TRACK ATHLETICS WITH YALE.

Harvard track teams in general have been successful since college track athletics came into prominence in the early '80's. The first Mott Haven Cup was brought to Cambridge twelve years ago and is now in the Trophy Room at the Hemenway Gymnasium, and the first dual cup presented by Harvard and Yale graduates in 1890 to become the possession of the college winning a majority of meets in nine years, may be seen in the same room. The records show that at present Harvard stands an even chance of winning the second Mott Haven cup, as they credit Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania with four victories each, with two more years to terminate the competition. In regard to the second dual cup, which has seven more years to be competed for, each university has won one leg.

For many years Harvard's reputation on the track was up-held by a few stars who possessed the happy faculty of invariably carrying all before them. In those early days of track athletics, before college enthusiasm for that branch of sport was roused, it was not unusual for Harvard to be represented in the dual games with Yale by a team of not more than a dozen men. In fact, not many more than that number took the trouble to train for the team. Fortunately such a condition of affairs is entirely unknown today. It took only one or two defeats to prove the foolishness of depending upon a small number of particular stars to pull out a set of closely contested games, and the result today is that as early as January a squad of about 200 men begins serious and healthy training for the dual games which are held in May.

During the period of five years just ended, Harvard proved her superiority on the track by defeating Yale three times, and last year by winning the Mott Haven games. There seems to be no logical reason why Harvard track teams should not more than hold their own in the future. The successes of the last five years were not brought about in a haphazard way; they were not "lucky" successes, but the result of careful study and experimenting. It may safely be said now that the methods of training Harvard track teams are well systematized and that there will be no radical changes in the immediate future.

Although Harvard won a majority of the last five meets with Yale, the period did not pass without teaching its lessons. In '97 the team which went to New Haven was overwhelmingly defeated, principally because it was out of condition on account of having competed with the University of Pennsylvania one week before. Since that year it has been Harvard's policy to hold only two sets of out-door games previous to the meet with Yale,--the Class Championships and the 'Varsity games. In '98, '99, 1900 and 1901 every man entered the dual games in prime condition, and in the first three cases fortune favored Harvard. In 1901, though the team was defeated at New Haven by the close score of 57 to 47, it won the Mott Haven games at New York, making the unusual record of scoring points in ten of the thirteen events. Two important factors in the