Evening star., 1941-02-17
General Enthusiasm
0fCoIIeges Makes
For Big Success
Committee Works Year
On Plans for Games
To Be Held May "a
BY LAWRENCE PERRY,
Special Correspondent Of The Star.


NEW YORK, Feb. 17-Undoubt-
edly, the track and field carnival
now being arranged for May "a in
the Los Angeles Coliseum will be-
come the Nations premier event
In this sport. Named the Los An
geles Coliseum Relays 1t will be an
annual affair, which, it is hoped.
will bring the leading athletes of
the country into competition.
The fact that William May Gar
land is the head of the committee
and that several other members
served with him in promoting and
then conducting the 1882 Olympic
games, may be accepted as assur-
ances that this meet will be some
thing to talk about.
Garland first came into prom
inence when plans for the new
coliseum were drawn up. With the
arena thus about to be launched
the Community Development Asso-
ciation-a non-profit body organized
to make Los Angeles the playground
of the West-sat down and began
to plan ways and means of filling
the huge amphitheater with GUS
toners.
Made Olympics Pay First Time.
One sure way it was decided, was
to have an Olympic meet staged
within the projected structure. This
would insure large crowds for
week or more daily. Football was
considered and the University of
Southern California, at that time a
small Methodist institution, was Sc
lected as a likely seat of learning
for athletic expansion with the
coliseum as its home gridiron. But
football, for the time being, could
wait. The big, immediate enter
prise was the Olympic games. Little
was known about them, but one
thing definitely was realized-the
Olympics we're well worth getting.
So Garland was sent to Europe
to ask for the Olympic games of
1924. Maybe Garland knew too little
about this great affair to make
headWay against rival bidders. At
Paris and subsequently held there.
But, as showing Garland's per-
tinacity, acumen and resourceful-
ness, he did spadework while abroad
This landed the 1882 edition of the
Olympics before any other COM
munity even thought of bidding. To
give credit where credit is due,
Los Angeles newspaper first
awakened the G. D. A. to the desir-
ability of staging the great inter-
national meet, Garland got the
meet and Zack Farmer ran it in
such manner as to establish that
tenth Olympiad as the first one ever
held that yielded a financial profit
and was successful in every respect. |
Study Project Year.
The committee now engaged in
the relay project for next May has
been studying the project for at
least a year. The group consists
of William c. Ackerman, U. C. L.
A, chairman; Willis o. Hunter, Uni
verSity of Southern California, serv-
ing as member of the American
Olympic Track and Field Commit
tee; Seth Van Patten, secretary of
the Southern section of the Cali
fornia Interscholastic Federation;
Sid Foster, chairman of the A. A. U
Committee; Ralph Chick, manager
of the Coliseum; Roger Jesup,
chairman of the Coliseum Commits
sion, and D. D. Durr, chairman OF
the Los Angeles Newspaper Pub
fishers Association.
Already $4,000 has been raised In
the collection of a relay fund. Ex-
penses Of outstanding college and
A. A. U. athletes to the meet and
expenses in Los Angeles will be de-
trayed and. of course. suitable prizes
offered. Bill Hunter was in New
York at the recent N. C. A. A. con-
Ventlon. He reports, as a result of
his canvass, a general enthusiasm
on the part Of college athletic au-
thorities of the Nation. and still
more valuable their willingness to
cooperate.
While these relays may take some
OF the gilt from the Penn, Texas
Drake and Kansas relays, there will
be no conflict of dates, since these
meets will have been held long prior
to May "a.
The Los Angeles affair strategicaI-
ly will precede the N. c. A. A.
championships at PaIo Alto. June
2O-21, and the Big Ten-Western
Conference dual meet on the coast.
June II.