Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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BWEIHH THE MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES N JUNE, IS94, there met at Paris a committee which had been appointed to place competitive athletics on an international scale. This International Olympic Games Committee, as it was called, resolved that games should be held every fourth year in a different country. It was decided that the first Olympic should be held in 1896 at Athens, in the ancient stadium where the Creeks vied with each other for athletic supremacy hundreds of years before. The program, which bore little resemblance to that of the Greeks, consisted of track and field contests, gymnastics, wrestling, tennis, pole climbing, fencing, rifle and revolver shooting, weight lifting, swimming, bicycle racing, and the Marathon, which is considered as the most important. As the Marathon has always been the greatest feature, it was fitting that a Greek, running over the same course that his famous countrymen traversed, should win the race. As for the rest of the contests, there was little doubt as to the victor. The United States sent five men from Boston and four from Princeton, who, although they were by no means the greatest in America, won every event they entered. Since that time America has never lost the track and field competition. The third Olympic was held here in St. Louis, the Americans winning every track and field event except the fifty-six pound weight throw. For the first time races were held for aborigines. There were American lndians, Afri- cans, lVloros, Patagonians, Syrians, and Filipinos. The American Indians lived up to the standards of their white comrades by making the best showing, but their records were far inferior to those of the white men. ln the succeeding years America's great majority of victories in the track and field contests has decreased so much that it is doubtful whether we shall win next year. ln i924 Finland took second place and promises a strong team for the next games. It is to the l924 Olympic that we turn with pride, for three contestants were former McKinley graduates. These three men, who were trained by our famous coach, lVlr. Castleman, were Kinsey, Murchison, and Johnson. Kinsey won the l I0 meters high hurdle race, out-distancing all other competitors. Johnson won his first heat in this event but failed to place in the final race. Loren Murchison, after winning his preliminary heat, raced to sixth place in the finals of the l00 meters dash. It is hoped that all three of these men will do as well or better next year. Kinsey is already training for the all-around championship, which he hopes to win. The next Olympic will be held next year in Holland. The games will be watched with more interest than the preceding ones, because the fair sex will compete in track and field. America cannot have too good a team this year, for the other countries have taken increased interest in athletics during the last three years. E Ieuen

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38.721346 scribed training and would compete with fairness. The games took place up to the last day, when, in front of the temple, the victors received the crowns of wild olive, the only prizes. Afterwards they were banqueted by the State of Elis. The crown of wild olive was so highly esteemed that a victor in the Olympic games was regarded as bringing glory, not only to himself, but to his family and even the city or state to which he belonged. On returning to his native city he was honored with a triumphal procession and heard his praises celebrated in lyric verse. ln addition to this, special privileges were conferred on him for life. A place of honor was allowed him in all public assemblies, and even statues were erected to him. At Athens they were maintained for the rest of their life at public cost. The ancient Olympic games died out during the fourth century A. D., and were not revived until IS96, when the first of a new series, the Modern Olympic Games, was played in Athens. HERMAN BRAECKEL. I so l OLYMPIC FORMER STARS MCKINLEY STUDENTS FRANKLIN JOHNSON-DAN KINSEY Tm

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1 ,WY LOREN MURCHISON This increased interest proves that the international athletic competition has taken hold in all countries. Nearly every country in the world has sent a representative to the committee to arrange for the participation of their athletes. The games have done as much to promote friendly relations between foreign countries as any other one thing. Germany applied for a place in the i924 Olympic, before her diplomats thought of taking part in political relations with other countries. Perhaps in the future, disputes between foreign countries will be settled by athletics instead of war. - l'lere's to the Olympic Games! Long may they exist as an international expression of the spirit of playl As one poet formerly said: ln featis of mastries bestowe some diligence. To ryde, run, leap, or cast by violence, Stone, barre, or plummett or such other thinge lt not refuseth any prince or kyngef' HUNT WILSON. T wel ue