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Show I SPEAKING OF SPORTS : By ROBERT McSHANE : NmiW by Wstrn Nwipopr Union MOW that Jack Blackburn, the ' trainer who had been with Joe Louis from the time he turned pro. is dead, the fight mob is wondering what effect this will have on the heavyweight champion. Blackburn was a patient, keen strategist who did more for the Bomber than any other man. He guided Joe into the championship and saw him through 20 successful title defenses. He was one of the ablest rlngmen of this or any other generation. Blackburn, weighing between 135 and 139 pounds, fought the mighty ".If l audi Sam Longford seven times. He earned three draws out of those brawls, and many rate Langford as the greatest of all heavy weigh t s. The fight experts of Blackburn's day remember just how good he was. It is interesting Jack Blackburn to note B,ack. burn met all comers, large and small. There was a good reason. Thirty or 40 years ago Negro boxers bad trouble getting bouts and were forced to go outside their weight classification. So Blackburn fought men of such varying weights as Joe Gans' 132 and Sam Langford's 179. Unquestionably Louis owes much of his success to excellent tutelage. Blackburn's insistence that Joe stay in shape and his sound advice between be-tween rounds of Important fights played a major part in the champion's cham-pion's victories. But Blackburn's death, although It's the heaviest blow Louis ever has received, should not affect him to the point where present-day competition compe-tition will take his measure. And there's a good reason why optimism has a seat in Joe's corner. Joe never has had a great deal of trouble, when rematched with n opponent. Max Schmellng managed to knock him out in the 12th round of their 1936 battle. Joe avenged the defeat by put- ting Max to sleep in the first round of their 1938 contest Bob Pastor has met the champion twice, having run away from him tor 10 rounds In Madison Square Garden In 1937 and having been knocked out In 11 rounds at Briggs Stadium in 1939. Godoy went the 15-round limit In their initial bout of 1940. The South American was knocked out in the eighth round of their second fight. According to present plans, the champion will have only two more fights before retiring. re-tiring. He will meet Conn in June and Pastor in September. This schedule, of course, depends upon whether he can get a leave from the army to go through the regular boxer's . . , . t . Joe Louis training program. If tradition is maintained, Conn will meet his finish in a comparatively compara-tively early round. The same is true (doubly so) of Pastor. Most of Joe's trouble has resulted from meeting unorthodox opponents, oppo-nents, including Paulino Uzcudun, Godoy and Conn. Their styles baffled baf-fled him. If there were any young heavyweights nearing the top, especially espe-cially unorthodox brawlers, the champ might be headed for trouble without Blackburn to advise him. But he already has bad sufficient experience experi-ence with his two remaining opponents. There were only two times when Blackburn was extremely dissatisfied dissatis-fied with Joe's physical condition. Before his first fight with Schmeling, Joe took up golf and spent his afternoons after-noons in the hot sun. Blackburn warned him against it, telling him the dangers of burning up. Subsequent Subse-quent events proved the accuracy the dusky trainer's predictions. Jos never forgot that lesson. The second disagreement came . A I I 4 .J was Bummer. 4uq iusibicu va getting below the 200-pound mark for his bout with Con, against Blackburn's advice. Joe weighed in at 199 pounds and came close to losing the title. But most of the time the champ was more than willing to go along with his trainer's edicts. The two men made an outstanding team. Blackburn was unbelievably quick to pick out a weak spot and to capitalize on it Joe executed his orders with precision and dispatch. Blackburn will be missed, there's no doubt about that but his absence ab-sence isn't going to push Joe from the top rung of the ladder. SPORT SHORTS ft In 1910, George Goulding, Olympic champion from Toronto, walked a mile in 6 minutes 25 and 8-10 seconds sec-onds for a world record. 0. Attendance at National Hockey league games during the 1941-42 season sea-son was up 38,160 over the figure of the previous year. C President Ford Frick of the National Na-tional league estimates that major league fans are returning 200 balls a day. Most clubs are asking fans to return foul balls. They are turned over to army and navy posts. |