Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 271

the football team rose to the occasion by defeating R. P. 1. in the game that was the excuse for dedicating Alumni Field. The 1915 baseball team was equally noteworthy in winning from Stevens its first game on the new field. A victory over Norwich was its only other achievement.

The Worcester college flashed into sports fame in the winter of 1914-15. The relay team with two veterans, Warren, '15, and Russell, '15, two new runners, Ricker, '16, and Cleveland, '16, won such decisive victories over New Hampshire, Boston College, M. A. C. and Tufts that they were invited to enter the Penn Relays. There they were pitted against the teams of N. Y. U., Carnegie, Haverford, Ohio Wesleyan, New York Law, and Hamilton. They not only won a sparkling race, but improved the Tech mile-relay record by four seconds. The following spring the track squad won decisive victories over Mass. Aggies, Trinity, and Rensselaer.

The opening of the 1915 football season was particularly encouraging. Tech won its first three games, from Connecticut, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Injuries and flukes prevented the team from gaining more than one more victory, over Norwich, in the succeeding six games. This season's results were so unusual, however, that a football banquet was held in December, with numerous speeches and the award of insignia. The relay team that winter was not the equal of its predecessors, winning only one of three races. The spring track team, however, nearly made a clean sweep, winning from Colby, New Hampshire, and Mass. Aggies, losing a close meet with Holy Cross. The 1916 baseball team showed improvement but won less than half its games.

Although unable to do better than tie Norwich in the opening game, the 1916 football team got some satisfaction out of holding Holy Cross to a 9 to 6 score in the final game on Alumni Field. That fall basketball was revived, after a six-year lapse, but only as an intramural sport, the Class of '20 winning the interclass and Lambda Chi Alpha the interfraternity crown. Another activity that aroused considerable

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999