Cycling Claremont: E. H. Smith

Don't know much about this one-time Claremontian, but I do know that in 1895 he made a respectable name for himself while racing the circuit in Wisconsin (which may also be a hint to his pre-college home), and that in 1896 he won a two-mile intercollegiate race...

Previously I wrote about the bicycle racing track at Pomona College. Since they are not identified, I do not know if one of the student racers in the photo that accompanied that post is Mr. E. H. Smith (most likely not), but from the earliest years Pomona was able to attract cycling talent like him.

On February 17, 1896 the Los Angeles Herald ran a story promoting / previewing what was being called "the greatest inter-collegiate athletic contest ever held in this part of the state." In the two-mile race Smith, "who is an old man at the business" and "holds some excellent records for bicycle races, his specialty being a swift spurt at the finish," was to be challenged by Guy Rogers of the University of Southern California, and F. C. Ensign of Chaffey College. Rogers was described as "a new man [who] has considerable grit and endurance" and was expected to be a tough competitor against Smith. Smith was also set to compete in the one-mile race against Carson Schumacher (Chaffey) and W. J. Pettit (USC). While Pettit was known as the fast man in the one-mile, Smith was the defending champion in the distance.

The one mile race was the first of the two. The race was supposed to have been tandem-paced by Charles Kirkpatrick and E. L. Weaver, "but this part of the program was a delusion, as Schumacher paced the tandem." For the first half-mile the race stayed well bunched following Schumacher. The others were not given a chance to make a move against him, and on the final lap Schumacher "simply rode away from the whole field, including the tandem." The winning time of 2-minutes 15 1/2-seconds shaved nearly 45 seconds from the 1895 time, and nearly 20 seconds from the 1894 record time of 2:34 2/5. Smith finished second, and Pettit third.

The two-mile race was a different story. The Herald reporter believed that Schumacher (both he and Pettit raced for their respective schools instead of Rogers and Ensign as originally announced) was overconfident, leading almost the entire race, and was passed by Smith at the final sprint. As in the one-mile race, the pace tandem was out-paced by the racers. Pettit withdrew from the race on the seventh lap. The winning time of 4:44 slashed the 1895 time by nearly one minute forty-five seconds.

Unfortunately there is no indication of where these races took place (possibly Athletic Field near downtown), nor any description of the track; since the "inter-collegiate contest" involved the full range of track and field events it can be assumed to have been someplace capable of hosting a range of athletics.

"Ghost Dance" the first college song of Pomona College,

written in 1896 (later rewritten as "Torchbearers").