Rowing and Track Athletics (extract)

Track Athletics in the Colleges 271 two firsts, and one first went to Williams, to Union, to Wesleyan, and to Cornell. Mr. James Gordon Bennett added to the interest of these early games by donating handsome cups, and in 1875 the Saratoga citizens' committee also put up valuable cups for prizes. By this time the interest in the new sport was so lively and so general in the colleges that the formation of an intercolle– giate association for the purpose of holding track contests began to be seriously considered. Mr. George Walton Green of Harvard, now dead, Mr. Creighton Webb of Yale, Mr. Clarence W. Francis of Columbia, and Mr. H. Laus at Geyelin of Pennsylvania were among those who were most actively interested in the matter, and who finally issued a call to the colleges for a meeting to organize the association. The first meeting was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York City; the association was presently formed and the first regular intercollegiate championships were held at Glen Mitchell, at Saratoga, during Regatta week in 1876. Princeton won four firsts - the half-mile run, done in the now ridicu– lously slow time of 2 minutes 16! seconds, the three-mile walk, the shot put, and throwing the baseball. v\Tilliams won two firsts - the one-hun– dred-yard dash, done in 1 I seconds, and the quar– ter-mile, done in 56 seconds. The other four events were divided among four colleges: Dart-