Last of Jim Tharpe's Records Fall

Last Of Jim Tharpe's Records Falls

by ROBERT A. WHITT, JR., '51

When Allen Saville raced to a 4: 21.8 mile on April 1 7 in a meet with East Carolina, the last of Lester E. "Jim" Tharpe 's three longstanding marks was erased from the track records of University of Richmond. On May 23, 1925, forty-two years ago, Tharpe had set the record, winning the South Atlantic Championships mile in 4:22. 6.

Tharpe, undoubtedly the Spiders' greatest trackman, set records for the 440, 880, and mile while winning 44 of 48 dual meet races and seven of eight South Atlantic Meet events during his career from 1924 to 1927. He was undefeated as a junior and senior and was beaten in only one meet by an opponent- edged by Joe Enslow of Maryland in 1925' in both the 440 and 880. Three times he finished second to teammates. His 51 wins in 56 outdoor races are the most ever posted by a Spider. In his 4 year carrer he also won several South Atlantic A.A.U. Championship titles.

In setting the mile record Tharpe whipped a field of competitors from ten colleges, winning by 75 yards: He likely would have lowered it if he could have concentrated on the event but ran the mile in only three dual meets, being more valuable to the team doubling in the quarter and half.

Tharpe's half-mile record of 1 :56.8 was also set in 1925, in a meet with Virginia Tech. His 440 mark was 49.8 against Johns Hopkins in 1926.

All three of the records withstood the challenges of Spider runners for over three decades, even though the holder had offered a beautiful silver cup to the man breaking any of the marks. The 440 was the first to fall when Ted Masters won the 1958 Big Six race in 49.2 (lowered to 49.1 by ace sprinter Bob Crute this year) . (Masters is now teacher principal at Woodrow Wilson School in Portsmouth.)

Saville, co-captain with Crute, broke the 880 standard in 1965- 1 :55.8 in SC Meet trials. He has lowered the mark three times, holding the record now at 1 :53.0. No one threatened the half-mile record until Saville came along, but Spider distance stars Bill Lumpkin, '37, Owen Gwathmey, '42, and Warren Chukinas, '58, came close to the mile mark. Lumpkin still holds the indoor two-mile school record (9:30.4 in 1937 SC Indoor Meet) .

Saville, like Tharpe, probably would have lowered the mile record even more if he could have competed in the event regularly. He ran it in only five dual meets, winning each time but conserving his energy to double up in the half . In addition to the races in which he set records Saville says, "Winning the mile relay in this year's Southern Conference Meet stands out." He anchored the quartet which lowered the meet record more than two seconds with a 3: 16.3 clocking. "Jim" Tharpe, a native of Luray, Va., almost didn't get a chance to go to college, dropping out of high school after one year to go to work during World War I. After the war he entered Fork Union Military Academy and was started on his brilliant career by Mac Pitt, then coach at the Academy.

Pitt clearly recalls, "The headmaster suggested that I give young Tharpe an opportunity to make the team. The track was laid out around the flag pole- his practice times were almost unbelievable, even under those makeshift conditions." Pitt took him to big time schoolboy meets where he won the indoor 600 and 880 at Baltimore and the 1000 yard run at Washington, and scored a point in the National AAU meet 880 at Chicago.

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THE LAST THARPE RECORD FALLS. When Allen Saville (right) edged Charles Hudson of East Carolina in 4:21.8 in the mile, he erased the great Lester E. (Jim) Thorpe's University of Richmond mark of 4:22.6 that had stood since 1925. Saville also lowered Thorpe's record in the half-mile, set in a dual meet with Johns Hopkins' (below).

So They Say

Edited by JAMES A. SARTAIN

"Writers of fiction used to confront ultimate left thumb or something." realities, but now they confront their

"People want to be * * shocked when they go to the theater. They * * don't want to see a

Sunday School lesson." "A self-described * * * * agnostic in college, Russell H. Conwell embraced Christianity during the Civil War when he was left on a battlefield for dead." 11The indifference of the * * * * suburbanites to the problems of the central city is sort of like your arm saying, 'Sorry to hear the rest of me has heart trouble.'"

The p:rovocative statements above were made by four University of Richmond faculty members at the Alumnae-Alumni College on May 12. Clifford Dowdey, celebrated author and lecturer in creative writing, Alton Williams, associate professor of speech and dramatic arts, Mary Louise Gehring, dean of Westhampton College, and James A. Sartain, associate professor of sociology, organized their talks around the theme of the weekend, "Affluent Turmoil. "

Mr. Dowdey answered his own question, "What's wrong with contemporary literature?", by stating that it doesn't deal with real people in the sense of authentic people. Instead he said, "Modern fiction writers take aspects of persons and develop them in vaporous nuances, but real people are no longer the subjects of literature." In the past novels dealt with one of three themes -the relation of man and God, the relation of man to his environment, or the relation of man to himself. The basic theme today, however, is "non-man in relation to nothing."

Mr. Dowdey also predicted the end of the professional freelance writer with this generation, because "the independent mental worker is almost an anachronism today. You almost have to be affiliated with a system to gain any kind of security."

Today's society is seeking for some sort of inner certainty, some sort of value system to replace the old absolutes, which can no longer be absolute in our society. Mr. Dowdey concludes that the contemporary writer cannot address himself to this question because "he is a peripheral citizen in a society structured around corporate life. The writer cannot understand the corporate life because, by the nature of his craft, he is outside it."

Professor Williams took as his theme his view that the theater should mirror the times, and he sees the theater of today as "a revolt against the prudish confines of the Victorian era." He used the film "BlowUp" as an example of a film which explores the theme of "the confusion of illusion and reality experienced by many people leading jaded, bored existences today." It reflects our society today in that people want a thrill and don't know how to get it.

He feels that the old Pollyanna story and the good wholesome sentimental story have lost their edge, while the lurid and shocking appeal to the public. He predicted, however, "a future revolt against this kind of story and a return to the good human stories."

Dean Gehring's lecture was based on the life of Russell H. Conwell, soldier, newspaperman, lawyer, author, preacher, educator, and lecturer. Conwell is best remembered as the founder of Temple University and the author of the lecture, "Acres of Diamonds ." Although he was "not a particularly creative person," his ideas, Dean Gehring said, "reflected what the people of his day thought." In a scholarly fashion she traced the development of Conwell's economic philosophy from his support of individualism, equality of opportunity, and the promise of well-being under a profit economy to his warning of the dangers of "encroaching corporations" and his questioning of the amassing of great fortunes by individuals at the expense of the working man.

Dean Gehring concluded by asking, "What manner of man was Russell H. Conwell? Did he mine those acres of diamonds? Is he a man for all generations? As for me, I can only conclude that he was a man of prodigious energy and vitality in word and deed, that he did voice the

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t " --._,,~ i

NON -MAN IN RELATION TO NOTHING . Literature "no longer deals with real people as authentic peop le," says Clifford Dowdey in lamenting what he considers the sad state of contemporary writing.