HOME OF THE FAMOUS ACMES Born in a barn and matured in a Chinese
wash-house, the Acme Athletic Club
02 Dec 1893, Sat
The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California)
Newspapers.com
HOME OF THE FAMOUS ACMES
An Oakland Club Which Houses Champions of all Descriptions
PYRAMIDS MADE A SPECIALTY.
How the Influential Amateur Organization From Small Beginnings Became an
Affair of Vast Importance - Personnel of Those Who Have Achieved Fame In
Different Departments of Sport
Born in a barn and matured in a Chinese wash-house the
Acme Athletic Club
of Oakland has risen to such importance that it is now able to produce at
least as good athletes as those turned out by the famous
Olympic Club
of San Francisco. Some of the Acmes championship men have won their laurels
from the Olympic champions and the intervention of several years has not been
enough to regain for that organization its lost honors.
The Acme Club of to-day has some remarkable athletes among its members. In
athletic sports of all kinds as well as bicycling, aquatics and the more
difficult pyramid building the symbol of the winged acorn has never had to
take second place and the boys are determined that it never will.
The early history of the club is as interesting as its later development into
the fore most athletic organization in Alameda county. Way back in the fall of
1881 a handful of young men living in the vicinity of
Sixth and Alice streets
with nothing to occupy their time after school rigged up a swinging trapeze in
an oak tree in
De Witt Van Court's
back yard, and this broomhandle trapeze, together with an ancient pair of
boxing gloves, were the only apparatus the club owned.
The members of the club at that time were: DeWitt C. Van Court.
Eugene Van Court, O. C. Musser,
George Faulkner
and
J. M. Polk, all being neighbors and living within a few blocks of the Van Court
residence. The early meetings of the club were held in the Van Court back yard
whenever the rain permitted. In course of time the boys obtained permission
from Mrs. Dr. Lafevre [Lefevre] to use the loft of a barn close by. The roof of this barn was so low that
but one member could exercise at a time, and while he was busy swinging clubs
or two others were boxing the rest of the club sat down and did their best to
keep out of the way. From this early stage the club progressed by steady
growth until it was able to rent an old China washhouse at the corner of
Eighth and Webster streets. Here the membership was increased by the admission of Tim Scanlon, Ed
Merwin, Rufus Hepburn, Ross Hardy and John F. Conners. Those, with the
original members, afterwards became charter members when the Acme Athletic
Club was formed.
From this time on the club grew rapidly, moving first to College Hall, at
the corner of
Twelfth and Harrison streets, and later to the old Synagogue building on Fourteenth street, which had
been especially fitted up for the club's use. It was less than a year ago
that the club moved into its own building, on Twelfth street, near Broadway,
and its progress since it was first organized has been little short of a
marvel.
One of the best features of the club has been its selection of officers. It
always has had progressive men to direct it. When the club became important
enough to have a boxing master of its own Walter Watson of England, who held
the rank of champion boxer of America at the time, was installed in that
all-important position. Watson also taught the young men of the Olympic Club
how to defend themselves, and on every Acme class night Watson brought an
Olympic pupil of his across the bay to box with the Acme men. The records
yet fail to show an occasion on which an Olympia boxer went home victorious.
It was these matches with the Olympics that gave the Acme Club its first
standing in the community, and ever since that time the two clubs have held
many an interesting tournament together. It was at one of these tournaments
that
Jack Kitchen
of the Acme Club became the first champion the club ever had. He won from
the Olympic Club the title of amateur heavyweight champion boxer of the
Pacific Coast. Kitchen has held this title for about three years, and since
that time championships have been liberally distributed among the club
members, until now the walls of the clubrooms are literally lined with
life-size photographs of champions, who have won fame in every branch of
athletics, from tests of strength in gymnasium and field to feats of
endurance in a swimming tank.
One of the club's most interesting features, and which never fails to afford
pleasure to its lady visitors, is the acrobatic band that form the pyramid
tableaux. The members of this corps are Jack Kitchen and James Fox, the
club's two champion boxers; Charlie Andrews, champion wrestler: Harry
Maxwell,
E. S. Dowdle,
Willis Sharpe
and Carlisle Coey. These tumblers have eighteen forms of pyramids they make
with lightning rapidity. The men are all dressed in white, with powdered
wigs, and on exhibition nights they resemble so many statues, so perfect is
their work.
|
Carlyle Coey.
Everett Dowdle.
James Fox. Charles Andrews.
Willis
Sharpe. Jack Kitchen.
Henry Maxwell.
PYRAMID CLASS OF THE ACME
CLUB OF OAKLAND.
[From a photograph.]
|
One of the most interesting groups consists of Dowdle "doing a crab" on the
backs of Sharpe and Kitchen, with the little Coey boy perched at the top of
the group, and the others grouped picturesquely around. Then there is the
"single strong man," in which Kitchen supports three men pyramid wise, while
the others are grouped around in graceful attitudes.
|
ONE OF THE MANY PYRAMIDAL COMBINATIONS IN WHICH THE ACMES EXCEL.
[From
a photograph.]
|
The "double strong man" is similar to the latter, except that the pyramid is
supported by Kitchen and Sharpe. Then there is the regular pyramid, which is
built three men high. There are nearly twenty of these tableaux, and all of
them differ in some particular from the others.
The Acme Bicycle Club has done its part to keep up the record of the club.
The club has over one hundred members, and has the following officers: De
Witt C. Vancourt, Captain;
George F. Neece, First Lieutenant;
Theodore Schleuter, Second Lieutenant;
O. L. Pickard, Bugler.
The bicycle annex was organized in June, 1891, and at a public meet given on
November 26, 1891, all the previous Pacific Coast records were lowered.
Waller, the phenomenal long distance rider who was brought out by the Acme
Club, one day suggested that he guessed he would break the world's record
for twenty-four hours. A short while after, on June 10, 1892, he started at
the Alameda track and succeeded in establishing the world's record for that
distance with ease. His distance for twenty-four hours was 363 miles and
1,490 [1,590] yards.
The Acme's bicycle team which won the EXAMINER trophy in the relay race of
last May consisted of ten men who rode from San Francisco to Oakland in 5
hours 48 minutes and 51 1/2 seconds. The ten men were J. A. Sampson, H. A.
Maxwell, M. F. Rose, Grant Bell, J. A. Howard, George A. Faulkner, A.
Belding, Theodore Schlueter, J. B. Harris and George F. Neece.
"The
Trampers' Annex" is the name by which the club's cross country club is known. J. W.
Finigan is Captain of this organization; J. Williamson, First Lieutenant; J.
M. Polk, Second Lieutenant, and
James Shanley,
C. H. Lutkey and Harry Germain constitute the walking club's commissary
department.
The championship list of the Acme Club becomes longer as each year goes by.
From the time that Jack Kitchen captured the Pacific Coast amateur
heavy-weight championship to the present nearly all the championships worthy
of note have been taken by members of the club.
"Billy" Gallagher, who was once the Acme's champion welter-weight, is now
professional, so the club has had to drop his name, but his picture still
has an honored place among those of the other club members of note. Then
there is James Fox, the Pacific Coast champion feather weight boxer, and
Eugene Van Court, the club's light weight wrestler.
Of the wheelmen, George A. Faulkner holds the Pacific Coast record for a
twenty-five-mile road race.
B. C. Lund, who rides an "ordinary," has the State championships for two, three and
five miles respectively, and Grant Bell, another speedy wheelman, holds the
State championship for five-mile safeties.
Edward Hartley, up to the time of the advent of Dana Thompson, was the Coast
champion half-mile swimmer, doing his record in 15 minutes and 29 seconds.
Thompson, who bids fair to hold the world record, is now the club's
champion, having a record of 12 minutes and 47 seconds.
The present officers of the Acme Club have done a great deal to make the
organization the important one that it is.
M. A. Whidden, Auditor of Alameda county, is the club's President. George F. Neece is
Vice-President, J. M. Polk Recording Secretary, L. W. Hardie Treasurer, C.
H. Lutkey Financial Secretary, and the Board of Directors consists of H. R.
French, J. Kitchen Jr., Charles Hannan, James Shanley, G. A. Faulkner and J.
W. Finigan.
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