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Show WW A V MCE A IT WAS the belief of Rudyard Kip- linjj that "the female of the spe-tics spe-tics is more deadly than the male." fn sunnnrt of this nnirle he intro- luced the she-bear, iie lioness, the fe-anale fe-anale cobra and several sev-eral other entries from wild life, where nature is in !ts raw, or primary itate. Trainer Ben Jones ho has a filly named Twilight Tear under his direction, di-rection, backs up Kipling. For Twi- Graniiant Rice light Tear is easily the top three-year old of 1944, a thoroughbred who could have won Hie Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont going away. As It is she las only won 11 straight races, in-:luding in-:luding the $80,000 Arlington Classic. All of this, however, doesn't prove that the "female of the species" is even close to dominating sport. I (till believe Babe Dldrikson, who la st least first class In 14 major sports -Including basketball, golf, tennis, iwimmlng, diving, football, baseball, base-ball, boxing, running, high jumping, lavelin throwing, etc., might be too itrong a combination for any male. M least she was 10 or 12 years ago. But it is sad news to report that the ladies are still behind the best tf the males when it comes to ranking rank-ing them, game by game. For one xample we might take up golf, a tame that lacks any form of body tontact. I don't believe the best woman golfer that ever lived could come within 10 or 15 strokes of Byron Nelson, Jug McSpaden or Ben Ho-gan Ho-gan In a 72-hole medal test over a championship course. Joyce Weth-tred Weth-tred has been the best. But I doubt (hat even Joyce Wethered could break 300 under such conditions, where the best pros are anywhere from 275 to 280. Certainly such stars as Babe Dldrikson, Dld-rikson, Patty Berg, Helen Hicks, etc., could never meet this pro pace. W omen Tennis Stars In the game of tennis, we might move in Bill Tilden against Helen Willi and Suzanne Lenglen. I know that Bill Tilden has always felt that he could beat either 6-0, 6-0, 6-0. He has played against both often enough to feel that his judgment in this respect was sound. I doubt that either Helen Wills or Suzanne Lenglen Leng-len could ever have gotten a game from Tilden when all were at the main peak. Certainly no woman sprinter has ever been within 10 yards of Paddock, Pad-dock, Wykoff, Jesse Owen or the faster males, in a hundred yard or 100 meter dash. They would all be still farther back from the 220 to the mile. They would ba outclassed in the high jump, the hurdles, the broad jump, In baseball, football or basketball. basket-ball. The women have continued to break swimming records, month by month and year by year. But they are still well back of every masculine mascu-line mark from the 100 yards to swimming style may be. The facts are that so far the women wom-en can't yet play games on a par with the best of the men. In their ranks they have nothing to compare com-pare with the she-bear, the tigress, the lioness, the female cobra, or Twilight Tear. But here is a peculiar slant. In the jungle the female of the species ts even tougher than the male. But it is different along the highway of civilization, if there is any such high way left. Looking to the Future For all of this, it is amazing how far women have advanced in every form of the sport in the last 20 years. Their improvement has been a brilliant bril-liant epic. This includes golf, swimming, swim-ming, tennis and other games where they at least have a chance in physical physi-cal ways. Only give them a little more time. For example, taking each t the top, Babe Didrikson would have been outclassed by Dempsey, Tunney, Bronko Napurski, Ty Cobb, etc., in their major sports. But she would have outclassed them at golf, tennis, swimming, diving, jumping, basketball, basket-ball, and several other major enterprises. enter-prises. . Just how long it will take the women to produce a Twilight Tear, a female better than all the males, is another argument. But if it can happen to a horse, why not to a human? hu-man? It might be. The "female of the species" is at least upon her way. Football Odds and Ends Five football scouts, early starters, start-ers, write me that Walker of Chicago Chi-cago and Vale, is the best college football player in the country, not even barring the pick of the many stars at Annapolis and West Point. It seems that Walker is only 6 feet 2 or 3, that he only weighs 220 pounds, that he is fast and rugged and happens to like the game. For 'the sake of Howie Odell, the Vale 1 coach, I hope he is even better j than the scouts think be is. Howie deserves it- ' |