The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992, 1940-03-22
Jews In Sports
Jewish "Firsts'' i'm the World Of
Shorts
BY MORRIS WEINER

not dime dozen by any stretch
of the imagination and Jewish
champ is still kingpin in his field,
but the interesting item is wheth-
er you know anything about the
first Jewish crackerjacks. For in
stance, it is well known to every
Jewish sports fan that Joe Choyn-
ski was the first Jewish heavy
weight to measure off" under the
Marquis of Queensbury rules and
that Daniel Mendoza, the British
gamecock who ruled the resined
arena some 100 years ago, was the
first Jewish champ in His Males
tvs Empire.
Here are some interesting It'd
bits ON Hebrew heroes who broke
the ice for others of their faith
when they crashed the champion
ship portals: Barney Drey-
fuss, the owner of the Pittsburgh
Pirates from 1900 to 1881, is
generally considered the "first"
Jewish owner of big-league base
ball team. Interesting but not
true. Andy Freedman had been
the owner of the New York Giants
for five years when Barney took
over the reins of the Pirates.
Freedman had bought the Jints-
lock, stock and barrel in 1895. {.
And while on the subject of base
ball, Johnny king, who rose to
fame as the bacIzstOp of the team
that boosted the combination of
Tinker-tO- Evers-tO Chance in 1905,
was the first baseball owner in
the land to install equipment for
night baseball. las owner of the
Kansas City Blues, Kings VEN
ture into baseball under the arc
lights was the pioneer affair in
gets credit, too, for being the
first Jewish ball player in or
ganized baseball. Dolly Stark
was the first Jewish basketball
coach the Hanover Indians en-
pIOyed on the Dartmouth campus
and i'm 1928 he became the first
Hebrew umpire to crash the big
league baseball racket. Hank
Greenberg is the first Jewish play
er to rate a salary of $S5, 900 and
was the first of his faith to win
the ''MOst Valuable Player award"
When Abe Attell won the fea-
therweight crown in 1908 he be-
came the first Jewish boxing
champ the world had recognized.
Sam Mossberg, lightweight
boxer, was the original Hebrew
leather pusher to win an Olympic
crown for Uncle Sam. That was
back in 1920. Joe Alexander, of
Syracuse, became the first of his
people to land a berth on Wally
Camps hitherto non-kosher all
American football team. This
unprecedented event took place in
1918 and on the same team that
boosted Paul Robson, the Negro
back. Ira Hanford, in 1885, rode
a horse to victory in the Kentucky
Derby-the first time a Jewish
jockey had come in first under the
wire of that bluest of blue-blood
affairs. .Ruthie Aarons, of the
Bronx, was the first woman ever
recognized as the International
Ping Pong champion of the world.
When Herbert Bayard SwOpe
handed Willie and Mary Hirsch
their licenses as trainers of thor
Oughbreds, the Hirsch family be-
came the first racing triumverate
the turf had ever seen. Mary
and Willie plus POppa Max (whO
was the first trainer to be a con-
sistent money winner for eight
consecutive years. made up this
trio. The HirscheS are not to be
confused with HirSch Jacobs the
first trainer to be the leading
money saddIer for a solid decade.
In 1900 Meyer Prinstein became
the first Jewish athlete ever to
win an Olympic Crown for the red,
white and blue. .Prinstein COPIED
the running broad jump and the
hop, step and jump, while in 1882
Miss Lillian Copeland became the
first Jewess to land in the Hall
of Fame hv running off with the