The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-05
SPORT MADE US. WARRIORS READY
 ITO ROLL AHEAD
Figures Show Enormous Increase in Sports Inter.
 est Since LastWar
BY JOE WILLIAMS

ASACC WAI1l VuL u4obAAlBuASAlCu VOAls temporary, the World Telegram, that Admiral Halsey might possibly be guilty of excessive optimism in predicting defeat for the Axis pow CTS this year.
 But there Is one statement the Admiral made with which we hap oily and firmly agree; that is, that this armed force of ours is fit and ready to roll.
 One of the answers is we learned 50 much from the other war; an. other is after the other war Amer lea enjoyed it's most spectacular splurge in sports.
 We were always sports minded nation but 1t wasn't until after the other war that we went on a binge of play. From relatively minor thing sports became big business. Golf is a typical example. Where only thousands played before World War 1, millions played in the post war period.
 Gate receipts for spectator sports zoomed to unbelievable figures. This indicated the sports mindedness of the nation. True, merely 1atchlng sports dces not make for individual physical fitness. The man who boasts he never missed 8 ball game at the Polo Grounds in ten years is not the man Admiral Halsey was talking about.
 But this type is probably not com mon. It would be common mostly among the aged. Your young rapio sports fan is also your young rabid ] competitor. We prefer to think this is the fellow the admiral was talk. ing about. Only the highly skilled in any big league of sports can play in the big arenas; to large e%- tent the admiring spectators are those who try 1t the earnest ana hard way but can't quite make the top level of class.
 Going Up!
 Not even the most cloistered pro lessor can laugh of the f1gures which illustrate the rise Of sports In this country since the other war: m the interim we were represented with many stories to the ef1ect that the automobile, the movies and the radio had softened the younger reneration. Everything was com ing too easy. But how about the Oivn1pics and the various interna- tionai meets in which our kids had to face the best of the So-called Spartan nations? We ran them ragged, didn't we?
 Tn view of these facts we cant help but feel the vigorous impetus to sports which came out of the other war, that while so much pup licity was given to the fact tnat 0,0OO persons sat in on, say, a Eose Bowl game, little thought was gwen to the important that ten times that numtcr were probably engaged | in games themselves.
 The admiral stresses how well conditioned the current war ngnter 1 Is. What could that come rom hut sports, or an outdoor lie ap- proximating sports? ,,.
 The other war produceo lew ou.. standing sports figures. Fernaps w weren't in 1t long enough =. alu thanks for that. Perhaps, too, the 1 nersonnel was not as well conol- tioned as this one appears to De- again. you learn from experlence and certainly we must have learned Something about conditioning men from the other war. After the other war there came what has been called the Golden Age of Sports. We had a Bobby Jones, a Bill Tilden, Mickey walker, an Earl Sande, 8 noSt oI others. But none of them were products of war. They came along with the nationwide sweep Of sports enthusiasm that followed the Armis- flee. possibly combination or re- lief and a new approach to what we all thought was going to pc a new way of living.
 The very nature of war is such that if it is going to produce any outstanding sports figures they must be hard hitting, hard bitten, nara | living fellows; in short prize nghters.
 The only prize fighter of any dis tinction the other war produced was Bob Martin, the heavyweight chan1- pion of the AEF.
 what of Tunney, you may ask? Tunney was a professional peiore he enlisted in the Marines. He had l had a number of fights around New York as a rniddleweight. He had fought windups in the smaller cluos. We recall he was good enough to beat one K. O. Jaffe. at the time better than fair fighter. This being so. it cannot be said that Tunney. as a prize fighter, was a product ot the war. That he got something out of the war is most certain. His in- telligence has always been such that no adventure would leave him with out moral or mental profit. Per- sonalIy, we think the main tnmg nc got out of the war was his associa- ton with the Marines; an aosorp. Ion and understanding Of their rugged fighting psychology. Q form of fataIisn based on the bravery or chance and daring, plus Q Dit or planning.
 Landed First ;.
 We saw Tunney that night against Dempsey in philadelphia. We saw him come right out ot his corner at the bell for the first round. walk right up to the killer and pelt nun one hell Of Q punch on the jew the uuEch that won the heavy. weiRht championship. by the way: m keeplng with the traditions or inc Marines he was the firet 70 land !, and we like to think his trainlng with tho Marines gave him this Adventurous inspiration.
 What happened to MnrtinY wen: all he had was right hand ana prize fighters don't get very Tar witn an inadequate arsenal.
 But what we started out to sug- eest is that this war, supported no little by tho greatest e upsufge in nnnrln nau nakinn nNnr knew. VIII