THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX. PORTLAND, NOVE3IBER 26, 1922
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' XMv n TT WT -14 W ' ' -i " Jack Cody, Maker, of Cham-
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?Happy"Knehn, World's Cham
pion Fancy Diver.
BY DeWITT HARRY.
ORTLAND is the fancy diving
center of the country and the
. Pacific coast the recognised in-
enbator for kings of the nation's swim-'
mers and divers," stated a well-known
national sporting authority, and then he
went on with the real important part of
his little speech. "Jack Cody of the
Multnomah Athletic club is the one man
more than others who is responsible."
So, people of Portland, 'let's render
homage where homage is due, let's see
what, manner of man is tnis Cody and
what he has done.
Of all the proud records of world
fewimming coaches none can excell that
made by dody. He has shown the goods,
his pupils have brought home the bacon,
he has' set the world the latest styles in
diving and Cody -trained swimmers and
divers have annexed the .most sought
after honors.'oiympic championships, not
once, but often. Cody has brought Port
land -to the fore in countries where they
never knew before whether Oregon was a
fruit or a disease. -
AVorld's Highest Honors Held Here.
National championships. Why, for five
Sears Cody's women divers held them all!
Cody divers, Portland products these,
hold the highest honors in the world.
"Happy" Kuehn, world fancy diving
champion, is a complete Cody product.
Thelma Payne, three times national
champion and one of the point winners
in the Olympic games, is another. Nor
man Koss, the most famous of swimmers,
Is yet another. Constance Myers Dressier,
twice national champion and admitted the
grittiest and most daring amateur woman
diver, is yet another. "Johnny" McMur
ray, northwest 50-yard sprint champion
et a few years back and holder of numer
ous other records, is yot another. Louis
Bahlbach is another. . The list is an al
. most endless one.
L. DeB. Handley, the most authoritive
expert on swimming in America, does,
not hesitate to pay tribute to Cody. For
several years he has recognized Cody's
crack women's exhibition team as the best
In the country. It is an admitted fact
t.bat Cody's teams could invade any terri
tory in the country, with the possible ex
ception of New York, and carry off the
major portion of the honors in competi
tion with the best they have.
His haa been a pio,nering work, for he
Is an originator, not one Who imitates.
Diving Styles Set by Cody.
Prior to 1917 diving technique was
largely a matter of happy chance. There
vas no precedent to guide the com
petitors, they began their diving any time
it suited them. Cody changed all this,
reformed the entire diving game at the
1917 national championships. At this
meet the experta of years received the jolt
ot their lives. They saw, for. the first
fr-' center of the country and the ' ,J fl Ntt ' ?'?f 'rffV- ? J I .
' Jack Cody and, Three PapUs Virginia Pembrooh, Helen Hicks and Orenet
Thelma Tayne," Three Timei
National Champion : Fancy
Diver Third Best in World.
time, a finished product, a set of divers
who began to dive as soon as they made
their appearance near the pool. Every
move was a picture, for Cody, a stickler
for form, had trained his competitors in
every move in public. They had nothing
to guide them in prior competitions, but
the Cody-trained divers began their div
ing as soon as they stepped on the spring
hoard. All slovenly work had beenbro
gated, their approach was faultless, every
motion studied and perfection. It was a
splendid sight, more impressive because it
was novel, and the result was that the
Portland dlver3, thanks to Jack Cody's
work, carried off nearly all .the high
honors.
However,, this sort of a performance is
so unusual now as not to attract any more
than passing notice. When any Portland
diver appears in outside competition these
oays the judges and spectators are primed
to witness something new that Cody has
developed. Since the 1917 show-up of the
diving game the other coaches In the
country have not hesitated to make use
of Cody's system and style development.
Louis Kuehn, the world champion who
has shown his wares in all of the biggest
poolsin the. country and is now in New
York, writes that there are but three real
aquatic coache3 in America Cody, L.
DeB. Handley and Ernie Brandstein.
, Daring and Grit Essential.
Cody's diadem of swimming stars is
plentifully studded- with water jewels.
These pupils all. unite in praising Cody's
bplendid work and attribute their success
where it rightfully belongs, to the Mult
nomah club coach. This man owes his
success to a thorough and persistant study
of his own particular game. That it is a
fascinating one goes without saying. He is
not addicted to publicity and it is doubt
ful if many Portlanders, even if members
of the Multnomah . club, realize what a
, rotable asset they have in Cody. He ex
plained some of the diver's work like
this: . .
"In the world war they found that al
most any fancy diver would make an
aviation act. It was all due to their sense
Jack Cody and ,
of balance and their fearlessness in the
air. No one can become an' expert fancy
tiver, you ,know, unless he has grit.
Otherwise he'll quit when he is hurt
and they all get hurt while practicing.
The women are as gritty, if not more so,
than - the men. They come back again
and again for more, even when bruised
black and blue from the impact with the
water. The good ones go on taking
chances, despite'lheir ' bumps, ;or they'd
never learn the different dives.
. Tribute Paid Women Experts.
"The women of Portland have shown
that they have the determination and the
riaring to dive and they have proved it
U the world along with the men. There's
no secret to diving or methods of teach
ing. After I teach a pupil . the crawl,
the up and down leg drive, the arm
stroke and breathings, I let every man
find his own stroke. I never force any
one into a cut-and-drled pattern! No two
people swim the same crawl style. Each
one develops his own peculiarities and in
dividualities. -When you see the same
man swim a thousand times you notice
these .things. If they're faults I try to
correct theni, otherwise not.
. "How close aviation comes to diving
was illustrated during the war, when so
many Portland boys made a success in the
air. Borne people,, of. course, despite all
the training and practice in the world,
would never become star divers, and these
same fellows would never make success
ful aviators either. Conversly, any crack
aviator would inake a good diver.
Youthful Daring Makes Champion.
"The youngsters make the best divers,
they do better than those who are older
because tbey have the recklessness of
outh. They do things on the spur of the
moment, almost instinctively. An older
. person would stop to reason before diving
and there's no time for that in the air."
Just to show how close this sense of
. balance in the air is allied' with, diving,
aviation and youth, a letter from Norman
, Koss should-be quoted. He wrote: "A
loop is a half Gainor, an Immleman is a
i 1 alf twist, a tail spin is a corkscrew
straight down, and it's all done from 5000
to 6000 feet in the air." And Jack proved
this, for he was one of the best trainers of
' aviators in the American service. An
other illustration of this sense of. .balance
Three Papits Virginia Pembrook, Helen
rembrook.
in the air comes from an experience of
Louis Bahlbach,- who first attracted at
tention by winning the Panama-Pacific ex
position fancy diving indoor champion
ship. While trying a back dive from a
high tower "Louie" realized that he was
turning over too far and would strike
flat' on his stomach. Instinctively he
rirew his legs up in a "tuck" and lit on
' bis feet, saving himself from a bad fall.
Divers or aviators never lose control.
.
Cody's Career Varied.
Cody first broke into the limelight in
Portland in '1912y when he-developed a
E,ang of swimmers and divers at the Port
land natatorium, then in the old Y. M. C.
A. building at Fourth and Yamhill streets,
that wiped up on the best the city could
produce. After this bunch had defeated
the Multnomah club aggregation, Cody
accepted an offer to take charge of the
( club tank and the most of his stars folr
lowed him there. Jack himself learned
to swim in Los Angeles and just sort of
developed himself, -for there were no
coaches in those days. Earlier in his life,
when he was 9 years old to be exact, he
vl'.ad lived in South "Carolina and paddled
about Sullivan's island off Charleston, the
isle Poe put on the map in "The Gold
Bug."
After graduating from the surf at Los
Angeles Cody gave swimming and diving
exhibitions with Gene McClure in Kansas
City and later managed Electric park
there. In 1911 this pair "debutted" into
vaudeville with a "tank act," not one of
the inebriated comedy kind. Cody
coached some, unimportant teams' in
i Kansas City and burst- into the public
spotlight when a slight little 14-year-old
"kid" pupil of his, "Eddie" McCarren,
won the annual Missouri river marathon
r.gainst a field of some 80 entries, in-,
eluding all, the "sharks" of that terri
tory. Jack himself had won that mara
thon two years before.
Cody's String of Notables Impressive.
. Since 1912 and 1913, when he went to
the Multnomah club, Jack has prospered
in wonderful shape in accumulating swim
ming and diving honors through his
pupils! Clair Tate, later Pacific coast
fancy diving champion and then a his
torical figure as the coach of the famous
Hawaiian swimming, team that toured the
Hicks and Orenet
country, was a member- of the Portland
Swimming association eam with which
' Cody made his western debut as1 waterdog
' kingmaker. On this team were, besides
the two named above, Norman Ross, then
Eumost a "dub" who could hardly swim
with the rest of the crowd, "Johnny" Mc
Murray, "Colly" Wheeler, who was later
coast 500 open water champion, and Chet
Wheeler, who was no slouch.
Some of the other notable performers :
of Cody's early Portland days were Ernie
Spawmer, Davie Welsch, "Ted" Preble, a
' fine high diver and spring swimmer, and
Ernie Rosengreen. Then came Louis
Ealbach, Don Strieker, Locke Webster,
lius Douglas, Earl Smead, Happy Kuehn,
Dave Fall, "Doc" Roller and Jim Mistrow,
who turned profess! orfal.Vall of these to
conjure with in the water and names fre
quently mentioned in the sporting pages
and news, columns of American news
Iapers. Cody's first real excellent women's
team was composed of Virginia and Irene
Pembrook, Helen Hicks, Grace1' Berkey,
Thelma Payne and Connie Myers. This
team was unquestionably tbe cream of
the American tanks and a national tour
was held out to them on several occa
sions. '-:
Woirten's Team Is Excellent.
The new women's team, fully as good
as the first one and even more finished,
is composed of Gladys Stansberry, Lillian -Knutson,
Constance Myers Dressier. Fran
cis Huntington, Virginia Pembrook and
Helen Hicks. In training women swim
mers much discouragement Is met, espe
cially when the members of teams, after
being trained and given weeks of careful
coaching, get married or quit for-some
other reason. - .
Thelma Payne has , been a consistent
winner for Cody in almost every competi
. tion she has entered. In 1918 Thelma
eet the pace for the national champion
ships that were held ' in Portland, and
repeated her success in 1919 and 1920.
In the second year every woman diver in
the meets had copied her style and in the
third year open threats were mads that
they would "get her," but with all that
Thelma came through with the goods and
raptured the meets. In 1920 Thelma put
in, a busy year. She won the national
fancy diving title at Detroit in March,
and in June entered and qualified In the
Grace Berkley, in Vaudeville
and Movies.
Olympic tryouts at the far-western cham
pionship meet in California. The same
month she went to New York for the
finals in diving and won ber place on the
team. At Antwerp she won one of the
first places and her team-mate, Louis
Kuehn, took the world's fancy diving title
for men.
Stage Stars Sent to Success.
Cody, with his own experience on the
stage, has turned out some fine stars for
vaudeville in' the persons of such girl
I'ivers as Gladys Watton, Georgia Cor
mancy, Grace Berkey and Vivian Mar
shall, now in the movies. His other suc
cesses have been notable with such fine
women stars as Myra Gammie, Virginia
Miller, Constance Myers Dressier, the na
tional champion in 1916 and 1917; Helen
Hicks, Who has been the runner-up in the
national and Pacific Northwest associa
tion championships, and others. Cody's
men's team that is now ready to meet all
comers is composed of such sterling per
formers as Daren Fall, WTarren and Frank
Lossiter, WreeIdon Hyde and Frank Riggs.
With all his laurels Cody's head rests
tasy, though be has been frequently
crowned, in the news columns, as the king
o? diying coaches. He can be found any
day at his job, as he likes to call it, in
the club tank, and is constantly on the
lookout for new material. Hp has done
Portland, the west, and swimming notable
services and is a man who can produce'
the goods.
Science Gets Results.
Organic chemistry is known as the
chemistry of the compounds of carbon.
A church clock is. used in Brussels,
Belgium, wound by atmospheric expan
sion induced by the beat of the sun.
.
Carbon dioxide is 15. times as heavy
as air, and can be poured from bottle to
bottle like a liquid. It is an invisible gas.
-
For the production of automobile tires,
one and one-quarter ounces of sulphur is
used to one pound of crude rubber.
, Searchlights of the type used on battle
ships at sea, are now used to mark the
landing fields for night-flying airplanes.
In South Africa mining dumps' are
being worked by improved machinery to
recover metals discarded when gold is
being recovered.