Beverly Hills High School - Watchtower Yearbook (Beverly Hills, CA)

Page 11 text:

-N. li'UJ i f - 'ggi wiki! ONL WY X sri' Xth OLYMPIC GAMES LOS ANGELES 1932 Xth Olympiade Committee To the Students, Beverly Hills High School: So much advice has been given you-so many admonishments have been heaped upon you regarding your conduct following your departure from school, that I am hesitant to speak to you in the Watchtower lest a deaf ear be turned to my words. But I never see a group of young people of our present day without thinking of the youth of ancient Greece, which gave us that splendid institution, the Olympic Games-a movement older than Christianity itself, and one whose foundation is an ideal as sacred to youth today as it was to those of ancient Greece. History offers no enlightenment on the origin of these Grecian festivals, and historians have only been able to agree upon the approximate date of their revival as 774 B.C. We do know, however, that they had a religious significance, being held as they were, on the plain of Elis in a sacred grove consecrated to the supreme Grecian god, Zeus. They were celebrated quadriennially and the opening of each Olympiad marked the cessation of all hostilities among the Hellenic nations. Children were taught that a clean, sound body was the only fit abode for an alert mind. Early in life they were imbued with the Olympic ideal and a love for their city and country that surpassed the most fervent brand of patriotism any of us can manifest today. . Thanks to the energy and foresight of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a Frenchman, we have been celebrating since 1894, the modern versions of those ancient Games, preserving the same splendid ideal of clean sportsmanship and love of country that fired the Hellenic youth of past ages to give the best that was in them for the honor of their country and the glory of sport. This summer-from july 30 to August 14, to be exact-Southern California will play host to several thousand splendid young men and women representing more than two score nations. They will come here to pit their strength and prowess against that of the youth of other nations in friendly competition in fifteen diferent branches of sport. We of Southern California are indeed fortunate to be here during the Games of the Xth Olympiad of the mod' ern era, and to witness this great international sports event in a setting not unlike that of the first Olympiads. Following closely upon the completion of your school year, these fine, amateur athletes will begin arriving upon the plain of our modern Elis. On the afternoon of Saturday, Iuly 30, these young men and women will parade into Olympic Stadium, nation by nation, each headed by one of its own athletes chosen to bear their country's flag. Filing past the Tribune of Honour, they will deploy upon the held whereupon one athlete will step forward, and before a hundred thousand spectators, take the oath of an amateur athlete. President Hoover will then officially proclaim the Games open as the Olympic flag is unfurled to the breeze and the Olympic torch is lighted, proclaiming to the world that modern youth are just as eager as were those of bygone days, to ofer up their physical prowess on the altar of clean sportsmanship, for no other reward than the mythical laurel wreath. That all of you might gain from the coming Olympic Games some inspiration and somei thing that will be of help to you in your future lives is my earnest and sincere wish. 7 1L f PRESIDENT.