The Way One Sports Reporter Saw the Issue in 1932

This is from The Times of Sunday, July 31, 1932: Colored Boys Sports Threat

Athletic Prominence Grows Year After Year

Howard Drew of U.S.C. First Black Star

Metcalfe and Tolan Loom as Winners in Games

Two more Olympic Games--three at the most--and the black man will dominate American Olympic track and field teams.

He has ease and grace and natural ability without the white man’s besetting sin--tension.

No colored man is ever beaten because he ties up. The white athlete is temperamental. He strains and presses on the day of the big race and away go his chances.

There were faster men at Palo Alto--on certain days--than either (Ralph) Metcalfe or (Eddie) Tolan, but the black boys won both sprints.

The Negro is emotional to a high degree, but he is equal to do big things in a relaxed manner. This was the secret of Bobby Jones’ success on the golf links.

In the heat of the stiffest competition with thousands milling and storming about him, Bobby could still relax and play his best golf. Others cracked wide open, but Jones went sailing along on an even keel.

The black boys are the same type of competitors. They don’t press when they try hard.

Years ago, they had an inferiority complex. They are coming into their own now because they have proved to their own satisfaction that they are good competitors.

They are confident to the point of cockiness--as in the case of Metcalfe of Marquette.

Tolan, former University of Michigan Negro who holds the official world record in the 100-yard dash, is more reserved--like Howard Drew, the old University of Southern California hero.

Drew was probably the most graceful sprinter of all time. His natural ability was remarkable. If he had real nerves, he never showed them. He appeared to be coasting when he ran the 100 in 9 3-5s (9.6 seconds). This was twenty years ago.