Evening star., 1942-06-16
-Four Of Worlds Best
Athletes Rejected
By Army, Navy
Rice, Wormerdom, BIozis,
MocMitcheII Held Unfit;
EwelI, IA, UneoIIed
BY IRA WOLFERT,

4N1 w SxkkAy ~ d4iC AV.-4I O<ShNo a
grape of q bughouse vine to like
track meets since they consist of
fellows in underwear going crazy
every time a gun shoots and running
after each other like the guy in
front had stolen the pants. The
guy In front hasn't any pants on
himself and hasn't any space left
over in his underwear to hide them,
but they chase him anyway and he
sure runs as If they're after him.
There are lots of paunchy looking
fellows in everyday clothes stand
ing around where the fugitives from
the pants are, looking official, but
that is supposed to be only dis
guise. They are of the same vine
because instead of clapping nets on
the fugitives they hold clocks on
them.
Being one of the grapes OF the
bughouse vine, We know exactly how
a track meet looks to one untouched
by same and it Is true that the
people who will pay to watch the
National AAU championships being
contested in underwear here this
week end are likely to run to leggy.
lumpy fellows who wear glasses and
used to chase themselves up ana
down hills in the past when their
naked knees could take a breeze
without blushing.
Some Questions to Ask.
Or there will be retired strong
boys who have grown into SIDES OF
beef with the bones SO deep In
sockets of meat you can't tell they
have bones any more and with lttie
faces stuck up on top OF their
muscles like one of those peanut
hats on a burlesque comedian.
But these people will have con-
tributed about $4,000 to Army
emergency relief by their spectatng
this week end and that entities them
to ask questions Of the Army ana
get answers. The $4,000 Is an IN
credible tab, for track crowd,
putting the fellows on a par WIN
the sour grapes of the same vlne-
the fellows who prefer to watch
horses instead of men chase eacn
other. the horses wearing shoes ana
stockings and occasionally bllnkers
or eyeglasses, but no underwear.
And putting us grapes about twice
over the hole the sane, If somewhat
too crafty, baseball nuts in Philaoei,
phia st. Louis, Washington ana
Cleveland might think OF hloing
themselves in when their support
of Army relief is noted.
Four Out of Five Rejected.
Well the question they want
answered is little complicated, put
we will start on it with toehoio
and work up from there. The nve
athletes who are going TO pun III
most of the 100000 for the Army
are AL Blozis, the greatest SHOT
nutter tnst ever lived; Cornelius
Warmerdam, the greatest pole
yaulter that ever lived; Barney
EweIl. the greatest sprinter, etc.;
Gregory Rice, the greatest distance
man, and Leslie MacMitchell, as
great a miller as ever lived.
Four of these five are not regarded
as fit for service in the armed forces.
And now we have hammerlock on
the question and can throw II 10
you. The question is, why?
Rice runs with truss. Hes out.
The truss doesn't keep him from
being the kind of athlete the rest OF
us ought to be and, once last winter
when it fell off in the middle OF a
2-mile race against Gil Dodds IN
Madison Square Garden, not even
its absence kept him from winning
the race. But he's out anyway.
Miler's Heart Too Slow.
MacMitchell has been trying to
get into the Navy for months now.
No soap. His heart beat is slow,
something like 40 to the minute.
Doctors tell me there never has
been a great miller without q slow
heart beat. The slower the heart
beat the less lactogen in the muscles,
the less lactogen the less fatigue,
the less fatigue the more run. But,
although Macs heart is in the Navy,
they say it beats too slow for them
and won't let the rest q him in.
Blozis, strong man who could
throw shells pretty near as far as a
cannon, is too big for the Army.
They say their tents won't fit him:
Warmerdam, for some physical
quirk, also has been rejected.
Barney Ewell, colored boy with
q picturebook build. has been IA
about a year now, but has not yet
been called, apparently because
there is a separate quota for colored
boys in his district and the quota
is filled. Maybe the district is very
patriotic.
So it works out that four of the
five greatest track athletes of our
time are regarded as physically unfit
by the armed forces. Us grapes off
the bughouse vine are not impressed
by that. We have been called names
before. ....
North American Newspaper Alliance)