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Show Sporfstaculor Poge 2 Thursday, November 1 , 1 y79 Upton proved everyone could be a winner! by John Peterson For most of the players in the area, the football season is now over. True', Weber States Wildcats have a few more games left, but they are pretty much out of contention for any championship consideration. True, a couple of high school teams will go to state but most have just gone home. The City and Counties have each picked their junior high champs, and the WFFL has wrapped up the Super Bowls. And the teams are now divided into those two unequal groups: champions and others. One of sports oldest and fondest cliches is that there is only one winner. But is that really true? Lets share the story of Thomas Lipton, and Ill let you decide. An Irishman raised in Scotland, Lipton was born poor very poor in 1850. But he was born with good drive and intelligence. When he was 20 he opened a small grocery store. Another soon followed, then another, and by the time he was 35 he was a millionaire. He offered best quality at lowest price with pleasant service and it paid off. He is a prime e man, and perhaps the best example of a sample of a completely honest and honorable merchant. Later he got into the tea business, bringing good quality beverages to England for the first time at a low price. The worlds biggest tea company still bares his name, and his picture is on the boxes of teabags. This activity raised him from a mere millionaire to a multimillionaire. Then he got a new love in life yacht racing. Now yacht racing is not a sport for the Ukes of you or I. It takes the resources of a very rich man, which Sir Thomas was by this time, to go through the planning, building, and competition of yachting. It is a very involved, expensive process; and one that is almost totally consuming. But like everything else he did in life, Sir Thomas went into it with zest. And he enjoyed tremendous success. His yachts were the best in Europe for many years. One season he entered 35 races, and his boats won 31 first prizes. But there was one prize that he sought and never won. It was the Americas Cup, and although he tried five times over a thirty-yea- r period, he never really came close. The Americas Cup is a basically ugly silver mug, locked up in a case in the New York Yacht Club. Its silver content, if melted down, is worth a little over $500, but the effort that has gone into owning it over the last 130 years makes it probably the most expensive trophy in sports. A challenger from another country must build a yacht and sail it to America, then defeat a defender to win the cup. It puts a tremendous handicap on the challenger, because his boat has to be strong enough to cross an ocean, then still fast enough to beat another ship designed specifically for the course. But Lipton tried. Oh, how he tried. Starting in 1898 and continuing until his death in 1932 winning the Cup became his obsession. I dont know of any man in any sport that worked harder and spent more money to win a prize. It is estimated now, conservatively, that Lipton dollars in his five spent over 25 million tries for the Cup. And he was never successful. Something would always go wrong along the way. And, of course, the rules were heavily stacked against him. But through it all all the heartbreaks and disapSir Thomas always pointments and discouragement was pleasant an smiling. He never offered an alibi, never had an excuse, never blamed his builders or and always graciously designers or skippers, congratulated the men who were beating him and slowly breaking his heart. The American public loved him for his sportsmanship, and adopted him for their own. While Americans will usually pull for their countrymen in international competition, their sympathies were with Lipton whenever he tried to take their Cup. The last challenge came in 1930. America had boomed as a result of World War I and during the 1920s yachting had made considerable gains technically, England, on the other hand, had a tough recovery problem after the war, and the boat that Lipton put into the water off Newport was badly outclassed. It wasnt really a race. The tired man saw his yacht badly beaten in three straight races. Still, he never made an excuse, and offered sincere congratulations to the winners who were themselves a little embarrassed over the win. But he was obviously heartbroken.. And then a strange thing happened; something tha makes you proud of grandpa and grandma and the people of that time who valued class. The events of the next few months may make you. wonder what winning really means. Will Rogers started the ball rolling with a letter to the New York Times. He suggested that everyone send ina buck to buy Upton a trophy bigger than the one he would have got if hed won the race. The idea caught on, and soon an avalanche of contributions was coming in from all over the nation. Now picture this: America is well into the biggest and worst depression in its history. Money is scarce, people are out of work, things have never been darker for as many folks at any time in histoty. And still, those same people are sending contributions money they of the richest men in the world! cant afford-too- ne Will Rogers proposed inscription for the cup pretty well summed up their attitude. He wanted the cup to say To the worlds worst yacht builder, but the best loser. The limit on contributions was a dollar but many could only send less. Nickels, dimes, and quarters made up a large part of the overwhelming tribute to sportsmanship and graciousness. And in December of 1930, a beautiful cup designed and built by Tiffanys was given to the Worlds Best Sport. Sir Thomas died less than two years later. Amid aj the trophies and souvenirs that his full life had brought, that loving cup was his second most prized self-mad- pre-inflati- possession. The thing he valued most at the end of his life was a scrapbook that had thousands of notes and letters in it. Not neatly written, typed business letters or correspondence' from crowned heads and business leaders although he had many of those. No, this volume that he so cherished was notes that people had sent along with their small contributions to his cup. They were sincere, heartfelt messages of love and respect for a man who knew how to lose. Thomas Lipton never got the thing he wanted most in life. The prize to which he devoted thirty years and a large fortune eluded him. But because he played the game of yachting and life with class, what ie did get was worth much, much more. So while its true that not everyone can be a champion, everyone can at least be a winner. Sir Thomas Lipton spent 25 million dollars to discover that. We can learn the same lesson for much less. The great thing about sports is that it shapes and forms and most importantly reveals a persons character. Anyone who tries his hardest, enjoys the challenges, and accepts the outcome with grace is a winner, no matter what the scoreboard says. They may become disappointed, may be frustrated, may be discouraged. But a real sportsman will have the respect of others, and of themselves. And win or lose, thats whats really important. Pros end cons Wildlife hunting (Editors Note: The following article is the second part of a two part series on the pros and cons of banters and Copies of the entire article are available by writing to National Wildlife Federation, anti-hunte- 1412 16th . long-rang- St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20938.) Results of Thinning Does that annual thinning of the held reduce our deer population over a period of years? Experience has shown no. In 1890 there were an estimated 350,000 white-taile- d deer in the United States. Today there are more than 15 million, which is more than were here when the Pilgrims arrived. Additionally, deer are not the only species that have ' ' proliferated under sound, scientific wildlife management. The pronghorn antelope, the alligator, the sea otter, the fur seal and the trumpeter swan, have all made comebacks. In 1907 there were only about 41,000 elk; today there are a million. In about the same period, the antelope population has increased sevenfold and the wild turkey census by tenfold. Wildlife management has proved that it can reduce disastrous population highs and raise the lows. It can maintain a more stable population in the interest of both wildlife and humans. Alternative Yes, many alternatives to hunting have been proposed. Tb name a few: (l) do nothing or let nature take its course, (2) let predators do the job, (3) let professional marksmen do the job, and (4) introduce wildlife birth control. The option seems to be most appealing because it sounds so simple. As we have seen, however, it is a boom and bust method. It produces a bumper crop of animals at first. But, as population peaks, the animals especially those that browse and graze exhaust their food supplies. When undernourished if they dont simply die of starvation they are especially vulnerable to parasites (bloodsucking worms that attack stomach walls) and disease such as anthrax. Virulent anthrax can wipe out 90 percent of a deer herd within matter of days. Reestablishing larger predator population to control game animals is simply substituting predators for man, except that predators kill indiscriminately, preferring a slow, fat calf to a lean, quick deer. There has yet to be found the professional park ranger or game warden who want to work as paid executioners, and the public is apparently not ready to hire gunmen to do for money what hunters do each year for food and recreation. The fourth alternative, animal birth control, has actually been tried by the National Park Service. Oral contraceptives, tried on penned deer, in 1968, were successful; but rangers found it impossible to administer the daily doses to deer. Eveng deer refused to tually, both penned and eat bait containing the chemical. Devices similar to Intrauterine rings used by humans for birth control were tried but failed. Large amounts of estrogens and progesterones were injected into test animals and worked, but researchers were not e effects due to an able to ascertain their outbreak of disease. Hunters Provide Funds Ironically, under present law, there would be little money for such experiments, for wildlife research, or for habitat acquisition and protection, it it were not for hunters. Since 1937, hunters (who launched the conservation movement late in the 19th century) have provided the basic support for all state and federal wildlife programs through license fees and taxes on their firearms and ammunition. Fishermen have added their support through similar excise taxes on fishing gear since 1960. The federal excise taxes alone have produced more than $600 million in matching grants to state fish and wildlife agencies over the years, and the states have spent more than $100 million of this money acquiring 3.S million acres of land and water for wildlife habitat, In addition, about 42 million Americans shell out about $240 million each year for state hunting and fishing licenses. The question of hunting remains vividly entrenched in many minds. While we believe that each individual should make a personal decision as to whether to hunt, we also believe he or she should be tolerant of those who choose differently. Eastern city dwellers should not determine life styles for western ranch hands, nor southern farmers for those who live in wooded New England. It is a part of the genius of the American system that majorities do not force their will upon minorities in such matters. We are convinced beyond doubt that to abolish hunting, as proposed by some protectionists, would undermine the whole concept of wildlife management and thus be detrimental to our wildlife. In the overall conservation effort, the battle between hunters and will serve only to diminiah ' anti-hunte- rs potential accomplishments Of the conservation movement. By utilizing the directive of the old phrase Strength in Unity, conservationists can make this planet a better world for man and beast. Publichod Wct, wkly by Stahl Publications, SZSI Sou 1900 or subscription inquiries, Soy, Utah 84047. Aftlcl phonS2S-144- 4 8 MANAGMG 801708 J. HOWARD STAHLE PUBLISHER EDITOR M. GLEN ADAMS ADVERTISING MANAGER BONNIE STAHLE - Phono 828-144- 4 free-roami- free-roamin- CONTRISUTMG WRITERS KEITH DUNCAN ' JOHN PETERSON BUSS FULMER GARY TOYN DAVE CARDWELL . MONT ADAMS ' |