The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-02-05
TODAY'S
 SPORT PARADE
BY HENRY McLEMORE United Press Staff Correspondent

Phoenix, Ariz., Feb. 5.-CUP):-It isn't every reporter who will literal- ly put his ear to the ground to gather information for his readers. But did yesterday afternoon sat the Phoenix Country club. For two hours I kept my ear tucked in a divot hole bac':: of the 18th green and these are some of the things I heard as the big gallery followed the players in the open tournament:
 The best football player in the country last year was Tom Harmon of Michigan, but he wasn't a. great deal better than Amby Schindier of Southern California. The critic who expressed this opinion was Bob zuppke, poet, painter, monologist, dialectician, psychoanalyst, an d coach of the University of Illinois. Tom and eAmby, I heard zuppke tell a friend, were the only two play~ CTS he saw last year who filled me with ave-" zuppke, unmindful of my ear which he was almost stand ing on with his spiked shoes, said the test of greatness n football back was the ability to get where he started for regardless of what happened to his interference. From end Aniby had that ability" zup said. 1 yS
 Ellsworth Vines was the next to place my ear in jeopardy. He passed SO close that 1 overheard him an- swering a friends question as to- why he abandoned tennis for golf. He gave boredom as. the reason. There is little or no variety in ten his, Vines said. Every game Is al- most duplicate of the one played the day before. Same type of spec tators, same sort of court, same sleeping Iinesmen, same. strokes, same everything. Golf, Vines went on to say, Is just the opposite. You can play the same course every day for year and never have identical shots, to make. The former, U..@ s. and Wimbledon titleholaer also said he thought 1t was tougher to be- come 8 golf champion than a'tenais king because there are so many lore shots to perfect and 50 much more skill and delicacy,, needed*to execute them. sr.ttT <, i;,.. ,-f
 A little old lady. who all but pierced my car with shooting stick emphaticaIiy stated that Jimmy Thompson wa the longest hitter hat golf has ever known. T have watched MT. Thonipscn play many times ai1de he always hits the ball 40 yards" she said! ''Pitts too?,ss Someone asked. "Yes, butts, too. ? From the way Jimmy putted in this tournament the little old lady was guilty of u1lderstatement. That is my own quotation. l4tts. iS'f.:9.,
 When Ed Oliver came up to the 18Th green needing four for as29 foi the Hast nine holes, Gene Buck, president of ASCAP and the man who discoveret such theatrical stars as w. C.. Fields, Eddie Cantor, VIII Rogers, Helen Morgan, Marilyn Mil Ter, Bert Williams and E. Wynn, suggested that Oliver be handed over to a taxidermist, stuffed and sent of to the museum of natural History. &ss.
 Any man who can shoot that sort of score should be preserved for posterity," Buck said. At this point MT. Buck went into a graphic description of the 156 strokes he had needed for the same nine holes the day before. It was at this point i that I took my ear from the ground and got up. Having lost two dollar bet to MT. Buck on the round he was describing, didn't want to lis- ten to his open; shameless bragging.
 Sammy Byrd; who quit baseball to become a golf professional. was be- ing questioned by a reporter when I walked by on the way to the club house. Why did you give up base ball for this gamer" the golf writer wanted to know. "a s.s
 Because I started hitting .250 In the majors" Babe Ruth,s former understudy, answered: T figured 1 could get around agolf course in less than that" z, Someone called me to join them