Evening star., 1931-12-26

r partment has been advocat-
L ing wider swing in college
sport to games which can
be carried on through the rest of
ones somewhat mortal life. The
games referred to were such
sports as tennis, golf and swim
ming, which are useful pastimes
after one has finished college.
One complaint made against
this was that such development
would interfere with collegiate
games, such as foot ball, for ex-
ample
But the facts in the case fail to SUP
port this argument. YCle, Michigan,
Stanford and Bucknell all lave their
own college golf courses. to mention
only one group. Last season all four
universities held just as much foot ball
interest as they ever had known The
average play of the year was up to a
high standard. Michigan lost onlv one
game. Yale lost only one game. Buck
nell suffered no defeat and Stanford
finished with a rush.
There is sure to be a big develop
ment along this line later on when the
economic swirl adjusts itself 1t may
be halted temporarily, but the move
ment is well under way. 1t may even
reach the point where we will begin
to hear about recruiting and subsidiz-
ing and such, but that will hardly hap
pen for this generation to talk about,
since these are games at which the
crowds do the playing instead of the
watching.
FORTUNES of war swerve back and
i forth in a hurry in modern sport.
Not so long ago Hack Wilson and
Charles Arthur (the Great ShireS al
most created a new American pastime
combining the lures of both base ball
and boxing The act was a sensation.
but after being pried apart the two set
off in opposite directions. Wilson has
had his ups and downs, and Shires
took turn in the minors. The great
one was glimpSed as more than a fair
ball player, with or without his Ma
poleonic complex, and he's proved it.
Through last season he played with
the Milwaukee Brewers of the Ameri-
can Association, and led the league in
stick work, with mark of 1886 for 157
games His base hit total set the
leagues pace. He's on the high road
back to the big top, being due to cover
the first sack for the Boston Braves
next season. With his ShowmanShip
a bit Gained down and his ball playing
style more polished. this cOlorful player
should bolster the Braves strength and
put a new magnet in the turnstiles.
DR. JAMES c. NAISMITH has the
- distinction of being the only man
living who devised a sport which
has been enthusiastically developed un-
til literally thousands of men, women
and children prefer it to all other Win
ter sports Forty years ago he origi-
mated basket ball, and the game is sub
stantially the same as its first pattern,
with only minor changes.
Recently Dr. NaSmith sat on the
bench with Nat Holman, one of the
most famous professional players of the
game, who also coaches the team Of the
City College of New York, and the in
ventor saw his brain child functioning
at its best. The LavenderS' present
team looms as the best in the East,
having won four games by landslide
margins.
The game DR.. Naismith saw turned
out to be a rout of Dartmouth'S am
bilious team which had won seven
games in a row and has already eStab-
midale rival in the Eastern Intercol-
legiate Basket Ball League. C. c. N. Y.S
rhythmic passing and nimble f1oorWork
make vastly different game from that
PLAYED in basket balls hot bed, the
Middle West, where more body contact
Is the rule and rugged defense pre-
walls.
THE fact that Lighthouse Harry
won the Pasadena open, playing
the new-dimension golf ball, throws no
particular light on the changes that
will be wrought. For Cooper very near
1y won the last important medal play
event, the Lannin Memorial Open,
which was played with the old ball and
O full continent away. He was beaten
out by Sarazen in the Long Island
event. Similarly, the good form that
Wiffey Cox is showing was not seriously
impaired by the difference in the balls
weight. After winning the San Fran
cisco match play open, he chased
Cooper over the line at Pasadena.
From a scoring standpoint little
improvement was noted over last year, |
Cooper's wining total of 281 being 6 |
strokes better than Manero's figure for
last year when the balloon ball was
the rage. But Horton Smiths 200 in
1929 gives the old rabbit ball the
record.
Macdonald Smith, the veteran
stylist, who gave such a brilliant ex-
hibition of play with the balloon ball !
in taking the lead with 66 over |
rain-soaked course in the Metropolitan |
Open last Summer, was the only |
Calamity Jane at the new balls bap- |
tism. The balloon ball was a great |
favorite with him, as it sat up we'll |
on the fairway, just right for his clean
clipping style of iron play, and he
stoutly maintained that it was more
reliable in the wind than the older
ball. He insisted that although the
wind carried it. the degree could al
ways be foretold, while the rabbit ball
sometimes bored through the cross
winds and sometimes did not.
One remembers that about this time
last year the general note was ap-
proval of the balloon ball. which by
late Spring was being roundly abused,
so it is yet far too early to take even
the experts opinions as final.
ECopyrght. 1881, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, 1ncD