Slants on Sports

We go on record in a strong protest against the action taken Wednesday night by the American Olympic Committee in voting for American participation in the 1936 Berlin Olympic games.

We object to America’s entrance into German competition because of discrimination against Jews in sports up to the time Avery Brundage, America’s Olympic ambassador, was sent abroad as a special investigator.

We object to American participation because the Nazi government is Still Discriminating against Jews in sports.

We object to the written guarantee given the Olympic Committee by the Nazi sport official, von Tschammer and Oslen, as another of Germany’s “scraps of paper.”

JEWISH CLUB MEMBERS NOT ALLOWED IN OLYMPIC COMPETITION

In America, the rule is that no athlete can represent the United States in international competition unless he is a member of the Amateur Athletic Union. This stands regardless of race, creed, or color.

In Germany, members of Jewish sport organizations and clubs are not permitted to be members of the Reich A. A. U. and as a result are not eligible to compete in the Olympic games.

KIRBY’S STAND AMAZING

The stand taken by Gustavus T. Kirby, former president of the A. A. U., Wednesday night, was amazing. Unless your sports scribe heard this statement he would have believed it incredible. Especially so in view of the move Kirby instigated last November in Pitssburgh at the national convention of the A. A. U. It was Kirby’s motion that decided the Amateur Athletic body to take a firm stand against participation of American athletes in the Berlin Olympics.

It was Kirby who spoke for the world of sports in the “Case of Civilization Against Hitlerism.” And it was Kirby who made the motion to accept the Nazi bid to 1936 Olympic Games in Germany despite evidences of racial discrimination.

WHAT WE CAN DO NOW!

The American Olympic Committee has only reached first base. They are still a long way from the home plate. However, we are not crediting them wit a hit but a base hit due to an error. With the proper cooperation the runner can be put out before he crosses the tally sack.

American Jewry can reach out to athletes the country over and disseminate the facts that actual sportsmanship, fair play, brotherhood and the true spirit of competition does not exist in Nazi-land.

Jewish American athletes should not participate in the eliminations and tryouts for the Olympic games in protest.

There is still two years before the grand parade of the nations will be held in Berlin. This corner shall carry the fight to the last ditch.

FRIEDMAN DEBUT TOMORROW NIGHT

Benny Friedman’s Beaver lads make their big splash in intercollegiate football tomorrow night at the Lewisohn Stadium. It will mark the first time that a Fried-man-coached team will be seen in action on any gridiron.

The huskies from C. C. N. Y. #ackle Brooklyn College in the ##st of an eight game season. We pick them to win in a walkaway.

Friedman, the former Michigan all-American quarterback, has developed a team that recalls the great 1930 eleven that went through the season with six victories and earned a splendid reputation as the best team ever to represent the Lavender. However, all this is in the past and off the record. A new deal begins with Friedman. His team this year is a powerful unit from end to end with four fine backs to “punt, pass, and pray.”

This first game will by no means be sufficient evidence of the clean sweep made in the City football situation. At least the St. Nick gold fans will be able to see if there is any promise of having City College as great in football as it is in basketball.

GAME TO BE PLAYED AT NIGHT

Not only is it evident that City College has gone football crazy, but what is more surprising, is the news that students are actually buying tickets for the opening game. Hitherto the grinds and studes at C. C. N. Y. never even knew that they had a football team. And, like everything else that comes out in the wash, it develops that the Beaver institution was the first school to play a collegiate football game at night in this country. Tomorrow’s game will be played under the are lights.

Wednesday night, the Beaver eleven had its first taste of night football with a brisk two-hour drill under the powerful glare of the Stadium flood lights. The team had no difficulty with their running plays, laterals and forward passes. The only trouble came in following the path of the long arching spirals from the educated toes of Adolph Cooper and the other punters. Today the team will taper off from its heavy work and merely indulge in a light signal practice. The boys are in excellent physical condition with every man ready for action.

“WE WUZ ROBBED” JACOBS

Joe Jacobs, the stenographer who became a boxing manager, became famous overnight because of his radio debut. Joe never got a big hand despite the fact that he was manager of a world’s heavyweight champion boxer. However, when Joe made his initial radio broadcast he attained world-wide recognition.

Jacobs had quite a stable before he saw the makings of a grand fighter in Maxie Schmeling. He developed the youngster and he brought him to America. Joe proved his astuteness and his boxing shrewdness by the rapid way he was able to bring Moxie to the front. Of course Schmeling’s punches helped him greatly.

But, if we recall correctly, Joe Coccoskey, better known as Jack Sharkey, regained his heavyweight crown from Schmeling via the decision route and this is where Joe stepped into the limelight.

The N. B. C. broadcaster said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’ll try and get Joe Jacobs, the Jewish manager of the German fighter, to say a few words on what he thinks of the decision.”

Said Joe, with the ever-present cigar bobbing from one corner of his mouth to the other, “Ladies and Gentlemen, We Wuz Robbed. I’ll protest it and no matter how you look at it, we wuz robbed. It was all my fighter’s battle and we wuz robbed.”

Recently Jacobs returned from his fifth European trip this year. He had gone abroad in order to be at the ringside of Schmeling, whom he claims will be the next heavyweight champion.

The most pleasant part of his last trip he told us occurred when Schmeling, a German, and he, a Litvack, rode up the streets of Hamburg preceded by a German band.

THE “IMPS” ARE COMING

Monday is the day. Hold everything until then. It’s your last chance, for after Monday you’ll be able to hold on to nothing. You’ll be nuts. Monday the “Imps” will be in our midst, and this is going to be a dizzy, raffy, and dippy town.

Monday, the Jewish Daily Bulletin will begin to run two Imp problems with the Slants on Sports columns (Monday, Wednesday, Fridays). And when we call them problems, believe it, boys and daybook readers, we mean exactly that. They’ll be brain teasers the like of which you’ve never seen before. Cross word puzzles? They’re child’s play in comparison. Anagrams? Don’t make us laugh. The “Imp” problems are just the nuts and they’ll drive you nuts.

Monday we’ll all be “imping.” Women and children first and the devil take the hindmost. Monday we’ll all be mad. Monday the Imps will be here and don’t tell us we didn’t warn you.