Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Track Athletics While this was going on in the East a similar activity was making itself felt all the way west– ward to the Pacific. California, which in many ways has always been less Western than the West, began to take an interest in track athletics at almost the same time that they came into favor in the extreme East. Mr. William Greer Harrison, for many years the president of the Olympic Club of San Francisco, is my authority for the state– ment that amateur track athletics really began on the Pacific coast in 1877. "In that year," says Mr. Harrison, "the Olympic Club began to foster the sport on an amateur basis. Athletic events had occurred before that, but they had been of a semi– professional character, and did not receive the support of amateurs. There were no spacious outdoor grounds at that time, nor handsome dressing-rooms, with all the appurtenances of an up-to-date training quarters, with attendants, trainer, and rubbers to take athletes in hand after or before exercising. It was not an unusual thing, however, to see a dozen athletes undress on the shady side of a rail fence at the old Bay District horse track preparatory to taking their morning or evening exercise, after which they dressed without a shower-bath or rub-down." The Merion Cricket Club soon became a com– petitor of the Olympic Club, and in 1884 a team from the former organization entered the coast