Page:History of Oregon Newspapers.pdf/502

Rh matter-of-fact paragraph, written the next day, apparently, but published simultaneously with the foregoing:

"Recovered. —The pedestrian Brady has entirely recovered. After a night's rest he became as good as new."

The least he could have done for the jittery scribe would have been, one would say, to suffer a nervous breakdown. Within a few weeks he was off on another indoor hike, which the reporter took much more calmly. In the 60's Portland already had become Oregon's largest city, and it was the center of sports activity. H. R. Kincaid's Oregon State Journal in Eugene ran even less sports news than the other papers. Hunting and fishing received more attention than any other sports in this paper's first volume (1864). Here is the first bit of sports news found in the paper (July 23, 1864):

"Every few days parties go out from here on hunting and fishing expeditions, to the mountains and streams above here. They invariably have any amount of fun, and usually return with plenty of game, fowl, or fish. A fishing party returned yesterday, but we didn't see any fish—none to speak of."

The State Journal gave considerable attention to mountain-climbing, noting (August 6, 1864) the successful ascents of Editor T. J. Dryer of the Oregonian and party to the summit of Mount Hood in the 50's. Another item taken from The Dalles Mountaineer published on the same day, crediting a Mr. Ayers with making the ascent and referring to "his airy height" as "a point never reached before," was introduced by a paragraph referring to Mount Hood as "the highest point of land in the United States." This was before the federal scientific party had climbed the mountain and fixed its altitude.

Throughout the 60's hunting led all sports in the amount of attention given it in the State Journal—probably because of the lack of organization of such other sports as baseball and the non-recognition of boxing as legitimate sport. The Journal did its part in getting baseball started. Note this little suggestion (June 22, 1867): "Why not Rave a baseball club in Eugene? There is not a town on the river below here but what has an organized club." Note, incidentally, that the river was the geographic center and point of departure of those times.

Three weeks later the State Journal was able to record the success of its effort to get baseball under way in Eugene. The start was told in the following item, which, brief as it is, was one of the longest bits of sport news published in that paper its first ten years of life: