LACK OF INTEREST CAUSE OF TRACK DECLINE

(Mr. Garcelon was a member of the track team while in College; he is now a member of the Track Graduate Advisory Committee.)

The failure of Harvard track teams during the past ten years to make a successful showing in the Yale and Intercollegiate Games has been the cause of much inquiry by interested graduates. Failures have been especially noticeable because of the conspicuous success of the other major teams.

It has been pointed out that this might be due to the fact that few of the best runners and jumpers of the preparatory schools have entered Harvard. While this is doubtless true, it is not more so than it was in the days when Harvard was winning consistently on the track. The real cause of the decline in track athletics has been the lack of interest among the students which has materially reduced the number of men taking part in the sport.

Even today there are not much more than half as many men trying to "make" the track team as there were twenty-five years ago.

While the points won by star performers have loomed large, Harvard has made her best records of the past through the development of inexperienced men and through winners of second and third places. There is just as much good material at Harvard today as there ever has been. The problem is to arouse interest and have a large number of candidates for the team.

Football, hockey and baseball contests, where team play is involved, in general, sustain the interest of spectators more than track. When properly managed track meets arouse great enthusiasm such as has been often manifested at the Intercollegiate and Olympic Games.

The development of a good track athlete takes three or four years. Harvard's recent failures have been due not so much to the fact that she has not had many first place winners as that green men have not been encouraged and inspired.

There is no better man for training and conditioning a team of athletes than Donovan. The present condition in track, however, demands the active and aggressive influence of a graduate in authority. This has been secured by placing Bingham in charge of the team. His own conspicuous success on the track not only because of his running abilities but because of his fighting spirit are bound to enlist many candidates for the team, and I predict that within two years there will be found among the men now in college many point-winners, and that within two years an increasing number of Harvard men will realize, the charm and joy of spirited contests on track and field. Harvard men should enthusiastically work with Captain O'Connell and Coach Bingham, two of the gamest fighters Harvard has ever had in any sport.