Slants on Sports

Filled with the balmy zest of spring we came into our office yesterday feeling fine and dandy. Immediately the women’s page editor said to us: “Why don’t you give the Jewish girls a break in your column? After all, you don’t seem to be a misogynist and then again you would be answering a much needed want.”

Not wishing to appear as a prejudiced young man with any qualms and compunctions about writing on sports concerning women, we thought it a good idea to become the answer to a maiden’s prayer. Especially in the spring. At once this department retorted: ##, we were out one evening with the national champion heavyweight woman wrestler but we couldn’t write about that. After all, this is a family newspaper.”

For some time after she left us we kept thinking about the woman athletes of America. We found it a very pleasant occupation. We figured that perhaps if we did devote a column or two to these Amazons we might receive some fan mail as a change from the voluminous pan mail that we’ve been getting from our male readers. With this in mind, this department sat down at the desk and began pounding out a treatise on women in sports.

WOMEN IN SPORTS

The young women athletes of America and of the east particularly are in for a field day this Saturday. In two sports, track and fencing, their athletic divisions are holding championship meets.

The intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association will hold its sixth annual championship tournament on the fourteenth of April ## the East Building of New York University at Washington Square. ## again will the flashing blades of sabres and epees be seen in ation on the strips. N. Y. U., the defending champion, is entering a team composed in the main of Jewish girls. Cornell University, Hunter, Brooklyn, and William and Mary, will also take part in the title matches. Their teams too, are made up mostly of Jewish women athletes.

MISS SEIDEN LEADS N. Y. U. FENCERS

The Violet fencing team, which lost two matches and won three in dual competition this past winter, will be represented by Harriet Graber, Ruth Horowitz and Simone Abbate. Captain Natalie Seiden leads these female swordsmen into the field of thrust and riposte.

The N. Y. U. girls have already beaten Cornell, William and Mary, and Hunter in intercollegiate competition. However, both the Hartford Fencer’s club and the Brooklyn College team defeated the present champions.

GIRL FENCERS ENTERED

Cornell, one of the pioneers in the I. F. W. A., will send a talented squad down from Ithaca. Coach Jose Berman, who also handles the redclad varsity swordsmen, will enter Phyllis Martin, Frances Lauman, Nellie Gordon, and Ruth Bentley.

Brooklyn College in its debut a year ago in the tournament presented stiff opposition to the three older schools. This season the girls from Brooklyn handed the experienced N. Y. U. aggregation its lone collegiate setback. Captain Jesse Lubart, manager Beatrice Goldberg, Stella Fox and Monya Greenstein carry the Brooklyn colors onto the championship trips.

Hunter College in dual matches season bowed to the N. Y. U. ## but won from the Brooklyn ##. Madeline Dalton, Olga Kub##. Frances Novotony, and Pearl Perlmutter are the hopes of the Hunter squad for a title.

N. Y. U. DEFENDING CHAMPION

In the 1933 tournament, N. Y. U. carried off the team trophy. Cornell placed second, Hunter was third and Brooklyn College finished fourth. Miss Frances Siegel of the Violet fencing team won the individual championship honors.

The lassies from the commerce and Square venters of N. Y. U., have won the intercollegiate team title four out of five times since they began heaving sabres at one another in 1929.

The record of the I. F. W. A. Championships:

TRACK TREATS

We remember that one of the greatest thrills we ever had while watching sporting events was seeing Babe Didrikson in action at the 1932 Olympics. She is racing again this Saturday night at the Second Naval Batallion Armory in Brooklyn. Your sports commentator will be on deck to watch her at this women’s national A. A. U. indoor track and field championships.

SYD KOFF ENTERED

We are going down with a twofold purpose. Aside from the rest of the brilliant field that is entered, Miss Sybil C. Koff will be in the race against Babe Didrikson. We have heard a good deal about Syd, as she is known. She first came into prominence two years ago when she won the Jewish sprint championship title at Tel Aviv, Palestine. She was one of the two women members of the U. S. Maccabi team that placed second in international competition.

For this championship meet, Syd has filed her entry for the fifty meter hurdle race. In this event she will meet among others Evelyn Hall, national champion and the world’s best amateur hurdler.

Miss Pearly Young, national indoor fifty metre sprint champion of Williamsburg, Virginia, has also filed her entry for this event. With Miss Young entered, the field in this sprint contest is the best that has ever faced the starter in the A. A. U. title races.

For the male track enthusiasts who may be reading this column, the women’s hurdle events are to them what the Casey “600,” the Wanamaker mile, and the Penn relays are to you!

PHILLY PFLASHES

Long after the City of New York gave up its basketball ghost, the city of brotherly love awoke to the fact that basketball was in season. As a result the Trenton Moose and the Philadelphia Sphas are battling it out for the American League basketball championship in that town.

Philly, which usually goes for a walk along Chestnut street on Wednesday evenings, will be down tonight at the gym on Broad and Wood streets for the final playoff.

Once again let us remind you that the SPHAS are composed of an All-Jewish quintet, Gotthaufer, Lautman, Kasselman, Wofie and Goldman. The latter was the captain of the City College basketball five and an all-American pivot man this past season.

The Trenton Moose has as its most brilliant performer, its best defensive man, and its high scorer, Loui Spindell, a Jewish boy from the Bronx.