ANYONE CAN BE A TRACK MAN SAYS E. L. FARRELL

Track Coach Says Most People Are Born That Way--Cites Many Examples From Careers of Recent Stars

The following article, reprinted from the current issue of the H. A. A. News, was written by E. L. Farrell, coach of the University Track Team:

The oldest sport in the history of man, and the first sport a person turns to in his life is track--from the minute one is born until one dies, track is a daily occupation for every man. Not everyone is born with a football under his arm, nor is every man able to pull an oar or bat baseballs out of the yard, but 99 44-100 per cent of the world is born with two legs that were intended for hard usage.

Lying in the cradle at the age of six months, shot-putting is practiced vigorously with managers in the form of nurse-maids judiciously returning the blocks and other impedimenta hurled out of the bed. No sooner is a child able to walk but he has a desire to go faster, and this, strange to say, is the beginning of running, except that the child only wants to get somewhere Jumping over the threshold is a rainy day sport of the three-year-olds, and when at nine one is caught stealing the neighbor's apples one is surprised to find what a clever hurdler or pole-vaulter one can be.

If therefore, is only natural that it does not need learning or many brains to make a fair runner, although to make a good racer brains are a prime requisite. From early youth one is confronted with running to the drug store etc, but when one has to outfoot someone that can make his less move as fast as you can, brains are needed, and the difference in brains is often the difference in great runners.

The beauty about track is that no previous experience is necessary to make a good runner or field-event man. Any man with a good pair of legs and some brains can be made by proper coaching into a first class runner. The preparatory school star with a reputation does not always prove the best in college circles, because others who are more willing to be taught and have a greater brain capacity can forge right ahead.

Some of the greatest runners on Harvard track teams of recent years were either inexperienced or did not run at all in prep school. F. P. Kane '26 never made his letteer at Andover and yet he won innumerable races and was clocked in 49 1-5 for a quarter in winning the Yale dual meet in 1926. W. L. Tibbetts '26 was a mediocre half-miler at Worcester and the greatest two-miler in the land when he finished college E. C. Haggerty '27, captain of this year's team, never was a great star, and yet he has won three Intercollegiate Mile Championships in four starts. L. O. Combs '26 had done 9.2 in the vault at school, and in his Senior year did 12.7, a gain of 3.5 in four years