New Britain herald., 1928-10-19
Joie Ray Starts on in Sunday Nights Endur. ance Grind at Madison Square Garden as Favor. ite Over the Entire Field of Runners - Olympic Winner Will Be One Competitor.

New York. Oct. 1s.-UP)-On 8 tan bark track in Madison Square Garden Sunday night. professional marathon running will be reintro- duced to the American public after . lapse of two decades.
 If one excepts the Pyle bunion derby. which was neither . financial nor artistic success. distance rum ming for hire has been practically . dead issue in this country since the days in 1908 when Dorando and Hayes put on their famous pursuit act.
 It Is the idea of Bill Pickens, the sports impresario. that professional marathon races can be popularized. and 70 he is introducing Abdel Fl Quafi. the 1923 Olympic champion. Joie Ray, Americas chestiest con- tender, and . polyglot host of dis tance runners who will compete for prizes aggregating $6,500 next Sum day.
 Ever since Fl Quafi. the little chocolate colored Algerian. swung in through the marathon gate in the biz red brick stadium at Amsterdam, winner over a big field at the ninth Olympiad. American promoters have harbored the idea that such & spectacular performance might very we'll be commercialized.
 To support their contention, Joie Ray, who finished fifth at Amster. dam. maintained that he could take the measure of the Algerian in . re- turn race. Ray recently turned pro- fessional for the purpose of meeting Fl Quafi, who gave up his amateur standing immediately after the Olympic games.
 What started out to be a grudge race. appropriately sponsored by the promoters, developed into a real marathon run when two Films, an Estonian, an Italian. an Englishman. . Jew ad 8 Swede were added to the list of starters. It was felt tiiat with only Ray and Fl Quafi competing. the affair might turn into . fiasco through the collapse or complete failure of one of the pair.
 Accordingly, on Sunday night. nine runners will face the starter, who will be none other than Miss Eleanora Sears. Boston's society pedestrian. In addition to Ray and Fl Quafi. there will be Willie Koleh- mainen, who holds the worlds rec ord for the marathon distance of 26 miles 3S5 yards. Juri Lossman. the Esthonian who was second in the 1920 marathon at Antwerp. Ollie Wattinen. . 90 pound Finn, Giusto Umeck of Italy. Arthur Newton, British distance runner. Sam Rich man, champion of the Ghetto. and Gunner Knausland of Sweden.
 A tan-bark track. ten laps to the mile. has been laid down in Madison Square Garden, and the contestants have been training in the vicinity for several days.
 Joie Ray will start favorite. largely because more is known about him than about the others. and be- cause of . feeling that the track. with it's sharp turns. will be better suited to his style of running than to the others who are accustomed to competing outdoors.
 Ell Quafi, despite some astute adr vertising. has run just one good race in his life, and that last summer, when he breezed past the laboring leaders along the canal bank at and led the way to the finish of the Olympic marathon by several hundred yards.
 There is no ignoring tho fact that professional marathon running naturally falls under suspicion. in view of the simplicity with which things might be arranged"
 Nothing of that sort will be pos- sible this time." Bill Pickens says blandly. These runners can't talk each others language"