University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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JAYHAWKER THE ELEVENTH OLYMPIAD ] Two Kansans are outstanding as Berlin plays host to the world ' s athletes AZl Germany was Iiost this summer to the world ' s topmost athletes in all sports when Berlin entertained the XI Olympiad. And although many miles of ocean separates Hitler ' s realm and the United States, Jay- hawker sports fans everywhere watched the activities in Ger- many of two famous Kansans, Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball; and Glenn Cunningham, vet- eran mile runner. Dr. Naismith, now a professor of physical education at the University of Kansas, was given the trip to the Olympic Games as a tribute from the thousands of fans in the United States who annually witness or participate in the game of basketball, which he origi- nated years ago at Springfield, Mass. The 1936 Games marked the introduction of basketball into the official roster of sports at the modern Olympics. Besides watching as many of the basketball games as he could attend, Dr. Naismith was also a witness to the 1500-meter run. It was a thrilling race, he stated. Cunningham was well back in the group when the runners jumped to a start. About the middle of the race he took the lead, but in the last lap Jack Lovelock of New Zealand shot around the turn and into the fore by five yards. Lovelock never relinquished this lead and won the race. Glenn finished second, and another Kansan, Archie San Romani of Emporia State Teachers College finished fourth behind Luigi Beccali of Italy. Although Lovelock gets credit for breaking the world ' s record in this race, the first five runners to finish the distance were clocked under the formerly accepted mark. In speaking of Glenn ' s running in this race, as well as of his competition in other contests, Dr. Naismith predicts a well-earned future for Cunningham in the field of physical education. ' Glenn is well-equipped to undertake a responsible position. He already has earned his master ' s degree and now is doing work on his doctor ' s degree. His studies, together with his vast amount of competitive experience. will give him an invaluable background for his future profession. Too, Dr. Naismith was high in his praise of Cun- ningham s rigorous training discipline, and seemed confident that the mile-runner ' s health has been unim- paired by his strenuous activity on the cinder track. And thus Dr. Naismith revealed that he is univer- sally interested in athletics, because he showed the same careful observance of the track and field events and other contests as he did of the basketball games. These games, he said, were contested among the teams of twenty-one nations. Played on five courts, the cage eliminations began on August 7. In the first round, the United States players drew a forfeit from Spain, whose team was unable to leave their country during its civil strife. Uncle Sam ' s players continued from this first-round forfeit and emerged with a string of unbroken victories to win the first Olympic basketball championship by beating Canada in the final round. Prominent in the team s success were members of the McPherson (Kans.) Oilers basketball team, who were combined with the Hollywood Universal cagers to be the official United States team. The height of these American players gave them a tremendous advantage throughout the games, stated in his second Olympiad

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OCTOBER K.U.GDDMDTHER Mrs. Ekzabeth Vatkins adds another to the list of her benefactions and a new dormitory arises on the Hill By JAMES PORTER CC I . AR bigger than her fortune. J- That is the way Chancellor E. H. Lindley described Mrs. Eliza- beth M. Watkins as he bestowed upon her a medal given by the Dorsey- Liberty American Legion Post of Lawrence for the outstanding citizen of this community last February. And she continues to grow as Lawrence ' s No. 1 Citizen, though her personal wealth is constantly diminish- ing. Last June was announced her latest gift to the University seventy- five thousand dollars for the construc- tion of a women s dormitory similar to and adjoining the present Watkins Hall, her first benefaction to Mount Oread. Mrs. YVatkins shuns publication of her benefactions. In the first place because she assumes that any other woman with her wealth and no one to leave it to would do nothing else but what she is doing. She also knows that even the mention of her gifts in publications will bring her thousands of ' begging letters from ail parts of the country which she cannot find time even to answer. Logically reasoning her largesse, she distributes her money where she feels it will do the most good for the greatest number. Elizabeth M. Miller was bom in New Paris, Ohio, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. V. G. Miller, a pioneer doctor and much-loved man in his community. When his daughter was ten years old. Dr. Miller moved to Lawrence, sending her first to the elementary and high schools and then to the University, when Fraser Hall was the only building on the campus. After gradua- tion, Elizabeth Miller was employed by the J. B. YVatkins Land Mortgage Company where she rose to the position of assistant secretary of the company. In 1909 she became Mrs. J. B. Watkins. Jabez Bunting Watkins, noted financier, railroad builder, banker and land-owner, in whose memory the Watkins Memorial Hospital was donated to the Uni- versity of Kansas, was born near Punxsutawney. Pennsylvania, June 25, 1845. Graduating with a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1869, he started practicing law in Champaign, Illinois, mostly dealing in examination of real estate titles and loans. Four years later he moved to Lawrence, where his constantly expanding business was in 1883 incor- porated and named the J. B. Watkins Land Mortgage Company. Shortly after this, Mr. Watkins went East and won the confidence of Eastern investors. He purchased a million and a half acres of Louisiana land from 1885 to 1890 for fifty cents an acre, then mortgaged it for six dollars an acre. With this profit he drained the land and it became rich rice fields. Then he built a hundred miles of railroads on his holdings. After his death in 1919, Mrs. Watkins sold the rice land to a group of Louisiana oil men for two million dollars and the railroad to the Gould System for a million dollars. In his land dealings in the South a clause in the deed of every parcel sold carried a provision that liquor should never be sold on the premises. The clause was afterwards the cause of litigation, but was upheld by the courts. During the last ten years Mrs. Vatkins has effi- ciently turned a part of the great estate which she helped Mr. Watkins to build into many projects for (Continued on Page 65)

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By J. HUBERT ANDERSON Dr. Naismith, and because the smaller players from the Asiatic and southern European countries were so overshadowed, there will in all probability be a division of classes in the next international basketball competition, in which the teams with tall players and the teams with short players will compete in separate tournaments. Dr. Naismith indicated that he was in favor of such a classification. However, even though there were inequalities of height among the players at the 1936 Games, the brand of basketball played was consistently fast and well-contested, he stated. The officiating, too, was done very nicely, said Dr. Naismith. There were four referees a Chinese, a Czechoslovakian, an American, and a Canadian. And even though minor differences occurred in the interpretation of rules, there was no crabbing among the players. ' Despite the fact that he remembered many of these details about the games and their players. Dr. Naismith could n ot recall the name of the international basket- ball association which elected him its honorary presi- dent. He finally concluded that it was some such name as the International Union of Basketball Federations. And this is a sample of his sincere interest in what other people are doing, not in the honor which comes to him as the inventor of basketball. Asked if he had any pictures of his presentation to the assembled players of the competing nations at the opening of the Olympic basketball tournament. Dr. Naismith said, VelI, now, there were a lot of pic- tures taken of me there, but I II be blessed if I know where I can lay my hands on one. Too, he treated as a matter of course the fact that he was not presented to Adolph Hitler. He was per- fectly pleased to have seen Der Feuhrer through field glasses when the German leader was kissed by an unidentified woman. Hitler first looked startled, said Dr. Naismith. Then his expression changed, and he appeared as one who might be going to take the incident good- naturedly. But he quickly regained his stern com- posure, and his guards removed the intruder. Hitler is viewed by Dr. Naismith as being a leader who assembled the proud nation of German people after they had been humiliated by the effects of the treaties made at the termination of the Vorld Var. In discussing this new German nation Dr. Naismith preferred to dwell upon the admirable characteristics of Hitler as a leader rather than upon his questionable tactics. Fairness in criticism, not diplomacy, seemed to be his reason for speaking as he did. This entire Nazi movement is a psychological reaction to a situation in which the German people found themselves, stated Dr. Naismith. Before we criticize too severely the Nazi movement we must con- sider the events which produced it. Dr. Naismith likewise spoke with fairness about the widely publicized Eleanor Holm Jarrett case. He upheld the American officials who dropped the A normal crowd at the Olympics woman swimmer from good standing, saying that the cause of clean athletics necessarily had to be foremost in a consideration of the case. Thus it was that Dr. Naismith spoke freely of other people. He spoke of their accomplishments and of their defeats all in the same tone of sincere understanding. Just so did the inauguration of basketball in Olympic sport circles represent to him progress in athletics, not fulfillment of any personal ambition.