Gert Whyte's SPORTLIGHT wrt trepidation I embark on another wrestling col- umn. Trepidation, aye, quak- ing and trembling, for as surely as I utter a word against-the grunt and groan heroes, a flood of letters (two) descends upon me from the frene‘ic followers of the grappling game. Yet how can one take these thespians seriously? Turn on your TV and watch the big boys at play some night. They absorb punishment that, if it were real, would put anyone in bed for a month. How come, then, that wrestlers per- form three or four times a week? Tll go along with those who WHIPPER WATSON say they like wrestling be- cause it’s good entertainment. Entertainment (of a sort) it certainly is. Virtue versus villainy, with virtue (as in real life) not always triumph- ant. Wrestling is as old as civiliz- ation. Perhaps older, for pre- historic man undoubtedly prac- tised grips he could use in hunting, if the going got tough. Excavating parties have turned up evidence that the Sumerians wrestled at feast 5,000 years ago. The Sumer- ians have long since vanished, but wrestling goes on, Wrestling was given a top spot on all the festival pro- grams of Greece and Rome. Next to the discus thrower, the Greeks honored a cham- pion wrestler above all other sportsmen. ~ Curiously enough, early wrestling didn’t differ a great deal from the kind we now see on television. Breaking of fingers, gouging and _throttl- ing were~ allowed. Greek wrestlers could bite, clinch, strangle, punch, kick. Our wrestlers today do all these things, and have added a few novelties of their own. The difference is, the Greeks were in earnest, and the loser was carted off to a hospital or the morgue. Today the grapplers indulge in plenty of play-acting, but real harm sel- dom results. A boxer, tennis player or baseball star is usually through in his early thirties, but wrest- lers travel the gravy train un- til they are 50 or 60, with no apparent ill effects. Among the modern matmen who were performing when wrestling was more or less “legitimate” in the 1930’s the name of that great showman, Strangler Lewis, comes to mind. He put on some thrill- ing exhibitions with fellows like Stanislaus Zbyszko, Dick Shikat, Jim Londos and Ray Steele. In latter years the clowns have taken over (characters like Primo Carnera, Yukon Eric, Mr. Moto) but there are still a few good grapplers around, notably Lou ‘Thesz and Whipper Billy Watson. Whipper Watson is the idol of Toronto fans, and since TV brought him into our liv- ing rooms, he has built up quite a following on the West Coast. Every year the Whip- pah takes a tour across the country to let his admirers see him in the flesh. To add to the confusion in recent years, women have in- vaded the field. June Byers currently “world champ” on the distaff side, and her ap- pearance usually fills the house wherever she goes. Vancou- STRANGLER LEWIS ver fans have had an oppor- tunity to see her. in action recently. No sports writers bother to report wrestling matches in detail, because they do not regard pro wrestling as a seri- ous sport. Not so the fans, who turn out by the thous- ands, get all creamed up as they . watch their heroes grapple with assorted villians and shout their lungs out, Far be it from me, then, to say one teensy weensy word against the ancient and hon- orable sport of wrestling. #3 : roe ss Basketball now outranks soccer as the world’s most popular sport. Or SO. its sup- porters claim. Recently compiled figures show that basketball is played in more countries than soccer, and in many cases draws bigger crowds. It has become a popular spectator sport in the U.S. and “Big Ten” games (above) are televised. Cheetah doesn't cheat, he’s the speediest sprinter on record Ever since the dawn of the human race, men and animals have been running from and after each other. The odds haven’t improved. One of man’s finest achieve: ments on foot is running the mile in less than four minutes, an average speed of about 15 miles an hour. Compared to the grand champions of track and field, homo sapiens hardly gets away from the starting line. The cheetah, or hunting leo- pard, accelerates to a speed of 45 miles in two seconds — a feat that -man can _ scarcely match in his fastest racing car. And when the cheetah really goes into high, gear, it proceeds at some 70 mph — a speed that would interest all ‘ but the most lenient patrol- men on modern highways. It is small wonder that In- dians tame the amiable chee- tah as a hunting companion. The long-legged cat tires in 400 or 500 yards, however, and depends upon outpacing its quarry in the first lightning thrust, the National Geograph- ic Society says. Such sprinters as ‘the Mon- golian gazelle combine ex- treme speed with endurance. Explorer Roy Chapman An- drews reported clocking these gazelles at 60 miles an hour by car for 20 minutes at an average pace of 40 mph.. “Then he quit because he was so darned surprised that anything on earth could keep up with him,” Dr. Andrews said. “When we reached him he was squatting flat on the sand waiting, not winded a particle,” Numerous speedsters have been similarly clocked. Among the top runners are pronghorn antelope (American champion) the black-buck, springbok, lion wildebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, race horse, American elk, red ’ fox, kangaroo, jack rabbit, wild ass, coyote, hartebeest, zebra, greyhound and spotted hyena. Their speeds range from 60 to 40. Even- the African elephant can charge through the bush at 15-25 mph. The clumsy rhinoceros, an unlikely contender for a sped title, has been clocked at 28. As the rhino makes a fierce, unpredictable charge, 28 is a dangerous speed. The giraffe can travel at 28 to 32 mph al- though its long neck is a speed handicap. Not long ago, a pig dashed 100 yards in 17.4 seconds to win a Canadian porker derby in Ontario, In nature’s sweepstakes, ground dwellers rank between those of air and sea. Swimers as a rule, are slow- er than runners or flyers. But some seagoing mammals man- age remarkable speeds. The dolphin, so-called “arrow of the sea” can pace vessels slic- ing through the waves at 30 knots. Flyers get where they’re go- ing the quickest. The peregrine hawk has been diving at speeds of 180 or more miles an hour for countless centuries. Rival aces are the frigate bird, swift, black vulture, and golden eagle. Among insects, the contro- versial deer botfly yields to none. Its top speed has been variously estimated from 50 to 800-plus miles an hour. FEBRUARY 8, 1957 — % Fast as man has become with the development of track and field sports, he is still slower than most animals. A pig, for example, can dash 100 yards in seven seconds. That would leave the fastest human trailing by 20 yards or so. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 14