“Because I know that you’re interested in Jewish athletes,” writes Herbert Leitman of 975 Walton avenue, New York City, “I’m taking the liberty of writing to you about Tex Kleinfeld, former New York University boxing team light weight and Southern amateur featherweight champion.
“Kleinfeld was paralyzed after a bout in the college gymnasium and was given up by the school authorities as a ‘hopeless cripple.’
“Through the kind efforts of a Catholic priest, this boy, a Jew, was able to procure the treatments which brought about his complete recovery. Kleinfeld has been training hard for the last three months and will attempt to make his athletic comeback in the Golden Glove Boxing Tournament this year. His efforts are being carefully watched by the former Golden Glove middleweight champion, Milton Hutner, who was his team mate.
“I know that you will join us in wishing this game lad (who was an invalid for two years) good luck.”
This corner has published this letter as part of an expression of faith in the comeback of Tex Kleinfeld. For an athlete who has been hurt to make a comeback is one of the most gallant gestures in the sporting world. Only a man who has been hurt on the athletic field and who has attempted to play the game again can understand the courage that it takes to overcome the mental handicaps. We wish Tex all the luck in the world.
THE CRIMSON TIDE
“Gus A. Fan,” 705 Felcher avenue, Montgomery, Ala., writes, “As one of the readers of your Bulletin sports section, I noticed that you stated that no Jewish athlete would play in the Rose Bowl for either team. I want to tell you that you are mistaken. Alabama has a ball player who is Jewish from head to foot. He is Leroy Goldberg and hails from Pine Bluff, Ark. He saw action against Stanford and intercepted one of their last-minute attempts at forward passing to stem the Crimson Tide. He is a quarterback. It is expected that Goldberg, although a substitute this year, will make the Varsity grade before he leaves Alabama.”
PHILADELPHIA FAN SAYS:
“It is as difficult to get Dave Smukler, star sophomore on Temple’s football team, to talk about himself and his athletic achievement as it is to catch an untamed lion with a butterfly net,” writes a lad who signs himself “His fraternity brother.”
“Here is a story on Smukler that has just cropped up. Dave was the lone entry from Gloversville High School in the Cornell University interscholastic track meet three years ago, but as generally is the case, the coach and the student manager came along to bask in the spotlight.”
CLEVER AT THROWING DISCUS AND SHOT
“Dave was entered in the shot put and discus throw. Before his turn to throw, the coach asked one of the officials how far it was to that shot put backboard. ‘Fifty-two feet,’ replied the official. ‘You’ll have to move it back a couple of feet, for my boy can toss the iron ball farther than that,’ replied the coach.
” ‘My dear fellow,’ said the official, the record is less than fifty feet. Surely you don’t expect Smukler to break the record by more than two feet, do you?’
” ‘Why certainly I do,’ the coach answered in none too polite atone. ‘I’ll have him hit the backboard for you in a practice try.’ Well, Dave stepped up and smacked the backboard, so the officials were convinced and moved the board back four feet. Dave won the event, a twelve-pound affair, with a heave of fifty-four feet three inches.
“Smukler is also good for 145 feet in the discus throw, and the track coach of the Temple team cannot wait until Spring, for he wants to steal Dave away from Spring football training”
A REPORT FROM GEORGIA
David Leventhal, a sports writer on the Macon Press, sends us an air mail special. “This might prove of interest to some of your fans. Wild-swinging Kingfish Levinsky who stopped here last night declared there are only two heavyweights on this spinning planet—’me and Maxie Baer!’
“Furthermore his knockout last week by Champion Baer was all a mistake.
” ‘Yeah, it was an accident,’ the ex-haddock handler explained. ‘I was coming off the ropes when my foot slipped. Max hit me at the same time. A lucky punch, that’s all.
“‘ I still think I can whip Baer. He’s a great fighter. Oh, a great fighter. He knows how to box and he’s got a wallop.
” ‘But I know I can beat ‘im and I’ll get another crack at that championship. When I do it will be a longer bout and I’ll knock his block off.’ “
WANTS MORE NEWS ON WOMEN ATHLETES
“Writing about Jews in sports is an excellent thing. Jews in sports have needed all the publicity they could get. The only stories on Jewish athletes that are published in the sporting sections of the metropolitan press concern world-beaters such as Barney Ross. Your column on Jewish athletes, whether they be top-notchers or not, is refreshing.
“Nevertheless, don’t you think that you are stressing the masculine angle too much? It is only rarely that you publish a column on Jewish women who are in sports. You might increase your popularity with your female public. There are plenty of good Jewish athletes at Hunter, Brooklyn College, Long Island University and New York University. These girls are excellent basketball players, fencers, field hockeyites and stars in many other branches of sports.
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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.
