Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Track Athletics started at Rugby in 1837, and at Eton an annual steeplechase was established in 1845. The boat clubs followed the lead of the schools and the general athletic public followed the boat clubs, and to-day the cross-country championship in England brings out hundreds of competitors. Although taken up in a desultory way by American schools and colleges during the fifties and sixties, the first regular hare-and-hound club - the West– chester Hare and Hounds - was not organized until 1878. A book of rules was secured from England, officers were elected, and the first run was held on Thanksgiving Day. Frank Bunham, one of the fast half-milers of that day, finished at the head of the pack, and W. S. Vosburgh, who was the leading spirit of the club, and the man most active in furthering the new sport, was second. " They had a grand feast that afternoon," writes E. H. Baynes, in an article in Outing for October, I 893, "and wound up the day with speeches and songs. They awoke next morning to find them– selves famous. The newspapers devoted whole columns to the chase. The comic papers also took a hand and represented the runners in any– thing but stained-glass attitudes." The American Athletic Club Harriers, the next club organized near New York City, held its first run on Wash– ington's Birthday, 1879. A. A. Jordan, the