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Show IN WHAT line of professional sport can the athlete or competitor make the most money? Baseball, football, boxing, racing, wrestling, basketball or what have you? The range In salaries from Joe DiMaggio to Bob Feller, according to recent report. was something like $65,000 to $85,000. At the same time, Johnny Lujack was signed up for an amount approximating approxi-mating $20,000 a year. Charley Trip-pi Trip-pi drew down just about the same chunk of cash for 1947. ffiifr Football with its 20 games a season, including exhibitions, can't match baseball with its 190 games, also including in-cluding exhibitions. There are not many ballplayers paid the same as Bob Feller, Ted Williams and Joe Dl Magglo. But also there are not so many football players paid on a level with Lujack, Trippi and a few more. Even as it Is, pro football can make very little money with Its brief season thrown against modern expenses even the winning teams. The others can drop enough doubloons dou-bloons to founder a Spanish galleon. On a general average, baseball and football pay close to the same amounts, with baseball In front. The kickback is that any number of ballplayers ball-players get $7,500 or less a season Stars Lure Crowds What about the pro golfers? A Hogan, Nelson, Demaret or Locke can make from $25,000 to $30,000 a year, but there are not many of these. Only a few stars. Most of the others are underpaid, but it happens to be the stars who draw the crowds. Golf compares favorably, with football for the few who must work over 200 days a year to top $20,-000. $20,-000. The average pro golfer on tour doesn't make $5,000. Club golfers who are also instructors can do much better. Ballplayers also last longer than football players, although such veterans vet-erans as Sammy Baugh, Sid Luck-man, Luck-man, Bulldog Turner and Mel Hein can hang around for better than 10 or 12 years. They are the unbreak-ables. unbreak-ables. Joe Louis can pick up more money in one fight than any baseball base-ball or football player can earn in a big part of his career. The Louis-Walcott Louis-Walcott outdoor Jamboree should play to at least a million-dollar gate. It will be an interesting fight along physical and psychological lines. Louis gets 40 per cent of the take. This means around $400,000, from which his manager takes his cut. whatever it is. In any event, at least $250,000 comes to Louis. The only kink here is that your Uncle Sam, losing no time at all, lops off around 75 or 80 per cent. The morbid facts are that the same collector doesn't leave Feller, Williams and other high-priced players play-ers enough to start a bragging de-' de-' bate. Wrestling Is Steady What about the wrestlers? Some active fact-finder says that Camera will collect around $250,000 for a year's activity. This may be too high. But wrestlers do better than many people know about. It might be remembered that wrestler can operate five nights a week in a rush period. Boxing champions must settle for two or three performances, a year. Jimmy Londos told me once that he made as much as $20,000 a week. Londos was then an incredible operator, oper-ator, also a very highly intelligent human being. The only true answer to this salary sal-ary matter in sport must take in the highest number who average the best pay over the years. My answer here would be baseball, base-ball, where so many thousands are involved In so many leagues. There may not be so many Ruths, Fellers, Greenbergs, DiMagglos or Williams, Wil-liams, but there are more than 400 big leaguers who can knock off from $7,500 to $15,000 a higher average for a greater number. Pro football can almost match this payroll with the two leagues reaching for a rival windpipe. The football players get all the money, and it will be this way until two strong leagues can play at peace. Which reminds us, we almost forgot for-got the jockeys. How about Eddie Arcaro, Johnny Longden and a few more? All they have is around a million dollars each. You know" $100,000 a year is no big overlay. . , Lining Up the Stars It will be interesting to see which teams and which leagues sign up football's leading college stars of 1947. Including all bowl and post-season games played, the seven leading backs of the year were Johnny Lujack Lu-jack of Notre Dame, Bob Chappuis of Michigan, Bobby Layne of Texas, Ray Evans of Kansas, Charley Con-trly Con-trly of Mississippi, Doak Walker of 5.M.U. and Harry GilmeT of Alabama. |