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( ATHLETICS IN ACCOUNTANCY ] Scarcely twenty years had passed since mighty Casey had "Struck Out," and there was still no joy in Mudville, when an extraordinary aggregation of middle-aged and eye-weary accountants took the field, wearing grey baseball uniforms with "H&S" in blue on their shirts and blazers, and won 8 of its 11 games against outside competition. The year was 1907. Every fair Saturday after work that summer and the next, the crack of the bat and the entreaties of loyal fans could be heard at Williamsbri^ge, a few miles north of where John J. Mc- Graw's Giants were playing in the Polo Grounds. By the end of the first season, interest in athletics was running so high that the 13-year-old accounting firm had built its own diamond, two tennis courts and a croquet ground. The new Haskins & Sells Athletic Association, with Mr. E. W. Sells as president, held its first winter reunion in Healy's African Jungle Room on December 30, 1907. The exploits of the first year of this organization, and particularly of the H&S baseball team, were recorded in a volume, Athletics in Accountancy, privately printed by Mr. Sells and written at his request by an unidentified friend, described simply as "an enthusiastic follower of out-door sports, and an occasional contributor to its literature." "It is only within the last generation that Americans have begun to learn how to play," begins the author. "It is only within the past ten years or so that we have really discovered the country. The country clubs and golf courses which now surround every large city— which every little freshwater town must needs lay out, in some deserted cow-pasture or across the cornfields where houses stop and the prairie begins—are all of the most recent history." The chronicle continues: "Of the various sorts of workers in this sophisticated modern Babel [New York City] few, certainly, more acutely need the rest and refreshment that comes from enjoyable out-of-door exercise than those engaged in the profession of accountancy. This work requires intense concentration, it has few of the alleviating distractions of many other occupations— the physician's, the journalist's, the lawyer's, for instance—it is essentially impersonal, dispassionate and precise." The volume then proceeds to reproduce the text of Athletic Bulletin No. 1, which was tacked up on the office bulletin- board early in the month of June. This bulletin, "now possessing something of the prestige and dignity of a Magna Charta or a Declaration of Independence," lists those members of the staff of Haskins & Sells who had organized a baseball team. Among the 33 names listed appear those of Mr. Sells, to whose umpiring there were no objections, and two of his three partners: C. S. Ludlam, who played first base, and D. S. Fero, one of four or five pitchers for the H&S nine. Four others whose names appear on the list subsequently became partners of the Firm. Mr. Sells promptly expressed his interest in the budding movement with a
Object Description
Title |
Athletics in accountancy |
Author |
Anonymous |
Subject |
Baseball teams |
Personal Name |
Ludlam, Charles Stewart Fero, DeRoy S. Sells, Elijah Watt, 1858-1924 Sells, Dorothy Carter, Marjorie Sells Carter, Arthur Hazelton |
Portrait |
Sells, Dorothy |
Illustration |
Haskins & Sells (Baseball team) |
Citation |
H&S Reports, Vol. 01, (1964 winter), p. 22-24 |
Date-Issued | 1967 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | HSReports_1964_Winter-p22-24 |