble or as victims of diseases
they would have been able to throw
off if their vitality were normal.
Usually this has been because they
suddenly stopped training and keeping
in condition when their athletic days
were over. I remember one world
famous oarsman who died within two
years of graduation from a great col
lege. But beside stopping all exercise
and training he dissipated in every way
to such an extent that the only wonder
was he could last 50 long. Still people
who didn't know the facts blamed his
death on the strain of rowing.
Frequently long seasons Of hard
training under rigid rules are followed
by years of soft living and indulgence.
The result is inevitable. An athletic
heart is a good thing as long as it Is
athletic. 1t is simply ID heart that is
developed by hard work until it is fit to
stand the strain of continued hard
work.
AS long as the work continues, an
athletic heart is an excellent thing to
have. But discontinue all useful work
and the heart suffers.
An athlete who stops all athletic
training usually grows very fat. His
heart grows fat, too, and soft. 1t is
better for a man to have normal mus
cles that never have been highly devel-
oped than to develop powerful muscles
and then let them grow slack and soft
for lack of work.
The chief danger of overindulgence
in athletic sports lies in letting the
body machine run down after it has
is overstrain before q boy has attained
his full growth and development and
the stamina that goes with it. After
a quarter century of training, COM
petition and experience in sports / am
not sure but that it is better to be
just q fair athlete than to be a cham
pion.
Old Timers Full of Pep
Heart failure is almost unknown
among half civilized and savage ma
tons, and among people who live in
the frontier countries of the world.
That is because these people live nor
NAL lives. No matter how hard their
lives, the hardship is continuous, and
they develop physiques fit TO overcome
hardship.
On q recent trip through a remote
mountain country | was astonished by
seeing the youthful feats of mountain
men from 80 to rs years old, who rode
on the cattle ranges.
Injured to hardship all their lives,
they looked % years under their real
age, as / might judge them by city
saddles, rode hard, and were active
and alert. But these men never had
any periods of soft living. In the cit
les it is hard to keep in condition be-
cause living conditions, in schools. in
colleges, and business, change contin-
ually.
1t is a well known fact that boxers
of African descent last long in the ring.
They inherit the rugged strength and
stamina Of their uncivilized ancestors.
Also they have usually been developed
by hard work. >
The only way for a civilized man to
enjoy good health and a long life is
to keep up some kind of athletic work
all the time, unless he is engaged in
physical labor that takes the place
of it.
If every athlete on retiring from
competition would do a regular amount
Of. exercise, never straining and never
entirely neglecting it, there would be
would be to blame for a short life.
few cases in which athletic sports
Copyright, 1922, by The Bell Syn
dictate, Inc.)