Bent Whyte's

SPORTLIGHT

beautifully-

Negro, sporting a
jaunty beard a la Archie
Moore was waiting to enter
the ring for the feature bout
of the evening.

“Is Siki your real name, or
did you take it from Battling
Siki, the one-time boxing
champ?” I asked him.

“It’s my real name,”
wered Battling Siki.

The scene was the dingy
Victoria ballroom one night
last week. My copy on the
legislative session had been
mailed and I was trying to
kill the hours between 10 p.m.
and midnight. Killing time in
Victoria is quite a feat, and in
desperation I had dropped in
to see Siki tangle with Leo
Numa, the Washington log-
ger.

An usher handed me a copy
of the Victoria Wrestling
News, a throwaway advertis-
ing sheet, and I read:

“Siki at 205 pounds will be
giving away a few pounds. to
Numa but he figures he will
make up for this in speed and
stamina and should wear out
his heavier opponent (231
pounds) over the one-hour
limit.

“Siki has head-butted his
way to victory in many west
coast rings during the past
few months but he will be
stripped of his most potent
weapon here as. Victoria
Wrestling _ Commission rules
will be strictly enforced and
head butts will be disallow-
ed. Whether this will ‘stop
Siki in his march to victory
remains to be seen...”

The script was written and
only had to be acted out. Siki
took the first fall, Numa the
second, and then, with excite-
ment at fever pitch, Siki dis-
regarded the referee’s warn-
ings and kept butting a help-
less Numa until he was dis-
qualified. The partisan audi-
ence cheered hero Numa and
jeered and threw paper cups
at villain Siki. Natch.

xt x Ee

A wrestling audience any-
where is divided into three
parts: those who believe every-
thing they think they see;
those who are partly skepti-
cal but get excited on occas-
ion; and a handful of cynics
who- are convinced the whole
oerformance is rehearsed
There were only 250 people at
the Victoria Ballroom, a small

: gee powerful,
built

ans-

erowd consisting mainly of
frenetic believers. They

sereamed their lungs out and
sounded like a pack of Holy
Rollers.

Professional wrestling is
booming in Canada and the
United States, in Australia,
New Zealand, England, Eur-
ope, South America and the
Far East.

Don’t ask me way, for I
don’t know. Perhaps people
get a vicarious thrill out of
it—like the 135 pounder sit-
ting near me who kept yell-
ing, “Twist his arm off! Tear
his head off, Leo! Why, yeu
big bum Siki, Pl take you on
myself!”

Yep, they can’t hurt us -—

when we're sitting well back
in the audience.

Wrestlers never had it so
good. Hero or villain, every
grunt and groan artist today
is making a fat living.

In Toronto 13,000 is an av-
erage crowd. Over 10,000 in
Winnipeg paid to see Hard-
Boiled Haggerty (a five-minute
egg) tangle with world cham-
pion Lou Thesz. In Montreal
close to 25,000 attended a
bout between Rocca and Car-
pentier. And so on.

Run-of-the mill pros earn
$100 to $200 a week, wrestling
two or three times a week all
the year round. Top perform-
ers make from $10,000 to $50,-
000 a year.

It’s better than a job as a
cabinet minister, and you last
longer, besides.

53 tt 5°

Who’s the greatest player
in pro hockey? Montreal fans
will hate me for this, but I
think Gordie Howe is in a class
by himself.

“There isn’t anything he
can’t do,’ says Jack Ad-
ams, Detroit’s veteran gener-
al manager. He’s big and

strong. He can skate and stick

GORDIE HOWE

handle, and he’s the only real-
ly ambidextrous shooter in
the game. I get a thrill every
time I see him in action, and
after 40 years in hockey, I
can’t pay any higher tribute
than that.”

Howe and Rocket Richard
are recognized as the two best
in the business, but many feel
Richard has*the edge on Gor-
die because of his aggressive-
ness and fighting spirit.

Does Howe really jack drive,
or is he deceptively mild? A
look at the record book appears
to answer the question. Four
times he has won the goals-
assists trophy, and may have
his name on it a fifth time if
he keeps up his present scor-
ing pace.

Yet Richard himself thinks
that Howe could be even great-
er than he is if only he’d pull
out all the stops.

Jack Adams says Howe
would score more goals if he’d
shoot oftener. He is such a
great stick handler that some-
times he fools around too long
in front of the net, just for
the joy of outwitting an op-
position defense man.

Rough play in pro hockey sets a bad example for the amateurs.

Has time come for govt action
to stop those hockey brawls?

By GEORGE BARR

Probably one of the reasons why curling has become so popular among younger
players (there are 50,000 registered schoolboy curlers in the country) and is threaten:
ing hockey’s supremacy, is that the broom is used strictly for sweeping purposes. At
one time (or should that be, “‘once upon a time’’?) the hockey stick also was part of
the game — used to capture or control the puck and to balance on turns or sudden

stops.

In recent years, however,
this hunk of Canadian maple
has become a deadly weapon
as well, threatening to turn
our national game into a bloody
farce.

We have always taken a
dim view of this dangerous
trend and deplored the way
our kids are being taught...
directly as well as by example
from .their older. brothers.
Things have really become
grim, particularly in Ontario,
where the professionals, inci-
dentally, have the most influ-
ence.

The Ontario Hockey Associ-
ation, junior, senior and inter-
mediate, has been having an
epidemic of slashing, scalping
and general mayhem which
on February 22 broke out into
open warfare. The referee, in
the game. between Cobourg
and Lakefield, was forced to
suspend operations with 20

SF

Site for 1960

seconds of play left in the sec-
ond: period.

Had he not done so, Mayor
Brunet of Cobourg was pre-
pared to use his police force
to clear the ice. What a sad

and sorry state of affairs our
great national sport has reach-
ed.

Things have reached a pretty

pass when a team from Bala-:

clava, Ontario, decides to with-
draw from the league because
of the constant violence. After
all, they said, we have to work
for a living and we can’t af-
ford the injuries.

If this nonsense is allowed
to continue much longer, it
won’t be just a case of hockey
receiving a black eye .. .
hockey will surely go the
bloody way of lacrosse, and
become a happy memory.

It is not enough to criticize
the Ontario Hockey Associa-
tion executive for not ruling

Winter Olympics is this new ice stadium at Squaw: Valley, California.
MARCH 8, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 14

‘

with an iron hand. Many of
the teams, either for lack of
good players or because it’s
the “thing to do” encourage
fights, arguing with the ref-
erees and other divers activi-
ties alien to hockey.

We've said it before and
we'll say it now. ... This kind
of “play” is fostered by pro
hockey either directly or by
implication. Conny Smythe
and company are equally re-
sponsible, in fact, more so,
than the volunteer workers
who operate the various hockey
groups.

If the powers-that-be don’t
do something) drastic soon, it
will be up to the provincial
governments to call on their
Athletic Commission to step in
and save what’s left of the
game and protect our young-
sters from serious injury.

Take heed, gentlemen, the
proverbial writing is on the
wall. :