Show speaking of 01 sporty sports heavies in line for conn after lesnevich win by ROBERT mcshane 11 TJ LJ E NEVER hurt me but I 1 JL n JL had the feeling I 1 never hurt him either its billy conn talking the shanty irish h 1 kid dd who h had a d j just u s t f finished ini s h pum in alris 1 in g out a 1 15 5 r round 0 u n d d decision c i over gus lesnevich new jersey light heavyweight challenger the bout was conns second successful defense an fn e of his title in those few words conn presented his past ring history and foretold his coming pugilistic F career too speedy and clever to ge get t hurt by boxers in his own class he lacks the wallop of a punishing fighter conn won the crown from melio bettina in a close madison square garden fight A month later thi the handsome likeable pittsburgh hopeful invaded the heavyweight ranks against gus dorazio at philadelphia A little more than two months ago he made his first title d defense against bettina in pittsburgh billy won both fights he is exceptionally clever and shifty and is as game as any fighter in the ring today but he is conceded very little chance of stepping CHAMPION BILLY CONN out of the light heavyweight ranks and winning the heavyweight title from joe louis the ultimate goal at which both conn and his manager johnny ray are aiming there are two very good reasons why conn expected to set the heavyweight world on its ear to begin with billy heavy enough and probably never will be beto to fight louis and he never will be able to hit hard enough to stop louis tunney did it it is true that gene tunney outgrew the light heavyweight ranks to whip jack dempsey but the cases are not parallel tunney was a b big 19 man large boned his was a chassis which could carry pounds with ease conn built that way he is small boned and it is doubtful that his best fighting weight will ever be more than rounds pounds theres no question but that he could give big slow moving heavy weights more than they could handle tommy loughran proved what a clever light heavyweight could coul d do against more weighty appon opponents ants even though he was far from a heavy hitter hitler but joe louis is just as fast just as clever just as game as any light heavyweight and is the deadliest puncher in the ring today it is likely that billy will win his share of battles in the heavyweight division boxing history is st studded with the names of light heavies who could and did whip big slow moving bums with no trouble at all it is only natural he is fast enough to cut a cumbersome opponent 0 to ribbons the fact that lie he cant deliver a lethal blow wont keep him from picking up decisions here and there talent mopped up in his own weight class against lesnevich who was the new york state athletic commissions no I 1 contender conn take the brakes off his darting left jab until the fourth round from then on he looked good in the eleventh and thirteenth rounds he had lesnevich groggy hanging clinching and leaning can but lie finish him lie ile lacked a knockout punch by winning the decision from lesnevich conn just about mopped up all the suitable talent in his weight class why both he and manager ray want to crack the heavy ranks and eventually meet joe louis the fact that he would be attacking a giant killer witti with a fly swatter elicits from his supporters the remark that you cant have everything giving away 20 pounds to a heavyweight as fast and dangerous as louis is tantamount to handing an opponent a small ax after the opening bell sounds its still reasonably safe to remark that a good big man can whip a good little man what conn is a good little man it may well be that all the concern anent conns conn s proposed with joe louis is is futile he fight earned the right to fight the champ yet some heavyweight bob P pastor a tor for instance may change the complexion of things before the hopes hope realized of conn and johnny ray are sport shorts SCHILLIG smashing new ART york university end likes bos bo constrictors as pets he fie keeps two of the 20 foot snakes in his home in the bronx gordon Petting ger cr former red wing and jack crawford were the only men to play in all 64 boston bruin games during their drive to the stanley cup last year lefty I 1 odoul manager of the san francisco seals is is operating a tavern in the coast c city W when he pitt t J X 1 blits beat deaso duke 14 aln to wits 13 this season n it was the first one point defeat for a team coached by wallace wade in his 21 years as a football coach Sea Ss biscuit letty lefty 0 odoul 17 times as 33 a two year old before he won a race fritz crisler never has been the winning coach in a minnesota michigan game his minnesota teams were defeated in 1930 and 1931 7 to 0 and 6 to 0 his michigan teams have lost 7 to 6 and 20 to 7 in the past two seasons in six six games five big ten and one against southern california three university of illinois players played more than minutes they were fullback george tackle jim reeder and quarterback ralph ehni cornell basketball squads including varsity junior varsity and frosh will play 46 games this season ten seniors in the notre dame lineup played their final game in the irish southern california tilt tom henrich odthe of the yankees keeps in condition during the winter by playing hockey with an amateur team in massillon ohio his home town paul martinovich of the detroit lions missed only one point after touchdown in three years at college of the pacific A L statistics interesting interesting sidelights on the 1939 american league campaign were released recently by the leagues service bureau statistics show that not one of the chicago white sox pitchers succeeded in chalking up a win over each of the seven rival clubs in sharp contrast was the work ot of cleve lands bob feller who won a majority of his games against every rival club while chalking up his 24 victories feller in fashioning the leagues best record won six straight from detroit two from st louis three out of five from boston new york and washington five out of seven from chicago and two out of three from philadelphia ted lyons finished with the best sox percentage winning 14 and losing six ile he beat washington four times in five games losing the other one on his own error feller and dutch leonard of the senators were ou standing for effectiveness ti veness against first division teams each won 11 games and lost six kindest to opponents were washington pitchers ken chese and joe krakauskas chase lost five to cleveland and krakauskas the same number to detroit |