San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-04-11
TRUE AMATEUR
MUST BE HEIR
Or ELSE A BUM
Any Kind Of Work Makes
Man Professional Under
Tennis Rules.
EDGREN DISCUSSES 1T
Tilden's Writing Inspires
Search Into What's
Behind Idea.
BY ROBERT EDGREN.

BY ROBEKI EDUt.SN.
The American Olympic teom Loses
Tilden rs tennis player because OF
the tennis rule against playing ANA
teur tennis and writing stories for
money nj one and the same time. Til
den. with contract for writing in
1924 paying him $4,000 for his sea
sons work with the typewriter. was
faced with the alternative of giving
up his profession or dropping out of
the Olympic competition. Naturally.
he chose to drop out.
In some cases the rule against ann
tours who write and are paid for their
writings is unfair. 1t seems SO IN
Tilden's ease. Presumably his only
profession is writing. and he has been
writing for several years. He earns
his living by writing. No doubt the
value of his writings on sport are
not decreased by his reputation as a
tennis player.
IL Tilden writes because he finds
that the best way TO earn an income.
and plays tennis for the sport. pleas
ure, exercise and health there is in
the game. he's an amateur in fact il
not in tennis association theory.
IL he plays tennis TO boost the value
of his work as writer he's pro-
fessional at heart.
But it is difficult to fairly draw
the line between amateurism and pro-
fessionalism in this way.
As for the tennis players who do
not do the work of writing the stuff
published umder their signatures. but
who accept pay for the use of their
i mes, they are professionals out and
out. and should be taken by the neck
and the heels and thrown out of anna
teur sport pronto. Immediately and
without the loss of time or sympathy.
"Nyriters" Keep Scores in Head.
The same goes for golfers. I've
read some beautiful golf stuff writ
ten by golfers who don't know a
typewriter from moving machine.
and who keep their scores in their
healls-te avoid the unaecustomeda use
of a spencil.
Tilden has unusual writing ability.
for an athlete. He has turned ont
some very fair fiction. Perhaps his
stories wouldn't sell for so much il
he wasn't tennis champion. But. on
the other hand if he wasn't tennis
champion he might put lot more
time and interest into his writing.
write much better. and get more
money for his stuff.
There's another line for the tennis
authorities to figure out
George Adee. one of Iale's famous
quarterbacks, is chairman of the spe-
cial tennis amateur committee, and
believes firmly that no athlete can
be an amateur and professional at
the same time.
But if an amateur athlete can't
work at writing for money, he can't
work at selling bonds. real estate. rib
bons. coal. oil or anything else for
money. Somebody might buy from
him because of his athletic fame. That
would make him professional, OF
course.
Follow the reasoning to its finish.
An amateur athlete in any sport must
not work at anything for pay. for
fear of disturbing the purity of his
amateur standing. An amateur ath-
lete must be either bum or an heir.
Old English Idea.
And. by the way, that is the old
time English idea of amateur sport.
In England. not many years ago. an
amateur was a gentleman amateur,
and no man in the trades or profes-
sions could be gentleman amateur"
because n guy can't hold job and
be gent at the same time, so 70
speak. in England.
When Edward n Ten Eyck. a 1G-
year-old boy. first went 10 England
as an amateur oarsman. he won the
famous Diamond Sculls because the
English didn't know how well he could
row, and overlooked his dark past
But next year when Ned wanted to
return TO England and defend his
championship and the Diamond Sculls.
the English sporting authorities got
together in great alarm and had a
conference. They decided that Ned
was ineligible, and that he couldn't
row for the Diamond Sculls again as
he was mot gentleman amateur.
Ned. they decided, couldn't be gen
tleman amateur because his father
wasn't gentleman amateur-his
father being a professional oarsman.
Another fact aided the decision OF
the English amateur authorities. Ned
could row too fast for the English
men. and they knew it. But tina;
wasn't mentioned. One English cham
pion preceding Ten Eyck was a butch
er. Nobody happened to notice il
however.
If newspaper writing by athletes
had been invented then and Ned ha.
been signed up to contract for ar
ticles on his trip to England-th,
way he'd be signed today before h
could get aboard steamer-the Eng
lish authorities would have discovered
that writer isn't u gentleman ANA
teur. That would have made it easy
and simple, and would have furnished
good precedent for our modern ten
mis- people.
Some of the tennis people are sal,
to believe that writing isn't work an,
that Tilden gets his money for moth
ing but his tennis reputation. The!
might try to get story past a mag
szine editor and learn something.
Dan ,O'Leary, worlds veteran walk
bg champion, is still at it, although
Dan is 49, Recently Dan gave al
exhibition OF heel and toe walkin;
and circled the bases of a standarl
baseball diamond twelve times in
minutes, 81 seconds. He says be car