The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1940-08-22
TODAY'S
SPORT
PARADE
BY HENRY McLEMORE
United Press Staff Correspondent


UNITED Press Staff Correspondent
New York, Aug. 22-CUP)-A re-
cent survey conducted by either the
D. A. r. or the right wing of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, for
get which, revealed that there are
but five heavyweights in the United
States worthy of chance at Joe
Louis and his title.
Three of them-Bob Pastor, Billy
Conn and Lou Nova-you are fairly
well acquainted with. Pastor is the
fellow who has gone 81 rounds with
Louis and still is able to dress him
self, drive his own car, and recog-
nize his family. Conn is the fattened
up collar-ad boy from Pittsburgh
who holds the 175-pound champion
ship and whose scheduled fight with
Pastor was postponed when % rain
drops and fewer customers showed
up on the day of the bout. Nova,
the Yogi-man, now is in Reno getting
divorce from the effects of the
beating Tony Galento gave him in
Philadelphia year ago. Nova will
prove his fitness in a few weeks by
fighting one Blimp Williams, a 275-
pound fugitive from London's bal
loon barrage.
Now the other two heavyweight
candidates unearthed by the survey
you might not know so much about.
The more prominent is Pat Comiskey,
an Irish youngster from Paterson,
N. j., whose feet don't match but
whose fists do. At 20, Comiskey
stands well over six feet, weighs up
wards of 215, and is more awkward
than collie pup. But there are ifs
tic savants who swear he hits harder
than Louis does, and his record of "a
knockouts in % fights would indicate
that he hits for keeps. He is said to
have developed a superb left hand
in the past year but as really good
left hands are something fighters are
born with and do not develop, you
can take that with an extra shaking
of Morton's.
Promising Prospect
Heavyweight prospect No. is
Charley Ketchuk, Rutheqian who
works out of Endicott, N. Y, an up
state town. He is managed by Jersey
Jones, who, for a great deal of the
year, is engaged by Mike Jacobs to
publicize Joe Louis. But even when
Jersey is handling the publicity from
a Louis camp, he spends good half
of his time beating the tom-tom for
Ketchuk. While this constitutes fifth
columning no one seems to mind,
chiefly because Louis needs a capable
challenger more than he does build
up.
When Ketchuk turned professional
a year ago his board of strategy de-
cided to bring him along slowly, to
teach him to walk the rocky road
of pugilism before asking him to run
it, just youngster out of high school
where he was such good football
player that he was reported to have
received offers of scholarships from
Syracuse, Colgate, Georgetown and
Southern California, he was fed a
steady diet of harmless OATS. And
OATS, not wheaties. is the breakfast
of champions in the making. In 16
bouts he lost only one decision.
Ketchuk started his second year of
busting beaks for money weighing
100 pounds and standing an even six
feet. He doesn't hit as hard as
Comiskey but he is more skillful. He
couldn't be less, as a matter of fact.
His recent victories were scored over
Frank Donofirno, Joe Ogatty and
Wally Sears, three higher grade OATS
than he digested his first year.
AS understand 1t, all five of the
survey contenders want a shot at
Louis. And each is willing to fight
the other. So why not have an elm
nation tournament involving Pas
tor, Conn, Nova, Comiskey and
Ketchuk. with the eventual winner
earning the right to get knocked out
inside Of five rounds by Louis? Sim
pie, say. BY that time someone
may have come along capable of CIV
ing Joe q real fight.