John Adams High School - Clipper Yearbook (Ozone Park, NY)

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16th century although it had been taught as a means of warfare for countless centuries. There is hardly any sport that possesses as long and as distin- guished a lineage as tennis. Truly, The Game of Kings, it was played enthusiastically by members of the French aristocracy. Even Napoleon himself in his leisure moments played tennis, as did his conqueror the Duke of Wellington. I would surely have liked to see the two play each other. Despite its popularity its origin baffles research. Some of the old abbeys in southern Europe seem to have had courtyards laid out as if for tennis. Some people even connect it with the game of handball that Mausicaa, the daughter of King Alcinous, played with her hand maidens. But such theories are far fetched and can be accepted with almost every type of game played with a racquet and ball. What would you do if you were an athletic instructor at a Y.M.C.A. College and between the baseball and football seasons your young men were nearly bored to death? You'd invent a new game for them to play, wouldn't you? That's what Dr. james Naesmith did. He called it basketball. In inventing this new sport the doctor used many of the elementary principles of football. Then he rigged up baskets, evolved a system of dribbling and passing the sphere from one player to another to get the ball into a safe shooting position. This became so popular a game at the school that soon after, schools all over the country began to play it. So we see that organized competitive play has developed into necessity for our social world. It is th-ought by many that sports competition on an international basis is one of the best guarantees of progressive civilization. - They sit there on the yellow benches With their tired, yellow faces. The train sways, tilting with its speed And slides along the slippery tracks. Above, the tinted ads are looked upon By rows of solemn yellow faces. George Bogin 'Vii-IE iliII'l'L1ldl5

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'-'- PLAY THAT GAME I BY ALBERT Rook Q ibm. f ll he past century has seen the de- velopment of many new ideas connected with the great task of equip- ping the future generations for the positions they will hold in later life. One of the foremost is the belief that participation in com- petitive sports tends to build up lasting physical and moral fiber. The truth of this statement becomes evident when we consider the fine examples of manhood that took part in the last Olympic games. Despite its benefits many people contend that we are placing too much emphasis on athletics instead of engaging in other more constructive enterprises. However, in my estimation this is not so. Anything that has lasted as long as the idea of sports cannot but cleserve a prominent part in our social system. Nevertheless, despite this new great use to which healthful activi- ties are being put, as I have said, the sports themselves are not new. There is absol-utely nothing modern about sports, or for that matter the so-called sports frenzy that is sweeping the world. More than 2,000 years ago the now famous sport of football was played in Greece. It was then called Harpastan and is translated by Greek students as meaning the forward pass. Then too, football was played in England for centuries despite the decrees of kings against it as being too mild for the rugged training of soldiers. It was brought to America by the colonists, who, in their hearty English manner gave it new p-opularity. The first Monday of the fall term at both Harvard and Yale came to be known as Bloody Monday, because it signified the start -of the football season. Even the most modern of sports games, golf, dates back to somewhere in the fourteenth century, with both Scotland and Holland lighting for the honor of having fostered this exciting game. Fenc- ing, which is like golf in that it promotes wonderful balance, rhythm, co-ordination and precision, must have begun as a sport in the early ll-L'I'l-:E iI...lI'l'lil-Q

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DILEMMA Our life is but a mystery, And we, the mystified, Scan the pages of historyg And to our wondering gaze, O'er men and deeds now glorified, All seems a winding maze. To what doth this labyrinth lead? What means our dreary past? From tranquil realms of silent dead Doth some response arise? Are we to endless torment cast, Or rise we on wings to azure skies? Unanswered may our question be, In patience we but wait, Until mid glory we shall see Things that are now concealed. For in that heavenly state These mysteries will lie revealed. William Yozmg l-r's--nE- 1n.un'z 1..n4