The New York herald., 1922-11-15
'Fine Stuff He Says, 'but
Greeks Started Wrestling
Game, Too
BY w. o. McGEEHAN.

Fascinated by tho financial success
of the Rodeo, Tex Ricard is planning
more sports of the great open spaces
for Madison Square Garden. A worlds
championship horseshoe pitching tour
nament Is under consideration. Two
claimants to tho title are now tour
ing iowa and are drawing packed
houses. They are Frank Jackson Of
Leon. Iowa, and Ed Plagsman of Con-
roy, Iowa. Each boasts that he hurls
the meanest horseshoe in the world. A
visiting Iowa sport who pitches horse
shoes at amateur tournaments brought
the idea to Rickard.
Tex has made a hasty survey Of the
Garden floor and has figured that by
building seats close to the pitching
court he could seat something like
10000 spectators for the tournament.
Ike Dorgap, Tex Richards assistant,
is combing upper New York State for
horseshoe pitchers in order that the
contest may assume an intersectional
aspect.
Tex Is Somewhat Worried.
Tex Riokard was optimistic as to the
success of the proposed tournament
until he learned that the sport of horse
shoe pitching really originated with tho
early Greeks. OF course, the early
Greeks did not pitch horseshoes, for
their horses were not effcte enough to
demand shoes. They used quoits, but
the game was played along the same
lines as it is played in classic Iowa.
That worries me little said Tex.
II read where the ancient Greeks were
the first people to go in for the wrest-
ling game and If you can find a
crookeder sport than wrestling I want
to know about II. If the Greeks had
anything to do with this horseshoe
pitching game ] guess / will have to
watch those fellows pretty close to see
that they do not frame UP the matches.
If catch any OF them at It, of course,
] can ask Mr.. Muldoon to revoke their
pitching licenses"
Since the defeat Of Yale by the Uni
versity of Iowa the sport OF horseshoe
pitching. which is the universal psstime
OF the Hawkeye State, has come In for
some serious consideration. Prior to
the game the Iowans did some exhibi-
ton pitching on the Yale campus.
Members of the Yale team are willing
to tell the world that the members of
the lows. eleven brought their horse.
shoes with them. Rumors that some of
the Iowa men had pitched semi-profes-
sional horseshoes during vacation were
branded as canards.
Horseshocs Scarce Here.
An effort to find a horseshoe pitcher
OF sufficient skill to represent Manhat-
tan in the coming tournament has met
with no success to date. Owing to the
scarcity OF horses and horseshoes the
sport steadily declined in this vicinity
until 1t became obsolete. Joe Hum
phries says he can recall that there
was some horseshoe pitching done in
avenue A, but that It was back in the
days when Little Annie Rooney" was
the latest song hit. Joe even claims
that he was entered in a horseshoe
pitching tournament himself once. but
quit when one OF the contestants ringed
his neck instead of ringing the peg.
The sport was discouraged when the
police started to arrest horseshoe
pitchers who carried their favorite
horseshoes on the charge of carrying
concealed weapons.
In orded that the tournament may
have something OF the crowded city in
H. as we'll as the sport Of the great
open spaces Ike Dorgan has suggested a
novel metropolitan sporting event az a
premilinary to the horseshoe tourna-
ment. Mr. Dorgan's proposal is that
before the horseshoe pitching starts
that the management stage n crawling
match between some Of th- best known
lounge lizards of New York.