Sportsmen of Other Days.

I had a caller the other day. He asked me if I was the person responsible for the “Panorama of the Playground” in the “Railways Magazine.” I pleaded guilty and he extended his right hand. “I'm glad to meet you; but I thought you'd be a much older man! My name is Hannan. I used to do a bit of rowing.” It was one of those unexpected pleasures which occasionally fall to the lot of sports writers, and I felt honoured by the visit of Paddy Hannan, formerly world champion professional sculler. He thought I was an older man…. I thought him to be in the early forties when I saw him; but was told he was 53 years old! Good living and participation in a fine sport, had helped Hannan to retain his youthful carriage. Hannan is a credit to New Zealand, and with half-a-century behind him Paddy is stroking a steady oar towards the century. He is the type of man who could be used to New Zealand's advantage in the scheme for the improvement of the physical welfare of New Zealanders.

Not a week goes by but I meet an old-time athletic star, and, in nine cases out of ten, they carry themselves erect and are clear of eye. Paddy Hannan's visit was followed by the visit of that old-timer, Jack Chase, who is also known as a boxing trainer. It was fifteen years since I had seen Jack Chase—at Wairoa, where I was held up by impassable roads—but he hadn't aged a day in the interim. A few months earlier, I had renewed acquaintances with George Muhleison, a 74-year-old veteran cyclist, who once held the Brisbane to Sydney cycle record of 5 1/2 days; I had been chatting to Bill Thomson, New Zealand's premier road cyclist of 40 years ago, and had been chatting to Jack Cusacks, now over 70 years old, but still an active referee of hockey matches. I wondered—do these athletes never grow old?—The answer is that they have all learned the great lesson of sport.—Sport is only a means to an end. Sport is only useful to the community, and the individual, when it teaches the human being to appreciate the value of good health. Clean living is essential for athletic success and the clean habits formed during the athletic careers of the old-timers have stood the test of passing years.