Slants on Sports

New York University’s quintet, which swept on to a whirlwind finish last season to give the metropolis its first undefeated basketball team in a quarter of a century and gain complete recognition as the outstanding five in the East, is on the way again.

The Violet scored an impressive triumph over the court squad of Notre Dame last Saturday night, before 16,000 cage enthusiasts. It was the largest basketball crowd at the Garden since the charity games four years ago.

The strong Rambler quintet, which had defeated Stanford and lost only to Northwestern, probably the strongest team in the Big Ten, was no match for the New Yorker’s once its attack started functioning.

Trailing twelve to ten at the half, the smooth working N.Y.U. five started to click in the second period and held its opponents to six points while ringing up fifteen to bring its winning streak up to twenty straight, four of which were chalked up this season.

The outstanding surprise of the week was the downfall of C.C.N.Y. The Holman lads wanted a trip badly and were forced to play the strong Geneva, Duquesne, and Westminster fives in a period of four days. Geneva, which had previously trimmed the L.I.U. outfit by one point, humbled the Lavender by the tune of 50 to 27.

JANICE LIFSON ON CHAMPION RELAY TEAM

Janice Lifson, the 18-year-old senior metropolitan diving champion, competing in Miami for national honors in the 100-yard and 220-yard specialties lost out to the faster Eleanor Holm Jarrett.

Janice was a member of the relay team composed of Dorothea Dickinson, Elsie Ferrill, Elizabeth Harrison, and herself, which shattered the twelve-year-old record, a moss covered standard as swimming ma###s go, for the 400-yard relay. These girls, all members of the Women’s Swimming association, clipped ten and one-fifth seconds from the time required by the “big three”—Helen Wainwright, Aileen Riggin, Gertrude Ederle, with Ethel Gary—in 1922 at the Manhattan Beach Pool. The combined time of Janice’s team was 4:23:6.

George Sheinberg, captain of this year’s City College swimming team and holder of the national indoor title for 500 yards, knifed through the water at the Park Central to win the 100-yard free style in the commendable time of 0:55:4.

PLANS SPEEDED FOR MACCABIAD

With the second International Maccabiad only four months away intensive plans are now under way to make this Jewish sports carnival one of the greatest athletic spectacles of the decade.

Reports from the thirty-four nations which are members of the World Maccabi Union indicate that the number of athletes who participated in the first Maccabiad in Tel Aviv in 1932 will be nearly doubled. More than 5,000 men and women took part in the great sports pageant in Palestine. Ad American team of thirteen athletes—eleven men and two women —earned a second place in the final scoring among nations. The nine members of the track and field unit ran off with individual honors placing first in a competition against twenty-five nations.

The present plans for the United States team include a contingent of at least twenty-five men and women to represent the American Maccabis in the following sports: track and field, wrestling, swimming, boxing and tennis.

RANGERS SET FOR DETROIT SEXTET

Tomorrow night the Detroit Wings face off against the New York Rangers. Plenty of action is anticipated because of the ill-feeling that exists between the two ice teams. At their last meeting in Detroit the Wings took the Rangers for a ride that made them slide to the cellar. A free-for-all in the second period caused the Rangers to place two men in the penalty box. During the four minutes that the two chastened Patrickmen were in the “refrigerator” the Wings pushed over three goals. The Rangers have not forgotten this.

With Ching Johnson, the grand old bogeyman of the Rangers, out with an injured leg, Alex Levinsky, the chunky Jewish lad, will see plenty of action. Les Patrick, manager of the cellar sextet, tried to blame the defensive work of Levinsky for the poor showing of the New York hockey team. He was forced to eat his words shortly afterwards when the stellar play of Alex brought down the contributions of the gallery gods—bales of newspapers. It took the ice-cleaners five minutes to sweep the ice.

MAX BAER RETURNS TO FAVOR AGAIN

Having knocked out the rugged King Levinsky in two rounds, Max Baer is in popular favor again. The thing the fans object to is his clowning antics. Of course, if Maxie wants to resume clowning, that is largely his own business—and a very unprofitable one, as he will testify. It seems a shame that a fellow who can fight when he is in the mood for it gets into the mood so seldom. With his zip, strength, punch, and durability, he could be a great fighter. That he has fallen short of greatness thus far is chiefly his own fault.

BATTLER RILES UNCLE CHARLIE

Because we stressed the Baer statement that Maxie is ready to fight two men in the same night—to with Hamas and Lasky—Uncle Charlie was very sore. While television would have helped, it really was not necessary to know that the hairs of Uncle Harvey’s mustache were bristling like the quills on an angry porcupine’s back when he called us on the phone the other day. (A check-up revealed that he called every newspaper in town.)

“By jiminy-ginger,” snorted Uncle Charlie, “We’ll fight that big clown. We’ll fight him.”

“Who’ll fight what clown?” he was asked.

“Why, we will,” he said, sputtering like a 1904 flivver. “We will. Hamas will. We’ll fight that clown.”

“What clown?”

“Why, Baer—Maxie Baer. What other clown is there? He’ll fight Hamas and Lasky in the same ring in the same night, will he? Oh, he will, will he? Well, not if he does what I told him to do once before. Not if he’ll let Hamas be the first in the ring, he won’t. No, he won’t.

“Baer can fight Hamas before March 10—before the Schmeling fight in Europe if he wants to in a four-rounder.”

Uncle Charlie really had a great many more “by jimminy-gingers” in his belligerent one-way conversation than shown above. Evidently he was good and mad.