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Show Speaking Ski Gt W; Released by Western Newspaper Union. 'TPHE interest shown by the armed -- services in almost every branch of sport is good evidence that Sergt. Joe Louis' exhibition tour to theaters thea-ters of operation will prove to be one of the most popular shows yet staged by the army's special services serv-ices division. Sergeant Louis, king of the heavyweights, heavy-weights, boxed before at least 1,000,-000 1,000,-000 soldiers during his recent five month, 20,000-mile tour of more than 100 army posts. He was accompanied accom-panied by hfs uniformed coterie of five boxers and a trainer. In addition to Joe, the group included in-cluded Corp. Walker Smith, better known as "Sugar" Ray Robinson, welterweight, to boxing fans; Private Pri-vate George ("Jackie") Wilson, SERGEANT LOUIS First Sergt. George Nicholson, Corp. Robert Smith, Sergt. James Edgar and Corp. Robert J. Payne, trainer. It wasn't an easy tour for the boys. They started in August at Fort Meade, Md., on a series of one and two night stands. They swung through New England, reversed their trail, zig-zagged across the northern half of the country, moved down through California and returned re-turned eastward. Grueling Grind ' During the trip they played to thousands of soldiers daily in every army service command, visiting wounded in hospitals, special training train-ing units and soldier prisoners in stockades. They staged impromptu boxing shows and made as many as six personal appearances in one day. There was the usual amount of griping concerning the Louis expedition expe-dition within this country. But it wasn't serious. The routine was for Joe to box two or three rounds with Sergeant Nicholson, who happened to be Joe's favorite 'sparring .partner .part-ner in prewar days, or with Corporal Cor-poral Smith, the other heavyweight. Smith and Sergeant Edgar boxed for three rounds and Private Wilson Wil-son usually sparred with a soldier volunteer. At least one factor kept the tour from becoming the usual two-a-day vaudeville act. Joe often was challenged chal-lenged by an ambitious soldier stationed sta-tioned at some particular camp. The Brown Bomber was always agreeable. agree-able. Be took on the hopefuls and never tried to make a match appear onesided. He never carried his opponent, oppo-nent, although naturally enough be held back on the lethal wallops which brought him a world title. More About Rule Changes Lou Boudreau, major league baseball's base-ball's youngest manager, has placed himself in the ranks of those experts who believe a few rule changes would prove a boon to basketball. Although baseball has brought him his greatest fame, the Cleveland pilot pi-lot speaks with authority concerning the court game. If your memory isn't too fleeting, you'll hark back to the time when Lou, now an assistant coach at Illinois, scored 157 points for Illinois in the 1936-'37 season and helped pace the team to a Big Ten championship. Lou added bis bit to the increasing criticism of basketball rules by advocating ad-vocating the return of the center jump. He told the Chicago Basketball Basket-ball Writers' association that basketball bas-ketball rulemakers should "make the rules coincide with the increasing increas-ing speed of the game." "When I was playing basketball, if a team took between .40 and 50 shots a game, it was considered good," said Boudreau. "Now teams take between 70 and 80 shots. The game is so fast that it makes it tough on players, coaches and officials of-ficials alike. They don't have time to gather their wits and collect themselves as they did in the days when the ball was being brought to the center for a jump." Boudreau knows both sides. An assistant as-sistant coach at present, he played basketball under the old rules, particularly par-ticularly In high school when he led Thornton, 111., to a state title in 1933 and finished second the next two years. Like quite a few other coaches and medical experts he is interested interest-ed in seeing high school basketball slowed down for the sake of the youngsters who -must burn themselves them-selves out trying to maintain the rapid pace. . Many authorities fee:' that today's game is too fast for growing youngsters. SPORTS SHORTS C George Munger, University of Pennsylvania football coach, teaches mathematics during the off season. C Lieut. Ike Kepford, former North-western North-western star, ranks as one of the navy's outstanding aces, with 16 Jap planes to his credit, ft Two catchers, Connie Mack and Buck Ewing, have been elected to baseball's hall of fame at Coopers-town, Coopers-town, N. Y. ft Sports are having their biggest boom in Mexico's history. |