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Norway won in 1952

Winter Olympics attract
big U.S., USSR teams

By LESTER RODNEY

The United States and the Soviet Union will, as expected, have the bigget teams
at the exciting Winter Olympic Games at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy in* January and
February. The Soviets, in their first winter games, will send 145 men and women, which
figure includes a few officials, and the U.S. will have the second largest group with 120.

Then comes the United German team, Norw@y an

Canada’s top skiers are training

eT GS

So Saat

for the Olympic Winter Games.

Jim crow blasted by

‘Rambling

Wrecks’ |

eaieaat Tech has long been and its foothail team made it
famous for its football teams. It) clear they wouldn't budge either
has also been known for its rol-|__ spat player Boby Grier would

_ licking college song:

“Pm a rambling wreck

From Georgia Tech

And a hell of an engineet,

Son. of a, son of a, son of a
gambolier.”

Last week Georgia Tech made
headlines — because its students
had sparked a powerful revolt,
soon spreading to other Georgia
Campuses, against segregation in

Sports.
The immediate issue was
Whether Georgia Tech would

play a Pittsburgh team with one
Negro player in the Sugar Bowl

Same in New Orleans January 2.

But the stand of Georgia stu-
dents had ramifications going
far beyond’ football. It pointed
Up the fact that the white youth
Of the South, and many adults
toc, are breaking with the last-
ditch stand of white supremacists
against integration in schools and
other walks of life.

It all started when Hugh G.
Dodd, an official of the States
Rights Council of Georgia, asked

orgia Tech football coach
Bobby Dodd, for his “coopera-
‘tion” in preventing “a mixing of
the races” at a game.

Gov. Marvin Griffin, former
Gov. Herman Talmadge and
other top state \political leaders
are directors of the council, de-
voted to, maintaining white su-
bremacy and defying the U.S. Su-
Preme Court decision on school
integration.

Griffin promptly responded by
urging the state board of regents
to prohibit “contests with other
ams where the races are mixed
or where segregation is not re-
Guired among spectators at such
events.”

“The South stands at Arma-
Seddon,” said the governor. “The
battle is joined. We cannot make
he slightest’ concession to the
€nemy in this dark and lament-

_ able hour of struggle.”
_ The University of Pittsburgh

be In the lineup and that any
Negro students who wanted to
come along as spectators were

welcome too.

But the most decisive answer
came from Georgia Tech stu-.
dents. :

The student body of Tech of-
ficially wired Pittsburgh! stu-
dents:

“The student body of Georgia
Tech sincerely apologizes for the
unwarranted action of Georgia's
governor. We are looking for-
ward to seeing your entire team
and student body at the Sugar
Bowl.”

Hours after Griffin’s state-
ment became public students
started massing on the Tech
campus. Their demonstration
snowballed into a march of 2,500
students on the state capital. -
The marchers bore signs say-
ing “We play anybody” and sang
“We'll hang old Marvin from a
sour apple tree.” ‘They burned
Griffin in effigy at least six

times and held their lines against

onslaughts from state police.
The spirit even spread furth-
er south in Mississippi where
members of the Jones Junior
College football team insisted
on playing Compton (Cal.)
Junior College, with eight Ne-
gro players, for the Junior Rose
Bowl championship despite
protests by white supremacist
spokesmen. :
When students at the Univer-
sity of Georgia were disciplined

for their part in an anti-Griffin |’

demonstration a new _ protest
demonstration broke. out at the
campus. More than 1,500 students
braved police and state troopers
using tear gas.

Georgia Tech will play Pitts-
burgh at the Sugar Bowl. But
what was even more significant,
jim crow had been thrown for
a loss in the heart of the Deep
South.

d Switzerland with 110 each.

Host Italy and Sweden will
send 100 each, Britain 80, Poland
76, Austria 75, France and Czech-
osloviaka 70 each, Canada 56,
Hungary 50 and so on down the
line.

The largest contingent from
Asia will be Japan’s 30. China,
competing for the first time after
having been voted into full mem-
bership, will send 15 athletes to
this festival of practical co-exis-
tence in which sports once more
shows-the way.

The-U.S. will compete in- the
ski events, and will also enter
formidable teams in the two and
four man bobseld, in the men’s
and women’s figure skating and
the ice hockey tournament. Also
in the 500, 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000
metre speed skating.

The winner of the 1952 Winter
Games was the host country, Nor-
way, which swept the final day’s
ski jumping championships be-
fore 120,000 wildly cheering fans
to nose out the U.S. team. In the,
1948 Winter- Games the winner
was Sweden, followed by Swit-
zerland, the U.S. and Norway.
The first seven countries in the
order of finishing in 1952 were
Norway, the United States, Fin-
land, Austria, Germany, Sweden
and Italy. The ice hockey tour-
nament was won by Canada, with
the U.S. second and the Swedes
and Czechs finishing in a tie for
third.

The competition will be at a
new peak this time. With the U.S.
improving steadily, you would
imagine that the top team con-
tenders might be the defending
champs, Norway, the U.S. and
the newly entered Soviet Union,

the events except ski jump, bob-
sled and figure skating (they hold
the men’s and women’s speed
skating world championships,
and finished second to Canada in
ice hockey.)

In addition to these three, one
has to keep an eye out for. what
will be a formidable combined
East-West German team. The his-
tory of the games also suggest
that the host team makes a speci-
ally good showing, so Italy, with
four years of intense preparation
and lots of pride about being the
host for this grand festival of
athletic co-existence, could well
be some kind of dark horse.

oot:

Australia’s great woman swim-
mer, Lorraine Crapp, who starred
here last year, has broken her
own world record this month and
is regarded as a sure gold medal
winner for Australia in the com-
ing Olympic Games.

¥

\

who are known to be good in all}

Sugar Ray regains title

mn _

to work on Bobo.

Gert Whyte's

Ween Sugar Ray Robinson

cember 18, 1952 and announced
that henceforth he would make
a living as a hoofer, few ring
fans believed that he’d stick to
his decision, and they were
right.

A year ago Sugar hit the
comeback trail, and found the
going plenty tough. “They never
come back,” clucked the experts.

With two wins and a loss
under his belt, Robinson was
given a sHot at the title, held
*by one Carl (Bobo) Olson, who
had recently tried to step up
into the lightheavyweight ranks
and had his brains belted out
by ancient Archie Moore.

What effect did this kayo by
Moore have on Bobo? And did
he train for the Robinson bout,
or was he more concerned about
his mixed-up home life? These

Olson * looked pretty bad the
other night when Sugar Ray

in two.
be: be So

The middleweight division. is
a fairly new one in boxing, for
it was not recognized until 1884,
when the first title bout in the

Toronto.
world title were the original
Jack Dempsey, ‘The Nonpareil,”
and George Fulljames. They
used heavy driving gloves in-

then in vogue, and Dempsey

stanza.

In 1891 Dempsey lost the title
to Bob Fitzsimmons in a savage
13-rounder at New Orleans.
Fitz, who became heavyweight
champ six years later when he
kayoed Jim Corbett, was much
too good for Dempsey, but the
latter refused to quit. “I’m the
champ, and you’ve got to knock
me out,” he said after being
knocked down half a. dozen
times. Fitz obliged.

The next great middleweight
champion (Fitzsimmons soon
outgrew the division) was Stan-
ley Ketchell, a rugged character
who could lick his weight in
wildeats, but couldn’t stop a
bullet which a jealous farmhand
pumped into him during a fight
over a girl. “They shoulda
started counting and Stan
woulda got up,” said his man-

~ ager when he heard the sad

news.

In the Roaring Twenties fight-

hung up his gloves on De-

questions are important because ‘

dropped him for the full count ,

160-pound class was held in -
Contestants for the.

stead of bare fists, which were —

stopped Fulljames in the 22nd .

So they never come back? Sugar Ray Robinson gave this old
ring bromide a jolt last week when he regained the world middle-
weight title by knocking out Bobo Olson in two rounds. Knowing
that it had to be early or never, Robinson wasted no time going

SPORTLIGHT

ers like Harry Greb, Tiger
Flowers and Mickey Walker
added color to the middleweight
scene, but after their day was
done a long parade of second-
raters passed the title from hand
to hand until Sugar Ray Robin-
son, holder of the welter crown,
became a double titleholder by
knocking out Jake La Motta in
1951. ‘

Six-foot ‘Julie Benedic has
signed a Hollywood movie con-
tract_to play the role of the
girl friend of Mike Lane,
giant fighter in “The Harder
They Fall,” based on the ring
career of ex-champ Primo
Carnera.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 16, 1955 — PAGE 11

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