The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-26
PARKER FOOTBALLS BEST BACK DESPITE PHYSICAL HANDICAPS
Most Valuable Mon Looks Like Anything But Gridiron Greot
BY HARRY CRIMSON (NEA Service Sports EditOr)

Princeton, Aug. 26 - Clarence Parker will step out before 75 1000 people between halfs of the meet ing between College All-Stars and Chicago Bears at Soldiers Field, Chicago, Aug. 2S, to be presented with the National Leagues most valuable player award.
 You'd suspect 8 young giant to win such distinction, but Ace Park CT is a dyin' lookin' bloke, as James J. Johnston, the Old Boy Bandit of F1stiana, would say.
 Parker stands no more than 5 feet 10 1-2, weighs under TO pounds.
 He has only average speed.
 He has had more breaks than the St. Louis Cardinals of 1941.
 Yet, among men who know foot ball best, it was Parker over his nearest rival, better than 2 to 1. In the voting, football writers gave him more than twice as many points as Slingin' Sammy Baugh of Wash ington.
 Parker, the erstwhile darling of Duke, is the last man in the world you would pick out of a crowd as a football player. He walks with slouch which makes him appear smaller than he is.
 Parker is not hard runner, but he's master of faking, and be- cause of his all round ability the / opposition never knows what he is going to do. He makes clever use of interference.
 He gives a team a tremendous lift.
 Parker, now 28, assists Wallace Wade with the Dukes every spring, and will become the Old Mans as- sistant when he is through playing the game.
 They say that when Athletic Di- rector Wade has enough of coach ing, he intends to make Parker, his favorite pupil, Dukes head coach. PARKER PLAYED WITH BRACE LAST SEASON
 Parker played his first three games with Brooklyn last fall with a padded steel brace covering his left leg from knee to ankle.
 This was to protect broken fibula and a dislocated ankle suf- fered in mid-May sliding into sec ond base as the Syracuse shortstop.
 Coach Jock Sutherland says he would rather have Parker with a brace than the average back with out one.
 No wonder. All Parker did was complete 49 of III passes, 10 for touchdowns, and score five touch downs, and make 19 conversions He's one of the more skillful place kickers.
 Sparked by Parker, Brooklyn wor ; eight and lost three to acquire thu eastern division championship. The Dodgers trimmed the Nev York Giants for the first time il 10 campaigns. They upset Wash ington.
 Owner Daniel Topping had hi! biggest year at the bucks ofi1ce. ED. bets Field, accommodating 33,00O played to capacity.
 So many were turned away that therell be additional seats this autumn.
 To Brooklyn football filberts Parker is what Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, Kirby Higbe, Whit Wyatt Dolph Camilli and Pete Reiser rolled into one would be to the baseball bugs. Parker is a crowd pleaser without being a showboat.
 They even had an Ace Parker day ... gave the quiet Virginian an au- tomobile.
 Dan Topping garbed Parker in white so he would stand out when the Dodgers reeled of lateral play for newsreel cameramen on Hun Junior School Field here.
 PARKER NOW WAITS FOR RIGHT ANKLE TO HEAL
 Parker fractured his right hand in high school and his right wrist in college. He broke his left hand with the Dodgers in '39.
 He broke his right ankle sliding into second for the Portsmouth, aV. club of the Piedmont League, which he managed this season. But, for tunately, when this break is com pletely mended, surgeons tell him it is such that the ankle will be stronger than ever.
 But the fact re mains that Parker suffered his most serious injuries in baseball. Perhaps that is why he is the first really accomplished base. ball player to quit playing that game to play football. He had trials with the Athletics an d Pirates, batted .397 for Syracuse and BOA fol Portsmouth.
 He completes a two-year contract at $l0,000 per this fall.
 First time An broke my laig, the doctahs said No more football but