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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. C PINE-TINGLING sports events of past years were recalled recently recent-ly in a poll conducted by Esquire magazine. Voters were asked to nominate the six greatest sporting events of. the century. The results are, in some instances, surprising. Here they are: 1 The Jack Dempsey-Gene Tun-ney Tun-ney fight In Chicago September 22, 1927. (This was the long count fight.) 2 Bobby Jones' Grand Slam of the four major golf titles in 1930. 3 Jesse Owens' three firsts in the 1936 Olympic Games. 4 The deciding game of the 1926 World Series In New York when Grover Alexander struck out Tony Lazcrri with the bases full as the Cardinals won the championship. 5 Babe Ruth's "called" home run against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series in Chicago. 6 Red Grange's five long runs for touchdowns for Illinois against Michigan Mich-igan at Urbana, 111., October 18, 1924. Why It Won The surprising factor of the vote is the first place position. There n-; L i have been many more important sports events than the Dempsey-Tun-ney fight. But it did get a terrific amount of newspaper space because of the controversy. con-troversy. Then, too, it is likely that more people understand boxing than any other sport. People who don't understand under-stand the rules of Jack Dempsey football, baseball or golf do, possess a fundamental knowledge of fighting. The details of that fight are still fresh in the memory of a good share of adult sports fans. Dempsey dropped Gene in the seventh round of the fight. But Jack refused to go to a neutral corner when first ordered to do so by the referee. When he finally did heed the warnings, warn-ings, sufficient time had passed for Tunney to regain his senses. Gene did so well in later rounds that he won the decision. By an odd quirk of fate, it was a rule Dempsey had helped put on the books that gave Tunney his extra ex-tra five-second reprieve. In a battle with Luis Firpo, the Manassa Mauler Maul-er had Firpo on the floor seven times in the first round. Each time he would stand over the Argentine Argen-tine and then, before he had time to get back on his feet, smack him down again. It was that, as much as anything, which persuaded the boxing fathers to write in a rule stating that, on a knockdown, a fighter must retire to a neutral corner before the count could start. And the rule led to one of sports' biggest arguments. Grand Slam Champ Jones' record is one of the best in all sporting history. One of golf-ing's golf-ing's immortals, he won his first championship when he was only eight years old. As a "boy wonder" in his teens and early twenties he If astounded tne worm of golf by his ability. abili-ty. In 1930, when he was 28, he reached the pinnacle of fame by making the unprecedented un-precedented "grand slam" heading the victorious American Walker Cup team in matches with Great Britain and winning, win-ning, in succession, the British Ama- Bobby Jones teur, the British Open, the United States Open and United States Amateur Ama-teur championships. Then, when most champions are just beginning to hit their best strides, Bobby had no more worlds to conquer. He announced his retirement. re-tirement. Jones did not win his first national title until 1923, when at 21 he beat Bobby Cruickshank in a playoff for the crown of the United States at Inwood Country club, Long Island. In all he won 13 major championships champion-ships the U. S. Amateur five times, the U. S. Open four times, the British Brit-ish Open three times and the British Brit-ish Amateur once. The "six greatest sporting events of the century" are just what each enthusiast thinks they are. It is not likely that very many voters would agree on the top six much less their individual ranking. But it would be a difficult task to find six more thrilling events in the history of sport. Time has not dulled their glamour and that's about the truest of all tests. SPORTS SHORTS C Pitt expects to get 50,000 into the Stadium for its game September 25 with Notre Dame. That attendance would be almost as much as the Panthers drew all last season. C. For the first time in many years the United States Golf association has not issued an edition of golf rules. C Red Lucas, 41, former pitcher for the Reds and Pirates, is getting in shape at his home in Nashville. He figures the manpower shortage may lead to his big league comeback. |
