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Show TT TAKES no subtle expert to un- derstand that tn the majority of cases that condition is one of the essential es-sential requirements in the making of a champion. But there are many arguments as to how one reaches condition along the surest road. "No, I haven't any very revolutionary revolu-tionary ideas about the training of .mi , m young athletes. I -V" 4a as' em to be sen- v.,.' , y. sible and temperate j in their eating and fN. ": adPt regular nal- 5 its for sleep and ex- I i ercise. If the aver- m"': '. ge youngster will ! , ,'' hfi&i&J I live normal life, j 'f'sl "-s eat wholesome foods iV ' anc ,3e resular in I i'Jr I V? his every day hab-I hab-I iduM.MK:ul Its there isn't going i Grantland Rice to be veI7 much wrong with him." The speaker was Dean B. Cromwell, Crom-well, famous track and Held coach at the University of Southern California. Cali-fornia. Cromwell's teams have won j so many track championships that the experts have almost quit trying J to keep track of them. I I found Dean Cromwell at historic 1 Bovard field on the Trojan campus, j the field which has sent six football foot-ball teams to the Rose Bowl without proving ground for countless national nation-al and Olympic champions of the cinderpath. the field which has turned out several prominent base-ballers base-ballers now performing in the major ma-jor and minor leagues. Mr. Cromwell Crom-well is always there, no matter what the season. Of course, Howard Jones attends to the football and Sam Barry Bar-ry bosses the baseballers but the venerable Dean, now in his thirty-second thirty-second year at Troy, keeps a weather weath-er eye on all the athletes. A Feiv Angles "We're very fortunate here in Southern California," continued Coach Cromwell, "in that the foods grown so close at hand, plus the fine sunshine, provide most of the vitamins so necessary to good health for growing youngsters. The boys come from average homes where for years they have been eating the right kind of food. "If a boy has been drinking tea or coffee and he comes to me a healthy youngster I'm not going to tell him to quit. If a boy has been a big milk drinker and be'a sound physically physi-cally I don't change his diet even If some coaches do claim that drinking drink-ing mlli Is bad for the wind." Coach Cromwell's training orders sound simple, but there happens to j be more than he reveals. He sets his foot down hard on overwork, particularly particu-larly in early season. "Many years ago we had our Inter-fraternity meets early each season.," sea-son.," said the Dean. "I found that the athletes who did exceptionally well in these December meets generally gen-erally were beaten later In the year by those who had been taking it easy at the start. Right then I barred my best athletes from these inter-fraternity meets. And I've been doing it ever since. We Just coast along for six or eight weeks, building up stamina and leading a normal life. When the big tests come in late spring and midsummer I generally find my boys In pretty good shape." Cromwell's rivals In the coaching business will add a fervent "Amen" to this statement. His Trojans have won 9 of the 13 N. C. A. A. meets in which they have competed. Including In-cluding the last 6 straight; taken top honors in the I. C. 4-A. the last 7 times they entered; and whipped Stanford In 11 out of the last 12 dual meets, to say nothing of bagging several Pacillc Coast conference crowns. Not for the Boys Cromwell believes the recent emphasis em-phasis on eastern Indoor meets is bad on the college runners. Says it is all right for the A. A. U. and the promoters who cut up the mounting mount-ing gate receipts, but states that the boys who are bearing down In January Janu-ary and February on the boards are put to too great a strain by having to be In shape clear through the summer for outdoor competition. "Ton can bring yaur athletes to a peak only twa ar three times during dur-ing a season," continued the Dean, "and these occasions most not be too far apart." I asked Coach Cromwell what world record he thought would be broken next "The high jump," he returned. "And we may have just the boy to turn the trick. The record Is now 6 feet 9 Inches. Johnny Wilson, a senior here at Southern California, I has done 8 feet 9 inches, and I I firmly believe he will hit 6-10 before be-fore the 1941 season closes." His Greatest Athletes The 60-year-old Trojan mentor, who looks and acts 21 years younger, young-er, has turned oat a long string of champions, among them Charley i Paddock, Morton Kaer, Bud tlouser, Charley Berah, Lee Barnes, Earle i Meadows and many more. He says Bud Houser, former i world's record holder In the discus and Olympic champion in both this i event and the shot put, was the ! greatest competitor he ever ii coachnd. |