This Spring's Track Meet Against Oxford-Cambridge Revives a Long Tradition

On July 22, 1899, Boston headlines screamed, "Track Day. Two Continents Await College Games. America vs. England in Amateur Athletics. Fashionable London to Witness the Sport. Fancy Prices Being Paid for Box Tickets. Harvard and Yale are Full of Confidence. Each Side Counts on Three Victories, While Remaining Three Games are in Doubt."

Since the time of this first Harvard-Yale vs. Oxford-Cambridge track meet the world has become inured to international athletic contests. Consequently, few people are working themselves into a frenzy over the seventeenth in this venerable series which will be staged on Soldiers Field, June 22.

Past Fervor

But it as not always so. Everyone in both countries, or at least those within cheering distance of New England and London, eagerly awaited the first of these inter-continental athletic events.

For three weeks before the big day in 1899, Boston papers expended quantities of ink and large headline type in following the exploits of their adopted national heroes.

When the Harvard-Yale team, chosen from the winners of the annual track meet between the two schools, sailed from New York on July 6, 1899, the Boston Herald proclaimed, "College Team Sails. Harvard and Yale Off for England as One. Wildly Cheered as the Steamer Moves Out."

Daily they reported on the condition of the athletes and gave predictions of noted authorities on the outcome of the nine-event meeting. President Hunter of the Cambridge University Athletic Club was quoted, "The meeting promises to be a keen struggle. The Americans will probably win the sprints, and we ought to pull off the long events, as it is well known that the Americans seldom run a good long race.."

Disaster struck the following day. In bold headlines, the paper lamented, "Tom Burke Disabled. The Half-Mile Champion Lame in England. Setback to the Chances of Harvard and Yale." The article went on to explain the nature of Burke's ailment, an old stone bruise, and said," Burke is almost broken-hearted over the misfortune. Fortunately, Adams, the American second-string half-miler appears to be in superb condition."

Eligibility Question

It was with some relief that the papers proclaimed the following day that Burke would be able to run after all, with the aid of a specially-made shoe.

A joint commission of officials of the two teams met to discuss the question of the elegibility of Burke and a sprinter named F.J. Quinlan. It seems that the London papers had declared them to be professionals, apparently because of some extramural running which the pair had done. The commission hastened to absolve both of them, and denounced the English papers which originated the controversy.

It also discussed some minor details of the race and agreed to run the hurdle race according to the American system, with loose rather than fixed hurdles. However, it was decided to run the three-miles, the English forte, rather than the two-mile, to which the Americans were accustomed.

So great was the demand for tickets that the Queens Club, which sponsored the meet, was forced to extend the grandstands. "The Belle of New York" and other American companies playing in London suspended matinees on the Saturday of the meet, in order that the members of the cast could attend the meet.

Calm Preceding a Battle

On the day of the meet, the London Times turned its normally jaundiced eye upon the affair and proclaimed, "The calm preceding a battle marked the eve of the international varsity struggle." Of the visiting team, it said, "Their gentlemanly demeanor, good looks, and high spirits have been the subject of admiring comment. They have never been noisy nor indulged in horse play."

In its resume of the affairs to date, the Herald on the day of the meet mentioned the two previous international meets, in which Oxford beat Yale at London in 1894, and Yale beat Cambridge at New York the following year.

It said that the initiative for this meet had come from England. The Oxford and Cambridge presidents had addressed a challenge to the presidents of the Harvard and Yale University Athletic Clubs. The conditions of adoption were that the meet should consist of the nine events which normally comprised an Oxford-Cambridge meet (the 100-yard dash, quarter-mile, half-mile, mile, three-mile, 120-yard high hurdles, high jump, hammer throw, and long jump [broad jump]).

The Herald went on to comment on the hassle over the amateur standing of Burke and Quinlan, editorializing that the "solicitude of England as to the amateur standing of the Harvard and Yale men is amusing in view of the fact that many things are permitted at Oxford and Cambridge that would not be tolterated here at home." They did not elaborate on the "many things."

Included in the article were line drawings and descriptions of the Oxford-Cambridge entrants, and it also gave comparative times and distances of all the performers and the predictions, which called for a 5 to 4 American win.

But as prognostications they failed, for the heavily-favored Burke, who had been ill with a stomach ailment since he landed, finished a dead last, and a Cantabridgian named Davison won the quarter-mile in 49.4.

Before an enthusiastic throng of 8,000 fans, which included the Prince of Wales, the American Ambassador, the leader of the House of Commons, and the London Victoria Military Band, the English won this first gala international meet, 5 to 4.

With the score tied 4 to 4 (the meets were to be decided according to the English custom; on the basis of first places only), and only the three-mile remaining, the Herald described the climax of the meet.

"Workman (C) led at the firing of the pistol. Wilberforce (C) then went to the front and stayed there for a mile and 2/3, when he dropped out on account of a stitch in his side.

"The Americans for the first 2 miles were bunched about 5 yards behind the Englishmen. Just before the end of the second mile, little Clark [H.B. of Harvard], who had been pluckily sticking with the leaders, dropped on the track in a faint. Smith of Oxford was soon forced to retire owing to cramps, and the last mile was fought between Workman and Palmer (Y). Workman outran Palmer in the last 1/3 mile, to win amid the wildest imaginable enthusiasm.

"When the result was finally settled, the excited crowd burst through the enclosure and carried Workman, the hero of the day, to his quarters."

Speeches on Sportsmanship

At the gala banquet that evening, many speeches hailed the sportsmanship and the solidarity of the race. Each competitor was given a medal with the arms of the four colleges on either side.

E.J. Wendell the Harvard steward, moved by the flowing eloquence,, burbled, "We were met in the handsomest spirit and lost fairly on our merits and demerits."

Joseph H. Choate, the American Ambassador to England said that he had learned a great lesson from the contest--that two nations could oppose each other and fight it out to the bitter end, and yet remain good friends.

The Pall Mall Gazette, in its leading editorial chimed, "By all means let young England rub shoulders with young America on the cinder path or anywhere else and the oftener the better."

Apparently the four universities chose to heed the Gazette's sage advice, for on September 26, 1901, in the Berkeley Oval in New York, the Harvard-Yale forces evened the score with their British rivals, winning 6 to 3 before a crowd estimated at 7,000.

Under a banner headline, "America Conquers," the Herald shouted, "The meeting will probably go down in athletic annals as the best ever seen on this side of the water."

Giving its description of the excitement and local color, the Herald added, "The members of the visiting team were...really distinguished from the home candidates, if for nothing more than a cleanly aspect, in marked contrast to the American athletes, who as a class, have yet to learn of the launderers art."

Workman's Victories

As for the meet itself, Workman, who now went under the moniker of the Reverend W. H. Workman, added two more victories to his collection, setting a record of 1:55.6 in the half-mile and winning the American-sized distance race, the two-mile. J. S. Spraker of Yale also scored a double win, taking the high jump at a record 6 feet, 1 1/2 inches, and the broad jump. Boal again won the hammer, while O-C won the mile, and H-Y the 100, 440, and hurdles.

When N. H. Margrave won the century in the slow time of 10.4, the alarmed judges, knowing that all the runners were capable of 10 seconds flat, hastened to measure the course. They found to their great embarrassment that it proved 105 yards long.

Before 10,000 spectators and the Band of the Grenadier Guards in London on July 23, 1904, H-Y moved one-up in the series, winning 6-3. The visitors had been thrown into a mild panic when only two days before the meet, Harvard's Murphy, favored to win the high jump, suddenly and unexplainedly left for home. Yale's G. F. Vietor, however, allayed their fears by winning the event.

T. F. Shevlin (Y) broke the hammer record with a heave of 152 feet, 8 inches, and H. W. Gregson set another when he won the mile in 4:21.2. W. A. Schick became the first of eight Crimson runners to share the existing Harvard 100-yard dash mark, when he won in 9.8.

The 1911 meet, also at London, proved more exciting, as it went down to the last event before the O-C squad eked out a 5-4 victory. J. P. Baker of Cambridge sprinted to a five-yard victory in the mile and was promptly carried off the field on the shoulders of his delighted teammates to the strains of "God Save the King."

Hindsight placed the onus of defeat on the poor showing of the American distance men, as E. C. Taylor (O) won the two-mile in the record time of 9:29:2. G. A. Chisholm set the only record as he won the hurdles in 15.4.

American Defeats H-Y

Actually, it took an American to beat the Americans. G. E. Putnam, a giant displaced Kansan, a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, won the hammer for the only British win in this event, which was dropped after the following meet.

With the world situation darkening, the rivalry suffered a ten-year interruption, but was resumed in 1921, when the two teams met in Harvard Stadium for the first time.

The British forces were "loaded." They included Oxford's captain, Bevis T. D. Rudd, who had won the 400 meters in the Olympics at Antwerp in 1920. Their half-miler, Mountain, was the British 880 champion, while H. B. Stallard had finished only one yard behind the Olympic champion in the mile competition of the British Championships.

In addition, they had a brute of a man, M. C. Nokes, who was heavily-favored to win the hammer. However, their best hurdler, George Trowbridge, a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton, was felled by an acute attack of appendicitis.

Gourdin's Exploits

The Americans offered in opposition E. O. Gourdin. Ned, the Harvard star, had broken the collegiate mark in the broad jump, winning the AAU title with a leap of 24 feet, 6 inches.

Years later, the London Times, in explaining the meet, alibied "In 1921, England still was suffering from the losses and dislocations of war." And dislocated they must have been, for the H-Y forces administered their rivals an 8 to 2 licking, the worst set-back for either team in the history of the rivalry.

In all, six records were broken and another tied.

Gourdin went wild. After winning the 100 in 10.2, he came back to broad jump 25 feet, 3 inches to become the first human being to clear the magic 25 foot mark, and there by he set a world record, a meet record, and a Harvard record which still stands in little jeopardy.

Lone O-C Wins

Stallard and Rudd ran true to form and provided the lone O-C victories. Stallard ran 4:20.4 to break the mile record, while Rudd set a 440 record of 49.0.

Fisk Brown (H) beat the favored Nokes and set a hammer record which still stands (since the event was dropped) when he threw the ball 159 feet, 3 3/4 inches. R. W. Landon (Y) set a record in the high jump at 6 feet, 3 inches, while T. Campell (Y) set an 880 mark of 1:55.0.

C. G. Krogness (H) tied the high hurdles record of 15.4, while Mal K. Douglass (Y) became the first freshman to win an event in the series, taking the two-mile in 9:32.2, and giving the home forces their first victory in this event.

J. R. Tolbert (H) won the shotput, which had been included for the first time.

Two years later, in Wembley Stadium, London, O-C gained revenge, as Cambridge Captain H. M. Abrahams gained the distinction of being the only man in the history of the rivalry to win three events. O-C gained a 6 1/2 to 5 1/2 win, when R. J. Dickinson (O) and R. D. Gerould (H) tied for first in the high jump.

Cambridge's D. G. A. Lowe gave promise of things to come when he won the 880 in 1:56.6. C. A. Eastman (H) put the shot 44 feet, 2 inches to break the exciting record.

But the meet was all Abrahams. After winning the 100 in 10 flat, and the bad jump, and with the score tied at 5 1/2 all, he entered the 220, a new event in the competition.

'Like Some Great Bird'

"Now came the tremendous moment, when the four sprinters vanished into the tunnel for the start of the 220 yards. There was a dreadful pause, a muffled thud, and then--nothing. It was a false start. Another pause, and at last a louder bang. A moment's agony, and then there was Abrahams scudding along like some great bird, with a four yard lead. He went further and further in front, running superbly, to win by seven yards in 21.6." Thus did the Times describe the climax of Abrahams' nearly single-handed win over the visitors.

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