Gert Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

OW could I lavish such
praise on Gordie Howe
without mentioning the other

half of ODetroit’s one-two
punch, Ted Lindsay? That’s
what a hockey fan asks me

in a letter
in shame.

It is true that Howe is a
great star In his own right.
It is also true that over the
past decade Lindsay and Howe
have formed such an effective
pair on ice that it is really im-
possible to separate their per-
formances.

They are miles part in tem-

and I bow my head

perament. Lindsay is an ex-
plosive character, quick of
temper and fists. Howe is
hard to rouse, a man who

seems to take things easy.

“As Howe goes so go the
Red Wings,’ says manager
Jack Adams. It could also be
said that as Lindsay goes, so
goes Howe.

Peppery Ted and easy-going
Gordie go together like ham
and eggs, bacon and beans,
dot and dash, horse and car-
riage.

When they are clicking, De-
troit is sure of another NHL
title (which they clinched
again this week). The pair
do most of the scoring, a good
share of backchecking, and
are adept at taking important
face-offs.

They stick together when the
hockey season is over, too.
Along with Marty Pavelich,
they run an auto parts busi-
ness that makes handsome
profits.

x $e 3 @
Another reader writes to cor-

rect my statement that wrestl-
ling among women is some-
thing rather new. She says
ancient Greek maidens were
so good at the sport that they
often wrestled against men.
(The Greek gals had a word
for it: “Wanna Rassle”?)

Some 60 or 70 years ago the
ancient sport was revived and
girl ‘wrestlers performed at
stag parties, carnivals and
circuses.

Father of modern gal grap-
pling is Billy Wolfe, who train-
ed most of the girls wrestling
in Canada and the U.S. today.

x 503 og

A.E. Phillips of North Van-
couver writes:

“T have watched a lot of
lacrosse, field and box, and I
am one of the many who be-
lieve the field game should
have been changed before the
game was boxed.

“What eventually spoiled
the field game was the long
running duels between the
players. The rules could have
been changed to penalize a
runner after so many paces in
possession without passing.

“An increase in the size of
the goal crease would have
forced the player in posses-
sion to shoot more often.

“But above all take the
game out of the box and back
in the field.

“One of the great features
of soccer football is the con-
tinuous passing and playmak-
ing that the rules encourage.”

.
*& University of Toronto students Barabara Wagner, 18, and

Bob Paul,

19, recently won the world’s figure skating,

pairs championship at Colorado Springs and are looking altead
to capturing gold medals for Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics.

Detroit Red Wings again finished in front in the National Hockey League race this
year. Sparked by Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay, they are favored to win the Stanley
Cup. Playoffs begin next week.

Old Rip would feel at home as
IV puts bowling in big time

By ROSCOE BATES

Bowling was a popular game back in the days when Rip Van Winkle tried to
knock down all nine pins ‘on the village green before he lay down to take his nap.
Today it’s even bigger. Surely it must be the most popular sport in the country, if
you count the people who take off their coats and participate.

Bowling leagues must be numbered in the tens of thousands, bowling teams in

the hundreds of thousands, and
bowlers themselves — well,
there are downright millions
of people rolling black and
brown and pie-bald spheriods
in the general direction of
those ten bottleshaped wooden
sticks.

Bowling has an almost uni-
versal appeal.

You need not be fleet of
foot to bowl, for you take only
three or four steps before you
send the ball a-rolling. As one
great teacher says, “Bowling is
as easy as walking.”

You need not have an eagle
eye to bowl, for the target
you aim at is standing still
and is several feet in width.

You need not have great
strength to bowl, for you are
permitted to choose a ball that
is either light or heavy.

And the ball that is thrown
with the speed of a jet missile
by a giant of a man is no more
likely to knock down all the
pins than is the ball that wends
its slow and uncertain way at
the hands of Aunt Dora.

Little wonder that bowling
has become a big sport for
women of all ages. The bowl-
ing alley has replaced many
a knitting circle or bridge club
as a social centre.

Bowling has it young stars

by the dozen, of course. Yet
few of them can beat such
old-timers as Andy Varipapa,
who is several times a grand-
father and nearing his 70th
birthday. Ed Easter, ex-Marine
sergeant, was a star in top

competition when well past
his 70th birthday.

Bowling is one of those
games in which good luck can
—for a game or two—make up
for a woeful lack of skill.
What bowler has not winced
as his “pocket-hits” left the
10-pin standing time after
time, while the uncertain aim
of his foe found the “Brooklyn
side’—and strike after strike!

Yet in the long run the skill-
ed bowler always winds up
with the better season aver-
age.

Because of the nature of the
game, which gives each man
10 frames just as each ball
team has nine innings, bowling
is free of the stalling and “run-
ning out the click” which
vex the football and basket-
ball fans.

Distinction between the big
leagues and the bush leaguers
is slight in bowling. The world

team champions may bowl on
a pair of alleys just vacated
by a team of long-distance
operators in the local Com-
munications Workers League.

The World Series of bowl-
ing — the ABC tournament —
is open to the lowliest ama-
teurs as well as the world
champions. ~And it goes on
for weeks as a result!

Television has made bowl-
ing a big spectator sport.
Our living rooms have come

to know the hushed voice of
the bowling announcer, tell-

ing us that one man is “on a
turkey” while his worthy op-
ponent must contend with a
disastrous “rail.” Like box-
ing, bowling is ideally suited
for the camera, for everything
can be seen.

Bowling has never suffered
for lack of sponsors, which
come from all walks of busi-
ness and commerce; as well as
trade unions. 5

And you get some startling
matches from time to time,
such as “Immaculate Concep-
tion vs. Orange Crush.”

@ Reprinted from
Labor’s Daily.

MARCH 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 14