Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-10-20 | Page 14 | Athletics Aid in Allied Dirve Yanks Show Effect of Training

Athletics Aid in Allied Drive 4 Yanks Show Effect of Training In One Unit and in One Week 6857 Soldiers Have Participated in Sports; Competitions Rank From Volley Ball to More Strenuous Games. fHAT is putting the "pep" into the push toward Berii; which the Yanks rr . aLe g'lv.l?g Kaiser Bill's bad boehes? Athletics certainly are helping, now? By raising the morale and the muscle of the American fighters. In one unit and in one week in Prance, 6835 soldiers participated iu athletic sports, iney Bad ib,Jo spectators, meaning that for every six soldier spectators there was one soldier participant. Better record than baseball or football has in the United States, ne crest pas? Brought on Muscle. JJOW did the sports rank in popularity among the soldiers? Volley ball fiA Camf first' . BasebaI1 was secoud. Boxing was on the limb. Track and held sports were just out of the money. Basketball was fifth. Indoor baseball, soccer, Rugby, tennis, etc., were in the ruck mnfAhletnC5 ,s,urely are Putting muscie and "pep" into the young men who must handle the rifles artillery, grenades, spades and other implements of .Besldfs. this, there is the high morale generated by the tingling high spirits and good health which blesses the well-exercised body 4-! nnntr! fl?us above with a world's series baseball game, where iT spectators watch eighteen men contest, or a Yale-Harvard football frame "here the Yale "bowl" held 70,000 fans, while twenty-two men strugelfd to nTiVUpre?aV 01d and John Harvard. Contrast it with Tboxing championship match, where a "gate" of upward of $100,000 witnessed a bout between two men. Consider the greater advantage, the deswead benefit of sports involving one contestant to every six spectators. wluespreaa DeneI,t the figures are furnished by the Young Men's Christian assnchrinr, nn. of the organizabons which assumed the responsibility of spread n aZ' athletics ath-letics among as many of our soldiers as would respond to the opponuuX The ouug Men's Christian association was the pioneer to make everyone fret one of Hsirst acts'w t ! Vlumbus "o overseas work one of its first acts was to purchase and ship tons of athletic equipment TJd o the present the "Y" provided hundreds of athletic directors, recced from The B&SSSfii f l "'l" rnerat,i0BS' and ton3 f porting paraphernalia The Knights of Columbus, starting a little later, is developing a similar tiro gram. Directors use everv art to i. t.h hl,Uj tiU Zil & . ,PT? sokher into the .game, for the goo3 of his body and hU Si 1 tremeudous aid to the winmng of the war. The "V" and the Knights of Columns men IlaTn1 f mGU in tLnfoU,SebvUeSloTa . Figures on Baseball. HE figures, based on the activities of one unit, show the result. They were taken in a comparatively small region and were selected it mnnm ball engaged the attention of3 men of this region tl AC'.Tn were vt-tuessed by 12,000 men, which would, be considered a very good weekly attendance for a minor league and as many spectators as a b ASe Jam n! the second division often draws in seven dRys Here the nroDor tin? nf iw o spectators is pne to ten, while in league' baseball f t VoZ he one to S ofliy1 nUmler ea oS th ? diamond: voJiby balJ, probably the most popular game for soldiers, cneaeed IfifH players, with a large gallery. Boxing ranked third in popularity gth 107 men participating, while 9000 soldiers looked on. Compare that oZe -to Ikl average with a big fist fight crowd viewing the efforts of two men TenSS exercised 227 men, while 805 participated in track and field snorts Basketball ngaged 79S soldiers while indoor baseball, so.-cer and Rugby football work? 1 the muscles and minds of hundreds. Just, as Waterloo was wnSJffi jrieket and football fields, so this war may be doS Of the clean-living, hard-hitting American boys. c contests