Evening star., 1926-05-19
SHRINE-CROTTO CONTEST
AGAIN WILL BE FEATURE
Efforts Are Being Made to Have Event Surpass All
Previous Ones-South Has Many Fine Track
Athletes, Conference Meet Shows.
BY II. c. BYRD.

THE thirteenth annual Masonic
the base ball game between
June 10 at Clark Griffith St;
for the event, and it generally is be
forth. the day will far surpass any
have been very successful
All Masons in the District. and
the proceeds Of the day go to benefit
In fact. the field day was originated
special purpose. Back i'll 1914 Robe
ceived the idea of base ball game
representing all other lodges in the
go to the Masonic and Eastern Star
The game succeeded beyond ar
and so big did it become that it nov
days of the year i'll the District, at
Star women are concerned, and pre-
greater number OF persons lntereSte'
The Shrine and Grotto are the play
grounds of Masons and as such they
bring to bear all their wide influences
10 make fun on the day of their an
nual game They play the game ''for
blood" but in all other respects there
is nothing but the friendliest of RI
valry in attempts TO do ridiculous
things and to stage deliberately funny
proceedings. And they succeed. 100,
as any one will attest who has
watched their efforts.
The strongest appeal in all the
world is the appeal that children
make. and it is to answer that appeal
that Masonry, embodied in the Shrine
and Grotto. work to make the field
day success II is in answer to. that
appeal that Masons dig down IN their
pockets to pay for tickets they are
sent each year, have already been sent
this Spring. and if there be one thing
for which men and women deserve
real credit and for which they will get
credit it is for the extent TO which
they answer that appeal.
Track and field athletics in the South
are practically in their infancy, as far
as real efforts at general development
are concerned, but even so throughout
DiXieland are scattered men of the
highest type, men who would hold
their own in the best competition.
There is hardly an event, except the
hammer throw, in which some one or
Two men are not, outstanding. And the
hammer throw is not a part OF meets
in the South.
Clemson College alone has two men
who, if worked along and developed on
right lines, Will make the next Olym-
pic team. Roy in the 440-yard dash
and Newman IN the S80-yard run are
stars. In the recent Southern Con
ference championships Roy did
quarter in 492 seconds on a track on
which a heavy rain had fallen. An
hour later in a driving rain and
through pools of water, Newman of
the same school won the half in just
a. fraction over | minute 81 seconds.
And Elliott of University of North
Carolina ran a mile in 4 minutes Il 2
seconds on a wet and heavy track.
And he won by rs yards. Had he been
pushed he most certainly would have
done better than 4 minutes 20 sec
~-onds Tate of Georgia, Roberts OF
Georgia Tech and Smith of Alabama
can beat minutes so seconds in the
two miles. Watt of North Carolina and
Nash of Sewanee are consistently bet
ter thana25 seconds in the 220-yard
low hurdles and two or three others
can come below that mark occasion
ally.
In the conference meet, in the rain,
O'Den of Clemson and Brady of Ken
lucky did better than y feet in the
pole vault. Snider of Auburn, Cum
mings of Virginia, Bridges of Loulsl-
ana State and Mcpherson of North
and Endslow of Maryland are among
the best middle distance men. Two or
three men throw the discus more than
140 feet and put the shot around "A
feet.
When the time for the next Olympic
meet comes, the South will have some
candidates. Take Elliott, for instance.
who is an his first year of college COM
petition. yet can beat any other mile
ST IA.. E A nh
is in his sophomore year, and as a
22O.yard man he is a conner. Mat
thews of Maryland has a great future
as a quarter miller, and if he and Roy
of Clemson take care Of themselves
they will go North to the next
Olympic tryouts as two of the great
est quarter milers the country has.
Cummings Of Virginia has much the
same form in sprinting that has
Murchison, undoubtedly the greatest
indoor dash man in the world. He has
an apparently short, choppy stride
that actually is long, yet in which his
feet hit the ground with great
rapdity.
And in comparing Southern sprint
ers with those of the North there is
always a possible discrepancy in diff
ference in timing. In a quarter, half
or mile difference OIL a n1tn OF Sec
ond in timing does not amount to
much but in the 100 it means the diff
ference between a star spr1nter, a
great sprinter and only good
sprinter. In the recent Southern Con-
ference meet three consecutive heats
were run in 0:9.9 seconds. Those heats
were fast, but whether or not they
were that fast is a question.
Last year Foster of V. NJ. 1. did 9e
seconds in the Southern Conference
championships, but later was beaten
in much slower times. 1t has hap
pened in any number of instances
where a runner did time like that ano
went into competition with Northern
sprinters and got whipped in slower
time. 1t may be that these runners
have hit their peak and do not rur
so well again. but some are inclined
to believe that the timing OF the
dashes in the South is just a little
faster than in the North. The writer
believes that comes in catching the
runner just before he hits the tape
IT may seem an easy matter to cater
a runner at the exact fraction OF 6
second that his breast strikes q str.ne