Bas Yhig crowd of 5,000 attended a “silver collection” Sunday game in 1953. eball fans hope for Sund ts plebiscite ; Vancouver and Lower Mainland baseball fans are hoping that Vancouver's en- "Ty into the Pacific Coast Baseball League will result in a plebiscite this December on the Westion of easing the present ‘‘blue laws’ barring all paid sports events on Sundays. But f SI aren’t forgetting that the last plebiscite, held in 1950, was a “‘rigged’’ affair which voters to choose between the present setup and a “‘wide open’’ Sunday allowing’ Pool, billiards and other forms €ntertainment. ; a 1950 sports fans wanted a! biscite which would give | a 8n opportunity to vote in! ting of a limited extension of | aA ®Y sports. Instead; alder- sku) ae in a bit of political througre ts and engineered al for : = bottom-of-the-deck owing Ea hog plebiscite, Woulq be ae such a plebiscite efeated. a that, more than 25,000 peo- Voted for “wide open” Sun- In 1956 Vancouver will have a team in the Pacific Coast Base- ball League — just a cut or two below big league status — and our ‘white elephant’ Cap Sta- dium will be filled with a roar- ing crowd for Saturday games. The question is, can we sup- port a Coast League franchise without having Sunday ball? It seems unlikely. 4 Vancouver has bought the Oakland franchise. Back in 1946 Teach every school child how fo swim’ By GEORGE BARR : Wh, TORONTO Rhieye Roger Bannister first Wor] a the “impossible,” the Coulg was amazed that a human foy, <2 the mile in less than the «Minutes. But, since then, atrier” has. been broken times by other great ath- And it looks like next lympics will see other pela” records tumble like €ntly however Cliff Lums- ‘ew Toronto accomplish- €thing that will not be i Y anyone else, for a Meta © to come. Forced to ang is N 50-degree water, Cliff Ryde, Comparable coach, Gus Canag, Confirmed once more that Seve. le ay Year’ “Unb ea ‘en-pj The finish the 32-mile National Exhibition’ me None of the other 29 Ts lasted more than eight é and a half hours—Lumsden con- quered the cruel cold in 19 hours, 48 minutes. Following the big swim Gus commented: “I see where some- one has suggested this sort of swimming should be stopped. I don’t agree. There was some- thing like 21 deaths in America football last season yet there’s been no effort to ban that sport. And how about boxing?” Later he pointed out that he had never heard of a fatality in long-dis- tance swimming. It is no coincidence that Cliff Lumsden is a product of, the Lakeshore Swimming Club. So was Marilyn Bell. And so is 15- year old Doreen George, Gus Ryder’s latest protege. Gus’ swimmers are not only the best- trained in their field. They are, also taught the value of team ef- | days and the opposition vote the Oaks drew 633,544 fans as was less than 35,000. | they finished second to San Francisco Seals. This season only | 141,000 attended. You can’t stay jin the black unless you draw ‘at least 300,000. | Success of B.C. Lions proves |that Vancouver is a big town, \ready to support major sports. But unless Sunday ball is al- lowed the franchise may not re- -main long with us. i “It is widely recognized that ia majority of voters in Vancou- ;ver favor some relaxation ‘of the ; present Sunday laws, in order to allow limited sports activities and more recreational and cul- tural activities to be held on the Sabbath,” Effie Jones, president of Civic Reform Association, said in 1950. “No less than nine organizations made _ repsesenta- tions to Vancouver City Coun- cil on the issue, but not a single group advocated a wide - open Sunday any more than they sup- ported the present antiquated laws.” - In 1955 the antiquated laws re- main, because of the trick- word- ing of the 1950 plebiscite. This December, said Mrs. Jones, we should have a plebiscite worded in such a way that citizens would vote for a relaxation of blue laws without advocating a wide- open Sunday. “The fans have asked for a Pacific Coast League franchise and we have done our best to grant their wishes,” said Mayor Fred Hume. “I hope they will show their good faith by sup- porting it in the manner it des- erves.” One way to ensure such sup- fort based on an unselfish ap- proach to people in general and kids in particular. port is to put the question of Sunday sports to a vote in the December civic elections. Gert Whyte's Campbell River, outdoors author, fisherman, farmer and ‘|also a stipendiary . magistrate, drew blasts from most sports writers and promoters for a speech in which he said that professionalism is spoiling sports for the younger genera- tion and is setting a bad ex- ample. Some of the arguments used to demolish Haig - Brown’s statements were valid (such as the one drawing attention to the impetus that many profes- sional sports, like soccer in England, give to amateur sports) but others were ludic- rous and hysterical, including Frank Shaughnessy’s’ wild pitch: “He sounds like a Com- munist to me.” Haig-Brown found this ac- cusation amusing. : . “Almost everyone is called a Communist these days, at one time*or another,” he said. “But I never expected to join that company because of a speech on sports.” Overlooked in the hulabaloo over the author’s comment that “professionalism ruins every sport it touches’ was Haig- Brown’s condemnation of the dwindling amount of play- ground space for children, and his genuine concern for more parks and playgrounds. The appeal for more parks, playgrounds and swimming pools for our younger genera- tion was the crux of Haig- Brown’s speech, and it is un- fortunate that the sports writ- ers on the dailies ignored it in favor of the more “sensation- al” remark on_ professional sports. The fact is 'that amateur sports cannot flourish in a mod- ern city unless parks and play- grounds are provided for the youngsters. “Sandlot ball” is almost a thing of the past, for every vacant lot these days is converted into a parking space. The connection between lack of playgrounds and growth of juvenile delinquency is obvi- ous,, for when kids have no place -to play they naturally gravitate towards street corn- er “gangs.” Haig-Brown put his finger on a sore spot in city life. Van- couver has too many street corner “gangs” and too few parks and playgrounds, man- ned by trained personnel cap- able of arousing interest in clean, amateur sport among the growing generation. ada’s 1954 British Empire Games team, thought Haig- Brown’s slam at professional- ism was “old-fashioned,” but added: “What we might do here in Canada is to get more people competing instead of watch- ing.” Youth will only compete in sports when the facilities are available. Provide the sports grounds, the equipment and the coaches, and we'll have no trouble developing a nation of sportsmen. That’s how they encourage mass sports in the | socialist countries, and that’s jthe “secret” of their success in Leigh Miller, coach of Can- SPORTLIGHT RODERICK Haig-Brown of international competi- tion. sports os Ee With half the WIFU sched- ule completed,, our B. C. Lions are sitting pretty, tied for sec- ond spot snug up against Re- gina Roughriders. Funny thing, though, Lions have won three on the road and only one at home, while losing three here and only one on tour. Guess we'd better keep them travelling. . Against Bombers at Empire Stadium last Saturday the Lions were off form, and should have lost by a bigger margin on the play. But Monday at Calgary it was a _ different story, with every department in top fettle. Result was an impressive display of strength. Coach Annis Stukus hit the nail on the head when he said that the team’ which beats Es- kimos will make the playoffs. If Lions show the strength on the line, in the air and on their ground offensive that they demonstrated against the hap- less Stamps, they just might turn the trick in Edmonton next Monday. x ee so a Foreign track and field re- sults receive scant space in the daily papers, although excit- ing things are happening in the world of thinclads which indi- cates that U.S. supremacy in this department may. be ser- iously challenged in the 1956 Olympic Games. England, which surprised the world by upsetting Australia to capture the British Empire Games, last week won a match against Czechoslovakia, 117 to 95 in the men’s division and 54-48 in the women’s. ‘Britain’s Gordon Pirie beat 33-year-old Emil Zatopek in the 5,000 metres run but the Czech triple gold medalist gained a decisive revenge victory in the 10,000 metres on the last day of the match. 'Zatopek will pass up the shorter runs at Melbourne: and concentrate on distance events. om bo 23 If guys that hang around bars are barflies, sports that hang around race tracks are,, presumably, horseflies. In that case the horseflies will follow the birds to Victoria for the 14-day meeting which winds up the 1955 racing season in B.C. % 5g am Nigel Morgan, just back from the USSR, had many stories ~ about sports under socialism te tell me over a coffee one day this week. He launched into an enthusiastic description of foot- and field meets, sailboat races and whatnot. So I thought I'd put him on the spot. : “How about a guest column on sports in the USSR?” I. asked. ‘ “Okay,” said Nigel, “as scom as I can get around ‘to it.” + Now it’s up to him. i ae o zo Merwyn Marks of People’s Cooperative Bookstore showed me an _ interesting pictorial booklet on sports in New Chi- na, which sells for a few pen- nies. Readers interested in this sports movement should get this picture - pamphlet, called Sport Flourishes in New China, PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 23, 1955 — PAGE VW