Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-10-20 | Page 14 | Indoor Sports Crippled as Nation's Youth Fight

Indoor Sports Crippled as Nations Youth Fight NEW YORK. Oct. 19. Indoor athletic activity will be mighty quiet this war winter. A few board floors may creak beneath the tread of flying feet, but they will be few and far between. Most of the Indoor athletics will probably prob-ably be limited to the schoolboy classes. Only one club in the entire metropolitan district, expects to give any serious consideration con-sideration to tho holding of an open athletic ath-letic meet that Is the Mlllrosc Athletic association. The factor that looms large, in the matter mat-ter of holding open meets Is the scarcity .of human material for the various events. In another three months it is thought that the ranks of the amateur athletes Will be so thoroughly thinned out by war service that it will be practically impossible impos-sible to gather even bare skeleton fields for the various open A. A. U. contests. con-tests. This means, of course, that anv club organized intercollegiate competition be-I be-I fore the fall of next year There is the possibility that rather than let a year pass without holding their meet the Penn men will stage the games as a schoolboy show next spring. Alter the great showing made bv the youngsters from the prep, schools at the 1918 games there can be no doubt but that a carnival devoted to Interscholastic relay events and a few individual contests con-tests for college students would prove a highly successful athletic enterprise There is no doubt either that an attempt at-tempt to stage intercollegiate championship champion-ship relay races next spring would prove a positive farce. The competition at the Penn relays was poor enough last sprint when the University of Pittsburg won' three championship races solely because of the fact that Frank Shea, running her anchor relay, could stake any man that started against him in the three contests to forty-five yards In the quarter-mile dash. attempting to hold senior events during the coming winter will have to depend upon service events for the greater part of Its program. It is Just possible that the MUIrose A. A., seeking to hold its place In the winter sport calendar, will put on an all-service and schoolboy carnival, car-nival, such as enabled the hustling organization or-ganization to turn over some ?3500 to the war department commission 011 training camp activities last winter. Outside of New York the indoor game will be dead, for In all of the smaller cities the college athletes are the big card at Indoor games. At the national championship gathering at Chicago recently re-cently there was some talk that the Meadowbrook club of Philadelphia will attempt to stage Its annual Indoor meet next winter, but of this report there Is no r-onfirmation. There Is little doubt, however, but that the Philadelphia Wanamaker oaulza-tion oaulza-tion would put on Its Indoor games and turn over every cent of the profits for the benefit of our fighting men if It could secure a suitable place In which to hold the games. The Meadowbrook club Is In a rcjl ,,--,.,,(... In thio Tk. Bltuatfon Is -that there Is not an armory in Philadelphia tha t wil sea t a. big enougfi crowd to pay the traveling expenses ex-penses of the multitude of stars that President Dallas brings to the Quaker t'ltv annually for his meet. The t wo buildings that will fill the bill In the matter mat-ter of seating capacity are being used at this time by the United States government govern-ment for war purposes. .So the Meadowbrook Meadow-brook dub is decidedly up a tree. The 1flf Penn relays are a long way ahead, but not so far away hut wh.it the University of Pennsylvania athletic officials are giving a bit of thought to them mow and then. At this wri! lng the outlook lor I he holding of I he games looks very dubious. du-bious. By all the signs there will he no real colTege1 teams available next spring. ESven should the kalfter a indicate indi-cate tomorrow, and peace come within a rrf v,nUr thorw rotjM h i Mlv ho :,n-