Rough & Ruddy

A Columbia back named Wright seized a New York Athletic Club forward named Coyle, held him under water for two minutes. When he came up, purple, fishy-eyed and gasping, Coyle lifted the soft white ball to which he had been clinging, banged it against the goal, allowed himself to be hoisted out of the pool.

That last week was the high point of the game that decided the U. S. Championship in the world's roughest sport, the moment that made the gallery of 700 on the balcony of the N. Y. A. C.'s elaborate swimming pool nudge each other and chuckle with the apprehensive excitement which water polo invariably arouses in spectators. When the game was over, the less experienced Columbia men were exhausted. Six swimmers of the New York Athletic Club, whose water polo teams have lost only one game in 20 years, had kept the club's record intact, won their second Amateur Athletic Union championship in a row, 18-to-6.

Since in water polo the most effective way to keep opponents from scoring goals is to hold them under water, the apparent purpose of the players is to drown each other. Rules do not limit the length of time a player may be held under water if he holds the ball or is within four feet of it. When a player feels about to drown he can give the "busy signal," i. e., pinch the man who is holding him and be released immediately. Able water polo players rarely do such a thing. Because water poloists are always extracted quickly when they sink, none has ever drowned. There are not more than a few thousand athletes in the U.S. capable of playing the game. There are 24 teams in New York, 18 in Philadelphia, cities where the game is particularly popular. Next to the New York Athletic Club, Eastern College teams are usually the best. The New York Athletic Club's water polo teams are coached by the most famed water poloist in history, Joe Ruddy Sr. His three sons, Ray, Don and Joe Jr. are currently the team's mainstay. Born and brought up in New York, Joe Ruddy Sr. won his first swimming race when he was 14, at the Chicago World's Fair. Thirteen years later, when he had had time to master water polo and 25 other sports, Joe Ruddy married a champion swimmer named Mary Veronica Donahue, started to raise Mary, Dorothy, Joe, Ray and Donald Ruddy. Ruddy children were taken for their first swim at 11 months. At 2 1/2 years, they were carried to the ocean, dumped into the breakers. At three, all were expert in the crawl. Girl Ruddys were trained until they won all the swimming prizes at their summer camps, then permitted to bathe for pleasure only. Ruddy boys received more rigorous instruction. The youngest, Donald, now 20 and preparing for college, is a regular on the N. Y. A. C. water polo team. Joe Ruddy Jr. was the ablest swimmer and water poloist who ever attended Annapolis. Now stationed at Shanghai, he was unable to help his brothers last week. Ray Ruddy, most famed member of the family at present and usually considered the ablest water poloist in the world, is 22. He has won the President's Cup for seven years in a row, swum on two Olympic teams, won the National Long Distance Championship for six years in a row. Now a coal salesman, he swims only in his spare time. Consequently, he was on the sidelines last week at the start of the semifinal game between his club and the Central Queens Y. M. C. A. When the score was tied at 9-all. Joe Ruddy Sr. gave his oldest son a signal. Ray Ruddy removed his clothes in 10 seconds, jumped into the water, helped win the closest game his team has played this year, 15-to-9.

Joe Ruddy Sr. is completely bald, massive as a seal, mottled as though he had been under water for years. Actually, his underwater record is only 3 min. 19 sec. He claims that, in his lifetime of water polo, he never gave a "busy signal." He attributes his family's success to a diet prescribed by Mrs. Ruddy, no smoking or drinking by any Ruddy, the fact that the Ruddys never overdo. That N. Y. A. C. water polo teams, since the game was imported by an Englishman named Fred Wells in 1885, have been the best in the U. S. is due largely to Joe Ruddy Sr. But it is also largely his fault that they have not won more championships. In 1911, in Pittsburgh, the New York Athletic Club and the Chicago Athletic Club played the roughest water polo game on record. Pugilist Joe Choynsky, who once fought James J. Corbett on a barge in San Francisco Bay. was the Chicago coach. After four men had been carried out of the pool unconscious, Pugilist Choynsky hit Swimmer Ruddy on the jaw. Swimmer Ruddy then hit Choynsky in the eye. A riot started. Among the spectators were Mrs. Ruddy, Anna Held. Both fainted. The Amateur Athletic Union promptly dropped water polo from its schedule until a year ago.

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