Athletic Training

PREFACE xiii Murphy was selected for this position for a number of reasons, but primarily because he was the foremost authority of the world on all kinds of athletic training. In addition to this skill he had a most unusual knowledge of hu– man nature. Every one knows that in a team of one hundred champion athletes there are more curious dispositions collected than could be found in any body of men of equal size. To command the r~spect of so many athletes, many of whom had worked with other train– ers, to keep them all in good humor, and to have the maximum number on edge for their particular events required a genius. Murphy was equal to the task. What he accomplished at London in 1908 is now his– tory, but in every particular he more than made good. When the American Olympic Committee set about the selection 0£ a coach for the 1912 team Mr. Murphy was a sick man, but the committee unanimously chose him for the position again. Had it not been for the pres– sure brought to bear upon him and the hope that the trip would benefit his health, he .would have declined the position. He under-