Show OF ENE TUNNEY S interview on vj fear in competition is one ot of the most interesting articles I 1 have read write writes H F L he told what fear does to any competitor in any game but please explain this I 1 always have un der stood that most soldiers going into battle were packed with fear fear which they over came I 1 thought the test of true courage was overcoming tear fear it is my gene tunney ion that most brave men are afraid facing death or de feat but they rise above this fear this happens to be by all odds the most interesting angle in sport certainly the brave can be afraid and ad the dumb minus any imagination can remain unafraid A complete absence of fear Is one of the rarest ot of all qualities we have known only three men so blessed theodore roosevelt jr capt eddie and col cal wild bill donovan there must have been many oth ers we are speaking only of the three that we have seen tested where death was a completely un important matter where life was even more unimportant compared to the job they had to do they also had imagination but in the matter of tear fear and courage there is no possible way to compare pare sport with war in this respect they belong in two different worlds A brave soldier might c curl up yi in some competition in sport A A strong sporting competitor might not be so hot in war action two Dt different gerent games sometime back I 1 was talk talking ig with a famous boxer he was an army instructor I 1 cant can t figure it all out he told me when I 1 tap a few of these soldiers in the nose they want to quit but next day aney U 11 go over the top or lead a charge I 1 don t mind being hit in the nose or knocked down at least I 1 don t tear fear it but I 1 don t believe I 1 d lead any charge against machine guns without ducking into the first foxhole I 1 saw I 1 guess it a two dif erent terent games two different an agles here he called the turn two dif terent ferent games and two different an agles that are far apart back around 1911 1 I saw chri christy mathewson cut the corner of the plate against home run baker tor for the third strike and the game the umpire called it a ball which later led to baker s home run I 1 cut two inches over the plate jmatty told me later lie ile had the cour age to do this in a world series A few days later in a golf match mathewson and I 1 p played aye wit with M mike e donlin and fred merkle matt matty missed a putt by three inches his hands were shaking here is the answer baseball was matty a game he had the skill and confidence to meet any situation in baseball golf wasn gasn t his game on a general average I 1 would sa that the basic quality of tear fear and courage in sport must include three factors skill experience and condi condl tion which lead to confidence the c confident competitor who is in shape wadis jhc is experienced who ha hat his share of skill usually comes through few ew are re quitters there are not many quitters in sport quitters don t like hard corn coin petition and the grind needed to gel them up around the top this ap plies especially to football and boxing the body contact games among the most fearless the greatest competitors I 1 have seen in sport are ty cobb babe ruth hans wagner old pete alexander walter waite r johnson bobby jones wal ter hagen gene harry greb jack dempsey gene tunney tommy hitchcock dev milburn and too many football players to even start a count tunney tanney a idea or angle was this get ready with the best you have to give condition Is terribly lm although there are notable exceptions you can throw these out against the thousands who need condition there are always exceptions that prove no rule but once the game Is on whatever it Is fear of defeat and worry about the result must be eliminated for fear of what might happen will upset your brain freeze your nerves and in turn wreck any chance for coordination between mind and muscle desperation often gets credit tor for courage so does raw luck all you can figure on is the gen eral average in 80 per cent of this division you will find those who worked to develop their skill who kept in condition who had the con blence needed to face the problem or tackle the handicap this doesn doean t include everyone it merely takes in the majority including those mentioned above no race or nation has any copy right on courage but those equipped with what it takes to win usually get the call J |