The dizziest heavyweight champion since the Marquis of Queensbury wrote his rules will do a waltz number with Eddie Krakow in the Chicago Stadium tonight. Kid Krakow is known in every fish store in the Windy City as the walloping King Levinsky.
The title isn’t at stake. The four-round fight will be fought with eight-ounce gloves. These mittens, in the parlance of the powder-puffs who have been flitting about in the resined arena for the last decade, are known as pillow cases. Fighters can’t hurt each other when the half-pound gauntlets are used to slap each other’s faces. A vicious haymaker that starts from the canvas on its way to an opponent’s jaw lands on the face like a kiss from Cinderella.
The Chicago Windbag, managed by his sister, Leaping Lena Levy, is no stranger to the Big Baer. They have met twice before. In 1932 Maxie, then just a ham fighter with a killer punch, introduced himself to the Kingfish in a town in California. The name of that whistle-stop isn’t very important but the fight lasted ten rounds. Then a year later, at a way-station by the name of Reno, they waltzed for twenty rounds. Baer won both fights by decisions. Leaping Lena yelled fake and robbery as each decision was handed down.
LEVINSKY LENA’S STOOGE
The King fights all the battles but Lena handles the purse-strings. The few times that the fish-peddler broke away from his jack-in-the-box sister he got himself into trouble. Levinsky owes $5,000 to a fish store in Chicago, which he borrowed from the fishman to run away with Rosie Pincus, his fan-dancing flame who turned out to be a lot of gefulte fish.
Now that the King is back in the good graces of his sister, she has been talking the promoters and Maxie’s managers into her way of doing things. As a result no decision will be rendered in the fight tonight. If either is floored for the full count the referee will quit the ring without making a ruling. Just what are the boys trying to settle?
Lena will be in “keed brudder’s” corner. From there she will direct the fight. She has become famous for her well-timed cues, such as “Hit him in de zeiten, King” and “Bite his ear off, keed.”
CITY FACES TOUGH THREE DAYS
The basketeers at City College voted for a trip last year. As a result their schedule was arranged to include a bit of traveling for the Lavender five. Now C. C. N. Y. isn’t the kind of school to afford jaunts about the country for any of its teams unless the voyages carry a profit along with the ride. The Beavers play against Geneva College tonight and against Duquesne tomorrow evening. They return to New York and face a formidable Westminster quintet on their home court New Year’s Eve.
Geneva is a tough outfit. It handed the point-a-minute men from L. I. U. their only setback in six games. Duquesne is one of the strongest cage teams in the Alleghany district. Westminster is nobody’s pushover and all in all the Lavender may have bitten off more than it can chew.
City College is the only higher institution whose athletes lug books along on a trip.
NEW YORK MEETS NOTRE DAME
The Violet tackles Notre Dame at the Garden tomorrow night in a court specialty that will prove exciting, fast and thrilling.
The Notre Damers are a strong team despite the fact that their six-foot center, Eddie Krause, is no longer with them, having gone the way of graduation. Most of the boys on this year’s N. D. squad are huskies and play the mid-west brand of ball—that of a body-checking, and contact game. The East specializes in fast, shifty and non-contact play. It’s our guess that the Violet will fly high tomorrow night.
92ND STREET ‘Y’ PLAYS SUNDAY NIGHTS
The arch rivals of Jewish Community Center basketball circles will clash for the second time this season when the Bronx Y. M. H. A. journeys to Yorkville to meet the Ninety-second street “Y” Sunday night.
In their previous meeting, which took place on the Bronx court December 2, the uptown quintet outplayed their rivals to the tune of 36-21. The trimming has served only to put the mid-towners in a mood for a fast, hard battle and a complete revenge.
Ten players, all of whom were outstanding with their high schools here, are expected to see action for Ninety-second street. Spike Spunberg and Nat Holman, coach and brain trust respectively, have been pointing the boys for this game for several weeks.
THE MINNESOTA BASKETBALL TEAM
Bernie Bierman’s sturdy Minnesota juggernaut had but one Jewish lad on its sensational football team. He was Bill Freimuth, the 240-pound behemoth who was an immovable obstacle whenever he was sent in at the tackle post.
Now news comes to us that Minnesota has an equally outstanding Jewish athlete on its quintet. He is Eddie Stelzer, a guard, who hails from the Bronx. Eddie was a crack basketeer some years ago and was selected on the all-scholastic team three years in succession.
Jack Weinberg of the American Jewish World in Minneapolis says, “Off to a fair start in the Gopher’s first game, Eddie fell down miserably in the second game against St. Thomas. Court fans thought him another flash in the pan. Against North North Dakota State he was the whole show. He gave an exhibition of ball handling, feeding and shooting that was superb.”
“Also,” he continues, “Mickey Kupperberg, Eddie’s pal from New York, will become eligible for varsity next month. Mickey is another all-city man from Monroe.”
Mickey is the brother of Mike Kupperberg, the lad who led the 1933 City College football team and who was an all-metropolitan guard at Morris High School, the Bronx.
Mike has been raving about Mickey for the last four years. Now it seems the mid-west will do a little cheering.
SPORT CALENDAR ICE HOCKEY AT COLISEUM
A crack sextet from Dartmouth in New York for the week faces off against the St. Nicholas puck chasers tonight at the Coliseum. Both teams should burn up the ice in a fast game. Both sextets are powerful, flashy and the cream of the amateur crop.
The usual custom of free ice-skating for the hockey fans after the game which has proved so successful in the past three weeks is still continued.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.