Edmonten ’s Jackie Parker breaks away for one of his great runs. - Is Canadian football becoming Americanized? That Canadian football has moved into the realm of the big business spectacular is scarcely news any more. B cial have become was brought out Canadian managers are in th Where up to and: past $10,000. (the hand of E. P. Taylor is seen behing it) for just under $1 mil- lion for three years. The four teams in’ the league Will play a 14 or 16 game sched- Ule to decide which one will be eliminated; then the second and third teams will play a_total- Points two-game series to decide Which will meet the top team in * Sudden-death final and the right ‘0 enter the Grey Cup final. * x. * Since big business is a throat- “utting racket, it is necessary to. Provide some kind of control; so the Big Four has picked up Judge Allan J. Fraser of Ottawa to be- come the league’s first commis- Sloner, This year the Canadian Same seems likely to become More Americanized than ever, both as to players and rules. Big Four coaches, themselves imports from the -U.S., are ad- Voeating further changes in the ia the East Big Four and the Western Interprovin- oe oe oat Winnipeg meeting of Big Four leaders. e United States signing up American stars for any- TV rights to Big Four games are sold to the Royal Trust Telegram headlined: ‘Tinker away men and we'll have U.S. football one Gay.” How hey have agreed to ,a es pibeking and interference, raise the TD point score to six, as in the U.S. ey say the changes are de- siduke to “open up” the game; but many Canadian fans will re- member that the old Canadian game was pretty fast and excit- ing. No one’s against improving the rules; but in addition to looking at the U.S. game, the impresarios might do well to look at the old Canadian rule book and see if we haven’t buried a lot of : color under the impact of Americaniz- ing the great fall pastime. * * * Each big four team will carry 12 U.S. imports, plus those im- ports who are now classed as Canadian because they’ve lived here for three or four years. It leaves about 20 positions per team for Canadian players. But they'll be paid only a little more | than half the pay going to the 'U.S. stars. The old Ontario Rugby Foot- ball Union (outside the big time leagues) the universities, the high schools and a few junior teams, provide places for young Canadi- ans to get their training; but not the idea that they should work for half the pay of the U.S. im- ports. We’re surprised to find Ted Reeve supports this. No locale for the Grey Cup final has been chosen yet. If it’s in the East, the Shrine All-Star will be in the West, and vice versa; so we'll now have two big attractions every year. As long as someone doésn’t come up and suggest we ought to call them “Snow Bowl” games or something of the sort. But we can expect a move for an inter- locking schedule with the U.S. National Football League a few years hence. (And there may be some merit in a Canadian-U.S. super playoff, half and half rules. There ought to be big money in that one, boys.) many fans will go along with, Gert Whyte's SPORTLIGHT HIS column early for it to contain a re- view of the Winter Olympics is written too at Corinta, Italy. Watch for a roundup of all events next week. * * * Decision of temperental Doug Hepburn to forsake the wrest- ling game is probably a spur- of-the-moment action which he will soon regret. I predict that he will reconsider and rejoin the grunt-and-groaners before many weeks have passed. Hepburn tried to cash in on his weightlifting fame when he was the champion of the world, and found that few people were interested in paying to see him perform his feats of strength. Then he tried out( perhaps it was merely a publicity stunt) with B.C. Lions. Had he be- come a football player he would soon have discovered that it is a plenty rough sport, much rougher than wrestling. When a Toronto wrestling im- presario picked up Doug the big fellow was living on pea- nuts. Now he drives a Cadillac and has a bank account. But, Says Hepburn, the boys are too rough—l’ve been banged around a bit and don’t like it. Fact is, the first requirement of a modern wrestler is the ability to act. He must learn to register surprise, anger, Pain, bewilderment, anguish, and so on. Next he must learn to tumble, so he won’t injure him- self while going through a well- rehearsed routine. A couple of weeks ago I went to the Victoria Ballroom to see Hepburn tangle with a fellow called Mighty Ursus. Doug didn’t show, but Ursus and some friends put on a team match . that had the crowd howling from start to finish, _and left them limp and gasping. Ursus himself merited an Osear for his dramatic performance. Last year Hepburn made in the neighborhood of $50,000, which is a pretty nice neighbor- hood, I’m told. When he learns a bit more than a bear huge — such as how to hit the deck with an ear-shattering crash without breaking any bones — he'll hit the big time and make a fortune. So why give up now, Doug? Fame and fortune await you, if you'll only persevere. Take the case of Primo Car- nera, the giant Italian who was once steered to the heavyweight boxing championship of. the world. Big Primo couldn’t punch his way out of a paper bag, but his managers saw to it that his opponents fell down in a swoon whenever Primo’s right g'ove touched them—and some- times when it didn’t. His managers — and they were legion — saw to more than that. They cut up Carnera’s purses in so many pieces that when Primo finally lost the title he discovered he had earn- ed something like $768 in his entire career, and was heavily in debt — to his managers, of course. ‘Carnera returned to Haly, a disillusioned man. He refused to fight for the Nazis when Hit- ler’s army occupied Italy, so spent most of the war toiling at the wrong end of a mutck- stick. After the war he return- ed to the U.S. and a wrestling promoter hooked on to him. What happened? The story has oft been told. As soon as he learned a few elemertary things, Carnera was sent around the wrestling cireuit and prev- ed a sensation. Money flowed into his pockets, he beughkt a car and a $40,006 home, and now he’s set for life. There’s a moral there some- where, which Hepburn would do well to ponder. « * Ye Although 1956 dawned with Rocky Marciano sitting pretty as heavyweight boxing eclame- pion, and no worthy competitor in sight, it is imevitable that he will be dethroned some day, and the boy who will do it is currently throwing leather somewhere in the world. Most fight experts think they know who the next champ will be. A youngster of 21 by the name of Floyd Patterson. Now, some guys will protest that nobody named Fleyd could, or should, become champion in the world’s roughest sport. Fighters, they say, should carry handles like Jack or Roeky or Gunboat or Joe or Eddie or Tony or Lou. Don’t let the moniker fool you. Floyd Patterson is one tough hombre’ from the asphalt jungles of Brooklyn, who car- ries a kay&t wallop in either fist. He can box, but he also likes to mix it, and had the ability to take it as well as hand it out. Canada’s Olympic team in action against Austria. FEBRUARY 3, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 11 tin’