Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Beginnings of Modern Track Athletics 255 hill. Little more dependence, in fact, can be put on performances of this sort than on the dreamy traditions that have come down to us about the prowess of the ancient Greeks, whom exuberant classicists now and then credit with standing jumps of twenty-nine feet, and similar neat per– formances. And in this country, except for Seward and Deerfoot, little tangible remains of the running of the early days; and it was not until the war was well over and the country had settled down to peace and prosperity that modern times, from the standpoint of sport, began, that track athletics came in with other sports, and Ameri– cans began to learn what is now so important a part of their curriculum -the art of playing in the open air and doing it for fun.