A fortnight later, I joined a boxing class organized by Dale, and in a short time I was the captain and star of his outfit, as well as president of the Oregon Athletic Club, which he sponsored. We not only boxed, but had an excellent baseball and basketball team. I was catcher and first baseman of the ball club and participated in the club’s other activities. As a boxer, I scaled only 122 pounds, but was fairly clever and could hit well. Leach Cross, later one of the toughest lightweights in the professional field, was my age. He was one of the neighborhood’s best scrappers, a lad who would put up his fists at the least provocation, and on many occasions we crossed each other’s path and settled matters without the aid of gloves. I remember a baseball game in which Leach and I were on opposite sides and he resented the manner in which I tagged him out at the plate, preventing his team from tieing the score. He rushed at me and in a jiffy we were rolling all over the grass. Mr. Dale separated us and suggested that we settle our differences with the gloves. We agreed and what a shellacking I took! In later years when I became a reporter, I took keen delight in watching Leach do to others what he had done to me. As captain of the Oregon Athletic Club, I accepted a request of Mrs. Oliver Harriman and Mrs. Jay Gould, sponsors of the Boys’ Club, to have our team meet the Boys’ Club members as part of the inaugural program arranged for the opening night of their new gymnasium. The second bout on the program was between Joe Gordon and me. Gordon scaled ten pounds more than I did, and I refused to go on until I was told that the rounds would be cut to two minutes each, and we would box only two rounds. I walked into the ring with chest out, proud as a peacock as I received the plaudits of the gathering. However, the show ended within a few minutes. We sparred, and in seconds, the lights went out for me. I was knocked cold. I recall, as I regained consciousness, seeing Mrs. Harriman rubbing my forehead and Mrs. Gould patting my hand, yet I didn’t know what was wrong. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about, until I learned from Leach Cross that my opponent, Gordon, was a ringer, a “pro” fighting under an assumed name. The incident almost caused a ban on boxing at the club. * * * * * Though I was only five feet two inches tall, I was a good sprinter and broad jumper at City College. In a meet with Rutgers, I cleared 19 feet 8 inches for a winning leap, and in a triangular meet with Pratt Institute and New York University, I did two inches better. In 1904 I had become a City College correspondent for the _Morning and Sunday World_ and the New York _Press_ and two years later I was accepted by the _Press_ as a cub reporter on part time service, doing general reporting and copyreading under the supervision of both the sports and city editors.