Evening star., 1932-03-01
100 TEAMS IN LINE
FOR SEVEN TITLES
Girls Promise Hotter. Battles
Than Boys in Annual
A. A. u. Event.
BY r. ID. THOMAS.

~ mOnCn, lTOII WIllCI SCFCli
n teams will emerge with Dis
trict A. A. U. basket bail
championships and Washington
Post trophies, will get under way
tonight in the Tech High gym,
with more than 100 teams in line
for action.
The cross currents of rivalry
will affect independent, high
school and military service teams,
not to speak of a group OF girl
teams keyed approximately at
high c.
One of the bloomered clubs brings to
the tournament the only title lett from
last wear. all the other winners OF 1881
having outgrown their divisions or be-
come ineligible through new terri
torial restriction and an all-star ban.
Five or six games will be played eacn
night with the first starting at 6
o'clock.
THE Eagle girls will be the only de-
i Tending champions. with the jew
tsh Community Center, Ais A. G.
and Rockville sextets their principal
rivals. The Rockville lassies nave
moved up from the junior class In
which they won the title last year and
are more ambitious than ever. Compe-
tition in some of the male divisions
promises to be torrid, but in the case OF
the fiercer species officials fear things
will boil over.
w. Dewey Haight, major domo OF the
tournament, and Win Johnson, secre-
tary of the A. A. U. and chairman OF
its Basket Ball Committee, will func-
tion somewhat as shock abSorbers.
The tournament is expected to pay
for itself and leave a mite in the
A. A. U. kitty, the admission price to
be two bits.
TITLES to be decided are the girls
l. senior and junior and the males
100-pound, 115-pound, 13o-pound,
l45-pound and unlimited.
Two teams that triumphed last year
have been barred this time. The
Charlottesville five, which breezed
through the 115-pound division, has
been ruled out of the District A. A. U.
jurisdiction and the Potomac Boat
school luminaries to compete in the
tournament, must let the unlimited
championship 20 undefended because of
the all-star regulation.
A pair of champion teams from the
Boys Club will try for bigger things.
The Boys Club OptimiSts, 100-pound
title winners last year, will strive for
the 115-pound laurel and their larger
c1ubmates, who triumphed in the 130-
pound division, will 60 for the 145-
pound title.
The Saks Clothiers, 145-pound cham
pions of 1881, have been graduated to
the unlimited division.
TEAMS that represented Eastern,
l. Central, Tech and Business in the
high school series, have remained
intact for the A. A. U. tournament, but
will compete as independent clubs All
except the Business outfit will be in the
will try for the 145-pound champion
ship and for the first time will not be
called upon to concede advantages.
with the Saks ouint out of the way
they figure as championship contenders.
Bliss Electrical is the only entrant
from the college field
Calvary M. E.. in point of continuous
competition, is the Oldest team in the
tournament, having played in all since
the event was inaugurated six years
ago.
Quantico Marines, Fort Washington
and Company F of the Hyattsville Ma
tional Guards are the military threats
The United Typewriter Grays, in the
unlimited division, are the only team
ever to repeat as champions, but are
not as strong as usual They were
beaten out last year by the Potomac
Boat Club Scholastics.
LOW serious are some of the young
i i sters over the doings that start
tonight may be judged from their
efforts to meet weight limits II a
player is over the limit at weighing in
time his team must do without him or
enter heavier division, invariably a
division in which 1t would have little
chance for victory
Rather than have their teams thus
handicapped, or remain out of the big
excitement themselves, the boys have
resorted to some heroic measures
Given days grace to make the grade
they have performed wonders shedding
poundage. Vigorous exercise, swathed
in four or five sweaters and other heavy
toggery, topped off with Turkish bath
when they could afford it, and alb
stinence from food and water has
turned the trick many times.
A notable example of beef whiting
was that of Sammy Hook who helped
the Saks Clothiers win the 145-pound
championship last year Sammy
weighed more than 100 as tournament
time neared. He dropped Is or more
pounds in such hurry the lad seemed
transformed
The tournament barely was under
way when young Hook who in the
meantime had surrounded large guam
titles of victuals, zoomed up to his orig
inal weight, and Major Dcmo Haight
got hoarse answering the ominous
query:
How in blazes did that guy get in?''