Athletics and Football (extract)

132 ATHLETICS ance was at the spring sports on the Richmond cricket ground in 1872, when he wasimmediately spotted by the connoisseurs as the comingman. He walked perfectlyerect and with a fair heel and toe action, but with a springy stride, and we always used to think that when he spurted his style was by no means irreproachable. Undoubtedly he could and often did walkwith great fairness, but his springy style and quick stride rendered the passagefrom walkinginto trotting very easy for the walker and very puzzlingfor the judges. Morgan, in his third cham­ pionshipwin, covered his seven miles in 53 min. 47 sec., then a record, and was also the maker of athletic history in another sense. It wasabout this time that the ring-fenceof gentleman- amateurism wasbeing broken down in London. Morgan, who wasan employ^in Shoolbred's establishment, had his entry ac­ cepted at manymeetings,and finally the officers of the London Athletic Club accepted his entry for a London Athletic Club meeting. The result was a strong cabal amongst some of the older members of the club, who threatened to resignif the entry were not refused. Eventually,whenthe meeting came off,about half the entrants declined to run on finding Morgan's name in the programme, but eventually the malcontents yielded to a compromise and returned to the club, most of them follow­ ing the lead of Walter Slade, whodeclined to persevere in his opposition. The point, however, was practically settled, and in a year or two both the club and its entries gained in number what they had lost in social standing. Before leaving the subject it is only fair to state that no personal objection to Morgan was ever expressed, the opposition to him being simply to the representativeof a class. The incident, though apparently trivial,had important results,as after this one pro­ test no further objection wasever raised to the system of popu­ larisation of the London Athletic Club meetings,which was carried out by the managers of the L.A.C. in a most thorough manner. While Morgan wasunrivalled inhis career of success in the South, another celebrity was arising in the North, H. Webster