At the semiannual field day of the Academic Athletic League of the
Pacific Coast, held at the Olympic Club Grounds, San Francisco, on March
16th last, the Oakland High-School and the Berkeley High-School, with 52
points each to its credit, tied for first place, and the championship
was consequently awarded to the former for having been the winner the
previous year. The struggle, as may well be imagined, was a close and
exciting one throughout, there being no event, except perhaps the shot,
hammer, and mile run, that was not hotly contested to the end. The
O.H.-S. has been the Coast champion for sixteen years past, and if
Cheek, the captain of the team, had entered this year, no doubt the
score would have been very different. Cheek is a promising all-round
athlete. In addition to vaulting and jumping he puts the shot 33 feet,
throws the hammer over 100 feet, runs the 100 in 11 seconds, gets over
the high hurdles in 17-1/2 seconds, and the low hurdles in 28 seconds.
The reason given for his non-entry into these sports is that his team
was so much stronger than that of any of the other schools in the
league, that the O.H.-S. preferred to contest the games without his aid,
and so decide the day by a few points only. This experiment proved a
most risky one. If the B.H.-S. had won the Relay race, they would have
taken the championship by the score of 55 to 48. Such a self-sacrificing
and eminently sporting spirit as Cheek's is something I have not yet
observed in the East. The rules governing the contests of the A.A.L. are
somewhat different from those of other leagues. The team of each school
is limited to seven boys, and six more are allowed to enter for the
Relay race, which counts as an extra event, and gives 10 points to the
winner, 6 points to second, and 2 to third. There is some advantage in
this limitation, but I should think that in many cases it would operate
unjustly. Nevertheless, it is a great preventer of that worst feature of
our Eastern track-athletic games--countless trial heats necessitated by
unlimited and unrestricted entries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account