Intermountain Jewish news., 1925-10-22
WILL HALPENN


Vienna, Hakoah, Is In this country
He has come here, unheralded, to con
tinuc in his profession as a lapldary
Mr.. Halpern is good looking. splcn
didly-bullt fellow, who talks quietly
calmly, modestly, and whenever the
conversation drifts to his prowess as
one Of the outstanding European soccer
football players, he smiles shyly and
diverts the talk to something else.
At the age OF seventeen THAT was
way back In 10l1), Will Joined the
Hakoah In Vienna. The Hakoah was
then n small, Insignificant club, whose
soccer tenn was one Of the weakest
aggrcgations In the third division OF
the Austrian Football League. Grad.
unlly. and In no small measure due to
Halpern's Individual development. the
Hakoah football team improved, until
a few years ago 1t astonished the
European sporting world by a brand
Of playing considered second to nOne
in the international field.
Today Hakoah Is the unchaliengcd
peer Of Austrian footballdom In 1924
and 1925 it won the Austrian cham
pionship Of the A division. Its vIctori.
Gus lnvasions OF England. Hungary,
Germany and the Near East are well
known even to American sport follow
ers. In this remarkable chapter OF
European Jewish athletics. Will Hal.
perm stands out as one Of the foremost
athletes and sympathetic personalities
A JEWISH GERTRUDE EDERLE
Halpcrn told us quite few Inter
cstlns things about the Hakoah and
It's various activities. To quote him
directly:
I'VE hare marvellous swimmer In
Heidi Bicnenfeld, a young girl Of %,
who is member OF the Hakoah swim
ming team. This year. Heidi won the
long distance and two hundred meters
championship of Austria. Miss Bienen-
field will surely amaze the world in
the next Olympic games. II she con-
tinnes In her present form. She In as
popular In Austrian sporting circles as
your Gertrude Ederle here.
''Wc have strong teams In hockey and
wrestling. You may have heard Of
Marcus and Bergman who are playing
havcc with the amateur wrestlers Of
Austria. Both OF them are extraor-
binary specimens Of human strength
and skill
Our soccer team consists OF the fol
lowing eleven: Fabian, Wcgner.
Scheuer. Gutman, Pollak. Fried, Mem
much, Hausler. Greenwald. Hess. Elm
hofer. Personally. | believe that our
team can beat any American soccer
aggregation by at least six goals"
There was no boasting In Hnlpern's
statement. but calm conviction that
impressed us greatly. we confess. We
discussed the coming of the Hak0ah
team to America. the effect TO Hakonh
victories on the anti-Semitic elements
in Europe. and number Of other in
teresting topics which We will trans
nit to you bit by bit. At the present
time, Hnlpern, In his OF moments. is
assisting in the coaching Of the New
York Maccnbee soccer team, which as
Mr.. Reichuk. its manager explained
TO us, is improving rapidly.
FOOTBALL REVIEW
Sidney S. Cohen who knows more
about College football than we have
forgotten writes us the following:
Sensational dashes for more than
half the length Of the field featured
almost every one Of the big contests on
Saturday. Particularly prominent In
this brilliant backiield play We're Jew
ish athletes. several of whom are win
ming their spurs In their first bid for
collegiate fume. >. .
Bearing the brunt of the Crimson Of
fensive, Al Miller, collegiate sprint
champion and considered the fastest
bnck in the country. scored two touch
downs In Harvard's 1876 victory over
Il. T.. l. Izzy Zarakov, sent into the
lineup late in the game. made II
spectacular dash around end for -
yards on the next TO the last play Of
the game.
Harry Kaplan, mentioned by you In
last weeks column and considered by
many as the outstanding find OF the
Columbia football season, again per-
formed spectacularly in the Lion back
field. Relieving Captain Peasc. who
was injured Kaplan electrified the
gridircn fans with - yard dash
through the entire Johns Hopkins
eleven. The rugged line bucking OF
Mike Sesit and the stellar line play Of
Raphael. were potent factors in the
Blue and Whites A to o triumph over
Johns Hopkins.