Evening star., 1936-04-02
M'PHERSONS LOOK
AHEAD TO BERLIN
Better on OFF Night Than
College Stars in High
\ Gear, Says Pilot.

- ABBY GENE JOHNSON, who
talks and coaches-and used
to playa good game of
~ basket ball, is back tracking
the trail to Madison Square Garden
will well-founded hopes of leading his
Mcpherson CKansas) Globe Refiners
on to the Olympic games next Sum-
mer.
Confidence sticks out all over this
curly-haired, bespectacled young man
from the prairies, whose team dis
played its prowess in Washington
Tuesday night by defeating the Rinaldi
Tailors as it pleased, 81 to 35. He
says his team is the biggest and best
in the world and that his brother,
Francis johnson, is without peer as a
basket ball forward.
IF We have an off night-if we're
cold-and we 60 up against the best
college team in the country when 1t
is red hot we would win by about Is
points or maybe more" allows Gabby
Gene.
Chance to Prove.
HELL probably have a chance 10
l. prove that statement when the
OLYMPIC basket ball tryout tourna-
nent is staged in Madison Square
Garden. The event is significant
principally because it will bring to-
rether for the first time in recent
years the best of the college teams
and the best Of the independent anna
teurs.
The colleges of late have SHE'D away
from the experienced independents
and few of the really big-time col
legiate outfits have elected to enter
the national A. A. U. tournament.
Johnson's McPhersons, the sky
scrapingest group of hoopsters ever
assembled under one banner, went to
the final of the national tournament
in Denver last year. There the far
famed fire-wagon attack that re-
senbles an alley fight stalled ano
missed out.
Learn Lesson in Garden.
THE McPhersons went back out te
Denver this year and came of
with the the A. A. U. championship
Thus. Gabby Genes towering lads
qualified for the Olympic tryouts
along with the Universals of Holly
wood. whom the McPhersons beat II
the A. A. U. final this year.
Johnsons team has decided edge
on the other contenGsrs in the Olym'
pic tryout, for his / ids had game
in Madison Square Garden just prioi
to their Denver tiumphs. They
plaved an all-star ,eam assembled
from the expert collegiate ranks Of
the metropolitan area-and almost
we're beaten in a rip-snorting contest
that was all uphill for the lste-start-
ing McPhersons. They learned val
liable lesson about firing at the plate
glass backboards featured in the
Garden.
Dunking for Points.
Johnson has a. pair of centers who
can dunk" the ball through the
hoop: that is, they can leap high
and push the ball downward through
the net. You can imagine what they
can do, also, in the way Of defense
1neS6 DOyS are OUe SOllcsC : OltCH-
berry. formerly of West Texas Teach
ers, and Willard Schmidt. who played
his college basket ball at Creighton
University in Omaha. Joe stands G
feet inches high and Schmidt is
an inch taller!
Brother Francis johnson is not the
biggest man in basket ball, but he's
one of the fastest and he was ar
all-America forward year ago.
Then there is Tex Gibbons, who
played with the Wichita Henry'
when they were national champions
q few years ago.
With Phog Allen of the University
of Kansas as Olympic basket ball di
rector and Gene johnson as the likel!
leader of the biggest group on thu
United States team, it looks as though
Kansas is going to be represented a
Berlin.