Athletic Longevity

Harvard men who wear the rowing "H" have a longer span of life than the American experience Tables predict for the average man.

William H. Geer, Harvard director of physical education, reported to an Athletic Research Society meeting in Atlanta as follows: In a group of 159 oarsmen who rowed between 1852 and 1900, 67 had died in 1920; the total number of years lived by them plus the probable number of years to be lived was 7,389 years. According to the life-expectancy tables there would have been 96 deaths and a total of only 6,709 years lived.

The conclusion drawn from Mr. Geer's limited survey is that the popular myth according to which good athletes die young, is false.