Evening star., 1949-06-30
TuIare Blows lis Top
As Matthias Repeats
As DecathIon Champ
by .hs ksso<io,sd Press

TULARE. Calf. June so
Tulare's Robert Bruce Matthias
still Is the Nations fest decsth-
lon performer ar. TulaI, remains
the happiest city Of l2coo in the
country.
Our Bob" which Is no idle
phrase In this town. captured the
National AAU decathlon crown for
the second straight year and kept
untarnished the brighter glory he
won as the Olympic Games chs.l~
pion last summer at London.
The tall, good looking ls-ye%.r-
old athlete rolled UP 1856 points
TO outdistance q field Of 10 rivals
gathered from all parts Of the
Nation.
1t was the highest score reg
istered since Colorados Glenn
Morris set the American record
Of 1880 points and the world rec
ord Of 1900 points in 1895.
II also eclipsed In this. the
fourth time Bob ever tried the
strenuous l0-event program. his
marx of 1924 in the Nationals last
year and his 1889 in the Olympics.
Gov. Warren Sees kab Win.
Six thousand hometown ad-
mirers. plus a neighbor from
Sacramento. Gov. Earl Warren.
sat for some six hours on the
hard stands of the Tulare High
School track field. and none left
until their Bob won.
There would have been q Mu-
nicipal catastrophe II he had
failed.
The scores went like this:
Bob Matthias. Tulare. 1856.
Irving Mondschein. New York.
7,044; Bill Adams, North Carolina
u, 6,7l5: Roger Terf1lliger. nli-
nois A. c., 6,581; Floyd Simmons,
Charlotte, N. c.. 6.483; Ken Beck,
San Diego. 6,319; Arthur Kurtz.
Culver, Ind, GIFTS: Dean Pryor.
Fredonia. Kans., 6.161; Jim
Mitchell, Fresno. Calf. e.l5l;
Barry Reed. Holy Cross. 6.l2S;
Bill Mitchell, Georgetown Univer-
sity, 6,O83: Dale Keyser. Stockton,
Calf, 6,031; Bill Fleming. South
Bend, Ind. $3.50; Winton. Pasa-
dena, $500: Harley Tinkham. Los
Angeles, 5.767: Bob Mello. Boston.
5.69l; Robert Z. Lee. Chula Vista,
Calf. 1895: Tony Persia, Mar
quette u. 1911.
Mondschein. three time winner
of the NationsI. held the lead at
the halfway mark with 4.o24
points.
But on the opening event Of
last nights closing portion Of the
two-night show. Matthias won the
hurdles and never was headed
after that. It was his show and
Tulare enjoyed 1t to the limit.
Breaks Own Marks.
In return. Bob exceeded his pre-
vious best efforts In i've events on
the bill-the bread Jump, high
jump. hurdles. discus and 1avelin.
Here's what he did In brilliant
exhibition of what 1t takes for an
all-around athlete TO win this sort
Of championship:
He ran the 100 meters In 1l.3.
broadjumped "a feet 4h iAclses.
put the shot IS feet 3 inches. high
Jumped 8 feet u inch and ran the
400 meters In Sis seconds. all the
first night. Last night he won the
110-meter high hurdles In Is sec
onds fiat, threw the discus $50
feet 1lh inches. pole vaulted II
feet 6 inches. threw the javeEi
lit feet 101s inches and ran l.500
meters in 4 minutes $50 seconds.
Quite q display for q lad who
stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and
weighs between l95 and 200
pounds.
The crowd. AAU officials said,
was one of the largest. II not the
largest, to attenG decathlon
meet. Some Of the Matthias fol-
lowers couldn't wait for the oficial
finish to set OF fire crackers. They
blew on a complete head Of steam
when 1t became official.
There isn't much work being
done in Tulare today. Their Bob