Gus Heyman was the baby of the first American Maccabi team that was sent across to the international Maccabiad at Tel Aviv in the spring of 1932. He was only seventeen years old at the time and a freshman at City College. Yet because of his sterling performance at the Maccabi tryouts in Brooklyn in the winter of 1932, he became one of the gallant band of thirteen men and women that blazed an athletic trail to international glory.
Gus is training intensively for the second Maccabiad that will be held this April. A torn ligament, the result of a race last year kept him out of competition in 1934. Under the expert coaching of Lionel McKenzie, his leg has been put back into its championship form. Careful nursing, diligent running, and regulated exercise has put Gus back into his fine racing stride. He is the outstanding candidate for a berth on the second Maccabi track team.
AMERICAN TRACK AND FIELD TEAM VICTORIOUS
One girl and eight men composed the American Maccabi contingent that competed against thirty nations on the sun-baked stadium at Tel Aviv in 1932. This group was pitted against the foremost track and field men in the Jewish sports world. A man entered in one event had to double in another in order to be in as many competitions as possible. In fact, Dave Adelman, shot putter and weight man, and, Harry Schneider, also a weight man, were entered in every event but the sprints.
The track and field squad composed of Schneider and Adelman, Heyman, Feiden, Dave White (the present executive director), Leslie Flaksman, Harry Werbin and Miss Sybil Koff worked wonders that the world marveled at. They scored a first place in nearly every event. Heymann captured the 100 and 220 yard sprints in record breaking time. Miss Koff accounted for four first places. Schneider and Adelman monopolized the shot-putting, the discus and the javelin throw; White, the broad jumping; Flaksman, Werbin and Feidin the middle and long distance specialties.
As a result of their brilliant performances, the American Maccabi track and field team scored a first place in the ranking by nations.
FOUR SWIMMERS EARN FOURTH PLACE
Eva Bein, Hal Kramer, Gene Siegel and Lou Abelson, the acquatic division of the Maccabi team, captured sufficient first, second and third places to earn a fourth rung in the scoring among nations.
Miss Bein swam second in the 300 metre event and came in behind the leader in the 100 metre free-style event. Kramer, the former inter-collegiate high scorer of the country, knifed through the water to emerge victorious in the 400 metre free-style and also in the 100 metre backstroke specialty. Siegal placed in the money in the breast-stroke event and Lou Abelson accounted for one first, two seconds and many points on the winning relay team that brought up the total.
In all, the points scored by the swimming group and the overwhelming number of points amassed by the track and field contingent earned America a second place in the scoring by nations.
It was a superb victory for a nation with the smallest body of athletes to represent it in a distant land.
PLANS FOR THE 1935 MACCABIAD
Much has been said in these columns of the Maccabi plans for the 1935 Maccabiad. There is much that still remains to be said. The plans of the United States Maccabi group are ambitious. Instead of a team of thirteen, a team of at least twenty-five men and women will be sent across.
Every week the sports committee meets with David White and discuss the names of Jewish athletes who are eligible for the 1935 team. Benny Levine is chairman of the boxing group; Nat Osk, wrestling; Ernie Koslan, tennis; Charlotte Epstein, swimming, and Les Flaksman, track.
These men and women are not selecting the team. They are merely naming those who will be eligible to compete in the national tryouts for a berth on the April team.
Among those rated highly in the track and field division are Harry Hoffman, Milton Sandler, Manny Krosney, Sidney Bernstein, Morton Billig, Gus Heyman and Lillian Copland.
The eliminations will be held next month. The team will sail in March. The Maccabiad will be held in April. It is not too late to get into this splendid Jewish athletic organization.
BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS
New York University has kept its winning streak of twenty-games intact and added Kentucky to its long list of victims by a thrilling last-minute attack that won the event by one point. Sid Gross sank a foul shot in the very last minute of play to provide an exciting climax to a top-notch performance. The score was twenty-three to twenty-two.
Even C. C. N. Y. realized its first victory in four starts when it defeated the Redmen from St. John’s. Captain Sam Winograd showed the way with thirteen points in the Beaver victory over the Freeman quintet.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
