Coaching and Care of Athletes

COACHING AND CARE OF ATHLETES General Sherrill. Among Murphy's sprinting prodigies, from Sherrill onward, were John Owen, who was the first man to run IOO yds. inside even time; Henry Jewett; B. J. Wefers, of the New York Athletic Club, who was the first to approach 2 I secs. for the furlong, when he ran that distance in 2 I ·2 secs.; and D. F. Lippincott, who at Stockholm in I9I2 established a world's record of IOf secs. for IOO metres, although he did not win the Olympic title. In I887 Michael Murphy became chief track and field coach at Yale, and at once the athletes of that university became famous. In I895, when the first international athletic match between the New York Athletic Club and the London Athletic Club was held in America, Murphy was appointed head coach to the American team. At that meeting M. F. Sweeney made a world's high jump record of 6 ft. si ins., C. J. Kilpatrick produced a record of I min. 53·4 secs. for 88o yds., and T. P. Conneff made a world's mile record of 4 mins. I5·6 secs. Murphy also trained Maxey Long, who, as we have already seen, ran a quarter-mile on a straight track in 47 secs. In I90b Murphy took the Univer– sity of Pennsylvania and the New York Athletic Club teams to the Olympic Games at Paris, where his charges completely eclipsed the whole of the other nations. Finally he was head coach to the first official American Olympic teams, which scored such notable victories at London in I908 and Stockholm in I9I2. Murphy was a sick man when he made the trip to Sweden, but despite bodily indispositions he stuck gamely to his task, and was more than rewarded by the performances of. the men who had been committed to his care. When Murphy died in June I9 r 3 the world lost its pioneer of modern athletic coaching science, but there were men in America ready and willing to snatch up the torch which fell from his hand. At once such names leap to one's mind as that of Lawson Robert– son, the present American Olympic head coach, who was a sprinter under Murphy's charge when the American Olympic team came to London in I908. One thinks also of Jack Moakley, the great Cornell coach, of Boyd Comstock, who is at present chief Olympic coach in Italy, of Dean Cromwell, who has done such wonders in Southern California, and of a host of other Americans who have made their names famous . America is the home and, indeed, the breeding-place of great coaches, and is giving to the world the athletic scientists who are making modern records possible. 28