Athletic Supremacy the World Over Bars Neither Colour Nor Creed

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6902, 7 May 1929, Page 4

Athletic Supremacy the World Over Bars Neither Colour Nor Creed

rpHERE is no race or nationality that holds, a rmonopoly of athletic skill, courage and ability. .The English-speaking peopie developed modern athletic wm, sports, but the rest -of the ill world has followed and is rapidly catching up. ’ Athletic sports are now taking the place of war as an for the high spirit of competition. If Sir Launcelot were alive to-day lje’d be running hurdle races, like a more modern titled English Olympic champion, instead of cavorting about in armour hunting for ogres and giants and rival knights. Japan developed her first Olympic chajnpion in the recent games, Mikio Oda winning the running hop, step and jump. Most of the Japanese are of small stature, but this doesn’t prove a bar in certain forms of athletic sports. There have been some very clever Japanese tennis players and billiardists. Japan holds a Far East Olympic meet and always puts in a Strong team. The Philippine Islands usually score heavily in this event.

athletic development of his race. There never has been an athlete better built for the event. But Bob Legendre cracked it, and then Hamm, another white Olympic champion, came within an inch of 26 feet. Hamm has run the hundred in 9 3-5 seconds, too. ~ , The negro race is marvellously qualified, physically, for athletic sports. Some of ,the coloured champions would have made magnificent models for the ancient Greek sculptors. They are long-armed, bigchested, broad-shouldered, _ smallwaisted, and have powerful thighs and light calves. . Few have shown up in athletic sports, chiefly because of the small number entered in the colleges, where sports reach their highest .form. But there have been many great coloured football players and some baseball men of note, as well as track athletes. Tho professional ring has given coloured athletes a better chance because higher education isn’t needed in tho ring There have been hundreds of negro boxers. From the earliest days of pugilism the negro lias always held a foremost position. . It is no unaccustomed distinction which comes to the black race through the rise of George Godfrey as the most formidable challenger of the white contenders for the crown left vacant by Gene Tunney. The modern age knows Jack Johnson, Sam Langford, Sam McVea, Joe Jeanette, Joe Walcott, George Dixon, Joe Blackburn, and a host of lesser lights. The oldtimers remember .Peter Jackson, George Godfrey the “old chocolate,” and Professor Hadley. But the history of the negro as a power in the roped arena runs even farther back than the ’Bos. The first heavy-weight negro fighter with a clear right to the world’s title was Jim Jeffries. He

gained it by knocking out decrepit Peter Jackson in four rounds, in ’Frisco. After Jackson as the standard bearer, of the negro in the ring' came

Of the many famous negro athletes De Hart Hubbard holds highest rank. Net Gourdin, a coloured student at Harvard, first broke the 20-year-old record for the running broad jump made by Peter O’Conner of Ireland, being first to jump beyond the 25-foot mark. Then Hubbard, student at Michigan University, leaped several inches farther. Hubbard also ran the hundred in 9 3-5 seconds, like Drew, the great coloured sprinter of several years ago, equalling the world’s record. It looked as if Hubbard would keep the broad jumping record to mark the

No Nation Holds Monopoly on Any Sport—Athletes in all Parts of the World are Catching Up with English-Speaking Folks—Japan Developed Her First Olympic Champion in Recent Games when Mikio Oda won the Hop, Step and Jump De Hart Hubbard was Greatest of Negro Athletes Tom Longboat, Runner, Peer of All in His Time, Duke Kahanamoku Greatest of All Swimmers, Jack Johnson, Joe Gans, Peter Jackson a Trio which Have Made Pugilistic History, Were All Coloured Men.

George Dixon, bantam-weight and then feather-weight champion. From 1890, when he claimed bantam honours, until 1900, when Terry McGovern knocked him out in eight rounds for the feather-weight laurels, Dixon was a world’s sensation. In 1909 Little Chocolate died in Boston —down and out, forgotten, as he fought in vain against the ravages of tuberculosis. Then there came Joe Walcott, a physical freak. Joe stood only five feet one in his socks, but he had a torso like a heayweight. He never scaled more than 150 pounds, but this West Indian negro, who rightly was called the Giant Killer, feared no man. After years of success in the ring Walcott got into a “mix-up” at a negro dance and was shot in the head. That ended his career. The saddest chapter in the history of the negro in boxing must be written about Joe Gans, the Old Master, who headed the lightweight title for many years and finally succumbed to the ravages of disease. To many, Gans still stands as the beau ideal of boxing—the cleverest machine that ever feinted an opponent into a knot. Since Gans’s day we have had Jack Johnson, one of the best heavyweights who ever held the title, and a marvel at defensive fighting; Sam Langford, wiio only recently was saved from blindness after an illustrious career; Joe Jeanette, who is a referee in New Jersey; Sam McVea, now dead; Jeff Clark, Bill Tate, Kid Norfolk, Harry Wills and now George Godfrey. Godfrey is far from a Peter Jackson or a Jack Johnson. But with all that he is undoubtedly one of the best heavyweight contenders and should be considered There have been many great swimmers in recent years, many recordbreakers. Johnny Weismuller ana Norman Ross were the best, perhaps, but it is doubtful that either was a better all-round swimmer than Duke Kahanamoku, of Hawaii, winner of the

Olympic championships and holder of scores of records. Given the same competition when he was younger, Kahanamoku could have gone as fast as any of them, and perhaps faster. They never beat him until he was a veteran. And Duke Kahanamoku was the one coloured champion so well known to New Zealand. ' He made an extended tour of the Dominion some years ago, giving brilliant exhibitions which will forever live in the minds of those who witnessed this super-aquatic champion in action. Indians have produced many great athletes. Jim Thorpe, of Carlisle, was as great a football player as ever lived; and as great an all-round athlete. One of the first American athletes to go to England in the last century was Deerfoot, an American Indian, who defeated all the best English distance runners and made many records. More modern, Tom Longboat, of Canada, was a marvel in distance races. If he had been trained like a college athlete his records would fill the books now. He ran everything from a mile to a marathon, and seldom lost a race. Long-legged and long-winded, he ran as he pleased and took every race like an exercise jog. Longboat was a runner in the British Army through the war, and that ended his career in athletic competition. The Philippines have brought out a lot of great little fighters. Best to date was Pancho Villa, who knocked out Johnny Buff and then Jimmy Wilde and became flyweight champion, while one known so well to New Zealanders was Salvino Jamito, who fought Charles Purdy in the Auckland Tpwn hall the year before last. The Argentine is becoming strong in amateur and professional sport. After sending Firpo, Argentina sent Vincentini, a good lightweight boxer, and is getting more boxers ready to invade' northern rings. Argentine polo

players and Soccer players swept the fields at the Olympic Games. An African tribe whose men average near seven feet in height produces the world's greatest high jumpers. They have held competitions for centuries in this favourite sport and think nothing’ of clearing seven and a-half feet. But they jump from a low mound instead of a level takeoff, which is some advantage. Siam has had boxing for hundreds of years; with regular annual championship tournaments. They combine boxing with savate —hit with gloved hands and kick with .the ball of the foot. Hopi Indians in America hold their annual distance races over the desert, which is their ancient sport. Records

deciphered by scientists prove that' thi ancient Incas of South America, even thousands of years ago, developed distance running as a major sport, and had a game much like football. They built huge stone arenas marked off into playing courts, with seats foi spectators, and two or three of thes are in almost perfect preservation. The Greeks were the first known tt develop the modern athletic competition, sprint races, distant races, discus, and stone throwing, javelin throwing, jumping and triple jumping, boxing and wrestling. In fact, all our modern track and field events are borrowed from the Greece of 2,000 years ago. Rome had chariot races, horse races and gladiatorial events that first developed fencing. Golf was played in Scotland hundreds of years ago. Pole was played in China many centuries ago, and in Persia 3,000 years ago and perhaps before that. Bowling was an ancient English game. And we have come to regard sport as one of _ the absolutely necessary things in life. But we aren’t the first champions, and we won’t be the last. There’s no raCe, colour, hationality or time limit in sport.