The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-01-25
/ ALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS
NEW YORK IAN Is.

NEW YORK, Jan. 25.
BECAUSE Jack Elder was falsely
ID advertised as a competitor in
an Olympic sprint series the other
night and the Brooklyn college I'M
der whose auspices he ran has been
a mountaineering organization since
1919 there has developed another
unsavory situation in amateur ath-
letics-a situation which suggests
anew that the background of most
Of these scattered indoor meets is
not entirely free Of commercialism.
The meet in question managed by
James Reilly. who seems 20 have qualified
for the assignment by reason OF the fact
that he is the brother Of Joseph Reilly.
former power in the administration of the
Metropolitan body Of the Amateur Ath-
letic Union. otherwise the Veu-known
4. 4. L.
Reilly insists the appearance of
the No,re Dame sprinJer was not
falsely advertised and he shifts the
blame for the impression that the
young man would participate in the
sprint ceries to the newspaper men
charging that they misinterpreted
The advance publicity which he sent
70 them.
GONE of this advance publicity
- stated specifically and without
reservation that Elder would COM
pete against Karl Wildermuth, Jim
Daley and other stars in the sprint
series and when the newspaper men
accepted this information as the
Facts they did so in the belief that
he source was authentic and re-
sponsible 1t develops that it wasn't.
OF course it is possible that when Reilly
sent word to the newspaper offices that
Elder would race in the sprint series,
which was contrary to the truth since the
Notre Dame athlete had filed his entry
definitely in only two events. the sixty.
yard sprint and the Seventy-ive- yard
sprint. he did not intend that anybody
should take him seriously.
Reilly is probably an an avid
reader Of the sports pages and from
time TO time he must have come
across certain pieces Of matter al
legged to be news that caused him
to yaWn and wonder how the per-
pctratOrs ever get away with that
sort OF stuff.
NTHEN Jack Kearns was han
w ding the Dempsey fellow he
would spread the report that
group Of millionaire bottle washers
in South America were bidding
against Tex Rickard for the cur
rent battle of the century and for
some reason or other this would be
blown up into a news item Of con-
siderable magnitude and the story
would receive positions of varying
Importance in the sports pages, de-
pending in the main on how we'll
Kearns stood socially with this
spor IS editor or that sports editor.
I am reminded also that even the
severely dccorous Gene Tunney was not
beyond subterlugc in this respect and that
on more than one occasion he authorized
the issuance of statements that were with
out foundation in fact and were designed
wholly to expedite if not improve his ne
gotiations with the promoter of the next
fight featuring him.
The business of sports and the
ballyhoo seem to go hand in hand
and it IS not always easy for the
editor TO distinguish between facts
and hCOey. Quite a bit of the
ballyhoo that grows up around the
presentation Of a prize fight is
harmless in nature and at times
even amusing.
IN most sports departments a GER
i tain vigilance is exercised to keep
tie matter within the bounds of
probability, and in recent years .
the demand for novelty in training
camp gUf has reached such a keen
point that the hackneyed is no
longer generally accepted.
For example. when Tommy Loughran
was claimed by his press agent to have
saved a demure miss from drowning in !
lake adjacent to his training camp last
summer. only nine of the metropolitan
dailics treated it news. and only five
printed photographs showing the heroic
Young man and the duly grateful Young
lady