got cheers, then cold shoulder Hepburn Doug Hepburn, shown winning a gele me ing finals, told Toronto reporters last week tha bigwigs for their failure to help edat for Canada in the British Empire Games weightlift- “Nfancouver is for the birds’ and blasted local sports him realize his cherished ambition and open a gymnasium of his own. East favored over West in Grey Cup grid clash Few football fans give _ the injury-riddled Edmonton Eskimos anything better than a longshot chance to defeat Montreal Alou- ettes in the Grey Cup final this Saturday, November 27, but Frank (Pop) Ivy, coach of the WIFU- champion Eskimos, _ insists! his gang can cop the big one. “We won every game this year we absolutely had to win,” says Ivy, “and the Grey Cup is such a game.” On paper, the Esks do not rate. But Ivy claims that statistics don’t always tell the tale. Thousands of B.C. football fans will watch the game on TV this Saturday on Channel 2, CBUT. Alouettes figure to win by at least two touchdowns, and back- ers of the Edmonton team shoulc get juicy odds at Toronto, where the game will be played. Moscow footballer tells Spartak story An interview with VALENTIN ANTINEPOK LONDON Moscow Spartak is one of the oldest clubs in the Soviet Union. It got its present name in 1939 and caters for all kinds of sports, not only football. | : Anyone may join the club al- though it is primarily the “sports club of the industrial cooperatives. “Of course all the players are amateurs and we do not have any professional sport. If he has to take off time from work to play, then the club pays his wages. Nor do we have anything like your transfer system. If a man has played one game during the season for one club, then he must stay with that club till the end of the season. Clubs are not allowed to take players from one another. It depends en- tirely on the player if he wishes to change clubs. 3 If he lives in one city and moves to another because of his employ- ment or studies, then naturally he changes clubs too. However players who hold the Master of Sports award may not, generally, leave their club because it is the team which has earned them that award. Only with special permission granted by the USSR Sports Com- mittee, Football Section, can such a player go to another team. The Soviet Union’s national team is composed on the principle of the collective. Thus this year Spartak has formed the basis of the na- tional team. In our country it would be wrong to choose 11 individuals from different teams and call it a national eleven. Because of the size of the coun- try it would be impossible to have players from all over the country coming together for regular prac- tice. In football it is not only the in- dividual who counts but also the collective spirit. ‘For ‘us the method we use in selecting the national team is the best one, although, of course, in countries where it is easier for players from many clubs to come together this system may work! quite well. Montreal quarterback Sam Etcheverry, whose passes racked up 434 yards against Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Big Four final, is expected to fill the air with flying footballs in the Cup final. The last western team to win the Grey Cup was Calgary Stam- peders, in 1948. i : - EO eT AT VV VV AMC Gert Whyte's SPORTLIGHT ACK east in Toronto the world’s strongest man, Douglas Ivan Hepburn of Vancouver, flipped luis lid at the mention of his home town and announced with con- siderable bitterness that “Van- couver is for the birds.” “You may tell the world,” quoth Doug to the Telegram’s Beb Hesketh, “that | am now making it known that | am not from Vancouver, but from Kam- loops. Or New Westminster. I have had a bellyfull of Vancou- ver.” When Hepburn, a man of ample girth, states that he’s had a belly- full of anything, that’s news. Doug often drinks three or four quarts of milk and eats a couple * of dozen bananas before break- fast, just to work up a morning appetite. Warming up to his subject — ‘ the raw deal he received locally -— Hepburn told Hesketh about the shabby treatment he received here on returning from Stock- holm in 1958, where he -won the world’s heavyweight lifting title. On his arrival home by air, he was met by Mayor Hume and newspaper photographers. After a_few moments in the limelight he returned to his single room and loneliness. Later it was arranged that Mayor Hume pay Hepburn $150 4 month to act as a “bodyguard” until the time of the British Empire Games. In order to re- tain his amateur standing, Doug accepted the offer, meanwhile turning down several tempting bids to go to the United States and turn pro. What happened at the BEG is now. history. Hepburn lifted 1040 pounds and won a gold medal for Canada. The moment the BEG ended, Doug’s $150 a month stipend stopped. He was given a tryout with B.C. Lions (from which the Lions derived a great deal of publicity) and then offered $2,500 to play the season. “Some of the guys were get- © ting $5,000,“ says Hepburn. “I may not be much of a football player but, as | informed the treasurer of the club, my pres- ence would sell some fickets. 1! was informed that the joint was sold out anyway. As far as they were concerned, | could grow a white beard and starve to death.” Before leaving Vancouvery Hepburn tried to raise some money to open a gymnasium of his own. Mayor Hume and the citizens of Vancouver weren’t interested in the project. So Doug gave up the battle, turned pro and followed the money trail to the east. * x * It seems to me that Hepburn has a legitimate beef. No other city*that I can think of would treat. a world-famous athlete so shabbily. At Stockholm and at the British Empire Games in Vancouver, Hepburn made. his- tory and splashed the name of his baliwick on sports pages all over the world. Look what Toronto citizens did for Marilyn Bell when she con- quered Lake Ontario, in com- petition against America’s best swimmer, Flo Chadwick. A grate- ful public gave Marilyn some $60,000 in gifts, plus numerous receptions, etc. When Hepburn outlifted the American champion weightlifter, John Davis, at Stockholm, he was given a $150 a month job — but only because we wanted him to win a gold medal for Vancouver ‘and Canada in the British Empire Games. With the Games over, everyone lost interest in the big fellow. lt would have taken only a few thousand dollars to buy or build Hepburn a gymnasium. Nobody was interested. The daily papers here, which named Doug the “athlete of the year,” could easily have raised the money for a gym by making: an appeal in their columns. Nothing was done. Although Hepburn is now a professional, it is not too late to make amends. How about it, you sports edit- ors on the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province? DEVELOP B.C. RESOURCES--PROVIDE NEW JOBS DETITION THE To His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. WE. THE UNDERSIGNED RESIDENTS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CALL UPON OUR GOVERNMENT TO SEE THAT BRITISH COLUMBIA’S NATURAL GAS AND WATER RESOURCES ARE DEVELOP- ED UNDER CANADIAN CONTROL, AND USED’IN THE INTERESTS OF OUR PEOPLE AND FOR INDUSTRIAL GROWTH OF OUR PROVINCE ~ SPONSORED BY B.C.YUKON COMMITTEE, LABOR-PROGRESSIVE PARTY - CLUP AND MAIL TO ROOM 502 - FORD BUILDING, VANCOUVER 4, B.C. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 26, 1954 — PAGE 11 iit