Merriwell, Frank (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Yale University -- Juvenile fiction
The rest of the spectators sat as near their favorite college as they
could, with the result that long before any of the games began, the
building fairly roared with college cries mingled together, each crowd
trying to outdo the others.
It seemed as if there would be no lungs or voices left to cheer the
athletes, but if any one had such a fear it must have been because he
was not acquainted with students' voices.
An excited Yale or Harvard man can give the college cry somehow when he
would be unable to conduct a conversation above a whisper.
The very middle of the hall was left vacant. All the contests were to
take place there, and, therefore, in full view of all the spectators.
The athletes had their dressing-rooms at the ends and sides of the
building, and there were so many of them that each college had a number
of rooms for itself.
The Yale managers took their men up to the armory about half an hour
before the call for the first event.
Dressing-rooms had been picked out in advance, and the men belonging to
the tug-of-war were put into one room by themselves.
The Yale crowd in the audience cheered frantically when they recognized
their companions marching across the floor to their dressing-rooms.
Shortly after that the Princeton men came in, and then there was a wild
howling from the other side of the room.
So it went on, and so it continued all through the evening, for there
was hardly a moment when there was not something going on to arouse the
enthusiasm of one college or another, and if by any accident there was a
hitch in the proceedings, there was plenty of excited students in each
faction to stand in front of the tiers of seats and lead their comrades
in cheering on general principles.
As there were many events, and many entries in each one, the programme
was put through rapidly, and as often as possible, two or more events
were being contested at the same time.
The object sought for by each college was to gain as many victories, or
in other words, first places, as possible, but in some events, like
wrestling and fencing, where only two men could contest at a time, it
was necessary to have two or three and sometimes four bouts in the same
event.
This was not the case in such a sport as leaping, for there all the men
could compete at the same time, and one set of trials decided the
matter.
In wrestling it was necessary to draw lots to decide which colleges
should compete first.
Then lots were to be cast to decide which college the winner of the
first bout should wrestle with, and so on.
Each wrestling bout consisted of three rounds, with a short rest between
each two.
As three rounds at wrestling is likely to tire any but the very
strongest man, the next bout was set down a full half hour later on the
programme in order to give the winner time to rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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