Evening star., 1948-04-14
Career Of Ex-Hoyo Bordeou Bit Fantastic
Was Star in First Grid Come He Sow Had Odd Ring Mat Record
By Lewis T. Atchison


Sports have been good to me-"
repeated te Roy (Ox) Bordeau.
in a voice as soft as velvet and
precise as an adding machine. Il
think I was the first kid from the
little red schoolhouse in my town
to go to high school and sports
got me there. I wouldn't have
gotten 4 college education II it
hadn't been for athletics-foot-
ball in particular-and I'm very
grateful"
Bordeau's story begins in the
village of Reynoldstown, N Y,
about Is miles from Malone,
N. Y" and in some instances
sounds utterly incredible. He
played in the first football game
he ever saw and was so green
that when his team missed the
try for extra point, OK grabbed
the ball and ran 80 yards to the
other goalline. He got his chance
to go to high school because an
other boy, son Of the owner Of
the lumber camp where Bordeau
worked as a kid, thought he had
the perfect physique for football.
A lot of others thought so, too,
before Bordeau was through.
OK told us about it in the taste
fully appointed living room Of his
home on Kennedy street. He's
a diamond broker now and we
couldn't help thinking how differ
ent it was from the days when
the one-time Georgetown full
back attended Franklin Academy
in Malone. He lived in a $1-a-
week room then, existed on q
$1-a-week allowance, and cooked
most of his meals with rations
from his farm home.
The thick-chested youngster
from the pine-scented forests Of
Northern New York caught on
rapidly in football. In his senior
year when Franklin's star half
back was injured in the cham
pionship game with saranac Ok
carried the ball SO consecutive
times. same play through the
same hole, and personally scored
the points that gave his team a
1914 victory. That brought.
scouts to Franklin like bees to q
honeysuckle vine and OK chose
Georgetown because he wanted
to see some of the world and it
seemed farthest from home.
He returned to New York in
the summer, first to work In
lumber camps where he had
been a champion "spudder,"
man who strips the bark from
trees after the limbs haves been
removed, and later to pursue an
extracurricular sports career that
reads like page OF fiction. He
learned to box under Jim Nc
Namara at Georgetown and
acquired . good reputation in
collegiate circles, so when sum-
mer rolled around the home
town promoter usually had an
extensive itinerary lined up for
him. Irregular, you ask? Not
when your tummy gets too
chummy with the backbone and
you're hungry for an education
as well.
Il piled up Is straight knock
outs" OK recalled, so one Fourth
of July I was booked for a six %
rounder with Red Walker, a
cagey old soldier. Ny lumber
camp friends came from miles
around to see the fight and bet
their shirts on me. Walker fought
il a crouch, something I'd never
seen before, and when I Waded
in. trying for another knockout,
all I hit was arms, elbows,
shoulders and the seat Of his
pants. T.. n. - -
He knocked me down three
times in the first round, four
times in the second, and 50 often
in the next three rounds I lost
count. At the end of the fifth
I was wondering If I could make
it to the center of the ring to
finish the bout. I had to go out