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Show ,3 I fiCE VE..fe,: IF YOU care to intermingle in sporting arguments today and who doesn't in sport I can lead you to any group of soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen. If : coastguardmen and f merchant seamen, W , 1 and they'll take pp. your ears off. K s P" It has been my Ji privilege to be with Y r S many of these men I V , lately North and I JtA , South, East and v s J West and aU yrv v want answers, dials di-als J JSli rect answers. Grantland Rice This happens to be the greatest sporting sport-ing country this spinning planet has ever known, so you can understand the interest these kids have in almost al-most anything connected with sports. They like to argue about anything. At the last gathering they put out a tough one "Who are the best straight-power men all our games have ever known? Just power. Football and baseball boxing especially? Also, golf and tennis on the side?" If you are wrong, they come back at you in a rush for they know their sports. A day or two ago they laid down a salvo, a fusillade and a barrage that had me dizzy, even looking back over 40 years. Just power raw power never mind the rest of it. Heading the List You don't get much time to think these things over. They come at you like a flock of wolves. Here are the answers I gave them the eager and healthy, the crippled and the burned: Football Bronko Nagurski who, as Steve Owen once said, is the only back who could run , .., . , nmj, his own interfer-ence.Evenhis interfer-ence.Evenhis - 'J blockers got out of , x1 f the way 228 pounds IT 3 " " J 1 of fast-moving dyna- - "'""i" 1 mite. Power means Ay '"""l 1 speed and bulk. Na- g J gurski had both. " u J Bronko is the man H 3" 1 Bernie Bierman of ' l- r' f Minnesota and Iowa fcniimnwi' 4 Navy picked as his Bronko top man in football. Nagurski Largely power. In his fading years I caught Bronko in a shower after some tough game slapped him on the back and almost broke my hand. I might as well have been socking a hydrant. The All-Time Top Baseball Babe Ruth. The Babe hit over 700 home runs In big-league play. On the side he also hit more than another batch of home runs in exhibitions and World Series. The Babe is so far ahead of all the power hitters there is no one even close. Lou Gehrig was a great power pow-er man. Pound for pound, so is Mel Ott. Ted Williams is no punk. Boxing There are only two men to consider in this field Jack Demp-sey Demp-sey and Joe Louis. Pound for pound, they were no better than Ruby Robert Rob-ert Fitzsimmons and Sam Langford. But I'll still string with Dempsey and Louis. Jim Jeffries was a punishing fighter, fight-er, but not a direct killer. Gene Tunney was a box- y'V1 er' Hari7 Greb was Jf st.'Cj a whirlwind, minus I " any killing wallop, ji w Bu WBen Demp- 1 sey and Louis lev- fs&w- eled att' something " always happened in i V-fcX hurry. t s Dempsey had I Ns greater speed than ! - Louis had when the v-ts Old Mauler was at Jack Dempsey hisJ Peak at Toledo and before. Louis had more power in both hands. For power I'll give you Dempsey and Louis or Louis and Dempsey. To my mind the power man of golf has been Jimmy Thomson, with Sam Snead close. I've seen Thomson carry over 300 yards too many times. I hear about other phenoms who can outdrive Thomson. Maybe once in a while. Ask the pros. The power tennis player I'll go with Bill Tilden. Service or forehand fore-hand Big Bill was the top man. I've seen him knock the racquet from th hands of stars, blasting them off the courts when he felt in that mood. Maurice McLoughlin had a high-power high-power service. But the Californian never had Tilden's all-around power. Nothing like it So here are empower em-power men of sport Nagurski, Ruth, Dempsey, Louis, Thomson, Tilden. BRIEFS: C The Chicago Cubs have eliminated their famous sleeveless shirts and will return to standard type baseball base-ball uniforms. The standard garb costs only half as much. C John Jerome White, exhibition ice skater, recently celebrated his 100th birthday on the West coast C Bill Carpenter, supervisor of umpires um-pires for the International league, draws up the playing schedule for his own circuit, as well as for four others. He's been doing it for 25 years. |