| OCR Text |
Show Ejuiiiitiiiiiiiimiiimuiiiiiimiiiimitw IsiE'sri By ROBERT McSHANE fflaW by Waitani Nawipapar Union 5 LOU NOVA, the big blond heavy-' ' weight from Alameda, Calif., never will be known for his shyness, reticence or lack of ability to advertise ad-vertise himself. For Lu, who has Just recuperated from a brutal beating administered by Tony Galento, has announced to the world in no uncertain terms that he is the contender who will brush Joe Louis off the championship throne as easily as you or I would shoo a fly from our coffee and cakes in the Greasy Spoon Lunch Shoppe. In the face of this grim determination determi-nation it seems a shame to bring, up past history. However, the record rec-ord book shows that Tony Galento, Newark's former pride and joy, disposed dis-posed of Lou in 14 rounds In Philadelphia Phila-delphia little more than a year ago. The book doesn't tell that Nova was whipped in one of the bloodiest battles bat-tles in ring history. The thoroughness with which Nova was beaten may or may not be Indicative In-dicative of hla ability. Galento was a freak a fat, loud-mouthed clown who wouldn't hesitate to use any means possible to annihilate an opponent. op-ponent. Nova like most good fighters fight-ers wasn't particularly well equipped to handle such competition. competi-tion. Curtain of Gloom Shortly after his fight with Galento, Galen-to, Nova was stricken with a strange illness, believed to be an infection in the blood stream. In the hospital for a long time, he was figured by LOU NOVA the experts to be all washed up. In fact, Nova entertained the same idea as did the experts. "When you lay on a cot in a little cubicle in a hospital, you get plenty of time too much time to think," Nova said recently. "I'd lift up on my side and see crutches my crutches standing in a corner against the walL "Those sticks seemed to portend my never walking, let alone fighting, fight-ing, again. Things looked so gloomy that I honestly thought of sneaking out of the hospital some night and jumping off the Go! Jen Gate bridge." But that thought didn't linger for long. As soon as he had disposed of the crutches, Nova knew he could whip anything on two feet. Already he is ashamed of the transient thought that he might not be the world's greatest heavyweight. Last July, quite well on his way toward recovery from the Galento fiasco, Lou went to prison of his own volition. He started to train in the Nevada State penitentiary at Carson City, under the determined hand of Warden Bill Lewis. Nova's novel training site was picked for him by his manager, Ray Carlin. Back in Shape When he quit training In Carson City, Lou was in better shape than he had been for many years. He now claims that his illness was of long standing, and that it had handicapped handi-capped him In several previous fights. But. that, he says, is a thing of the past. He has recovered both his health and his self-confidence. The California Adonis has often declared his longing to fight Billy Conn and Joe Louis. "I don't think," he said, "that Conn has licked any good heavyweight. heavy-weight. That fellow Lee Savold whom he defeated in the Garden a few weeks ago never was anything more than a good preliminary fighter. fight-er. The other heavies on Conn's list of victories were not much better," By and large, Lou holds present heavyweights in rather low esteem. He veers sharply away from the Galento tack, refusing to speak c3 his contemporaries as "dose bums. He reduces their pugilistic stature in a more grammatical fashion. Regardless of his defeat by Galento, Ga-lento, don't sell Nova too short He has a determination amounting to stubbornness but he has always a definite goal in mjnd and unlimited faith in his ability to reach that goal. Sport Shorts Bill Komenich, Marquette's high-scoring high-scoring basketball guard, formerly attended the University of Belgrade. Henry Clason, Northwestern university uni-versity basketball forward, scored more than 600 points during his high school career in Goshen, Ind. Manager Leo Durocher of the Dodgers will bet that Kirby Higbe, Whitlow Wyatt and Luke Hamlin will win more games this season than Cincinnati's Paul Derringer, Bucky Walters and Junior Thompson. |
