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Show GEORGE ATKIX, WINS FIRSTS IX SAX'DIKGO TRACK MEET George Atkin, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. George Atkin of Milford, is certainly making a remarkable record rec-ord in athletics at Camp Kearny. Of course all local people knew that George was a good all-round athlete as he has done some remarkable stunts in that line in his own State, especially while in high school in Salt Lake City. Now, pitted against the best men in a camp of thousands of men from schools and colleges all over the west he Is doing the same Btunts and carrying away the trophies tro-phies of the athletic meets with apparent ap-parent ease. Milford, his home town, is proud of his showing and-George and-George wants Milford to be credited with the victories. The recent meet at Camp Kearny, which is the largest , event of the kind which has yet been held in the California cantonment, is reported in the Salt Lake Tribune of last Sunday as follows, and the report re-port is accompanied by two half- tone pictures of George an individ-. individ-. ual portrait and a cut showing the finish of the hundred-yard sprint: Camp Kearny, Cal., Dec. 8. When a canvass was made of the Utah regiment reg-iment for material to represent the artillery in the recent championship track and field meet. Utah's chances appeared slim indeed. In the first place. Cannon Lund, the Beehive sprinter upon whom the 'soldiers pinned much hope, was in the hos- . pital with an infected foot. Louis Falck, sprinter, was training hard for the football game and could not compete. Several other athletes were also unavailable. There remained but George Atkin, a member of the Utah band, and when George was located it was found that he, too, was under the weather owing to the third typhoid inoculation, which, has put many a good man out of the running for several days. So Utah forgot the track meet and settled down to await the championship champion-ship football game to even up the score. But George did not. Shortly after 1 o'clock on the afternoon af-ternoon of the meet, Atkin rolled up his running suit and without even letting his closest friends in, ambled off to the stage - depot. He walked into the huge stadium unheralded by the usual roar from the Utah section, sec-tion, which was then practically deserted. de-serted. The Utah crowd went to the ocean resorts for amusement rather than to a meet where the regiment was not represented. As George sat on the competitors' bench he shivered. It was not a shiver of fear, however, for he gazed uninterestedly at the score of the coast's fastest sprinters who danced about on the field, limbering up their finely trained muscles for the century cen-tury and the championship. It was a shiver of fever which gripped him, and chills passed up and down his spine. "All out for the 100 yards," yelled an official, and the crowds roared as tholr favnritoa lineH nn frr tha firat heat. Atkin was among them, but as he flung off his bathrobe there was no outburst from the crowd, instead a lone voice, which sounded noticeably notice-ably weak after the previous tumultuous tumult-uous outburst, squeaked, "Come on. you Utah." The gun popped and a red jerseyed figure catapulted from, the starting line and drew away -yard by yrcl from the field. He broke the tape with the nearest runner five yards in the rear. It was George Atkin. The lone voice in tup grandstand now boomed forth. "Utah wins." As the sprinters lined up for the final heat there were among them western sprintors whose names are contained in college record books and who have competed in the largest meets of California. Atkin was in the group, hut he did not jump and caper about as the others did he knelt quietly on his mark, and wished that the gun would start him on his way to his warm bathrobe. The gun cracked and nix men jumped from the line in a perfect -start. They flashed along evenly for tin; first forty yards, when, as before, the red-clad figure began rapidly to draw away. A space of two yards j intervened between him and his ! nearest competitor whpn the tape burst. "Ten seconds," came from the oificials as they compared watches. A lone hat went sailing in the air high over the heads of the quiet crowd and the voice, nowraised to a shriek, pierced the air, . "Hurrah Tor Utah!" George then ambled over to the running broad jump. Lieutenant Flower, a former Harvard jumper and now a navy aviator, had just completed his final leap and had cleared twenty feet and six inches. Atkin was given his first trial and thumped to the ground at a distance less than nineteen feet. ' He tried again with no better results. He flashed toward the take-off for his third and last trial and with a mighty effort sailed through the air to a distance of twenty feet eleven inches. First place and five more points for Utah were his. George came back to the Utah camp with two records for Utah, two silver medals and the distinction of being the only man to cop off two first places in the same meet. But the artilleryman who had lost his hat and strained his voice preceded him. The news had spread and George is the hero and a modest hero at that. So Milford, Utah, whence George hails, is in the glare of the spotlight at Camp Kearny. George is proud of his town and the artillerymen are proud of both him and his town and George doesn't give a hang how much of a hero he is if his town doesn't get the credit. Salt Like Tribune. |