Today at Franklin field, the University of Pennsylvania’s mammoth stadium, the nation’s best trackmen will begin a two-day program in which many records are slated to be broken.
The fortieth annual Penn Relay games one of the outstanding and most colorful of track and field meets of the outdoor season, will offer the speed and form fans something they have been waiting for since the I.C.4-A jamboree at the Garden last February.
QUAKER TOWN GAGA
This city, known for its potent sleeping powers, can wake up every now and then. Once in a while when the Philly baseball talent (known in intimate circles as the “A’s”) are in form, the town manages to drum up enough interest to equal a Times Square rush hour scene. The only other time when the Broad Street boys are all upset are the days of the Penn relays.
Athletes from colleges and universities all over the country have filed their entries for this traditional track tournament. The trains last night were jammed with teams arriving from every hamlet and village through which a railroad runs.
In fact, campus spirited fraternities at those schools that couldn’t raise the necessary train fare to Philly have donated the antediluvian frat flivver to their track squads. The Philly streets there fore, are not safe for the next three days. The home folk are ## the students of Temple and the U. of P. for the general traffic tie-up. Late last night they were unwinding a southern university track team’s Model T from a telegraph pole around which it had caressingly wrapped itself.(Oh yes! Philadelphia has got telegraph poles.)
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SENDING LARGE JEWISH SQUAD
Only three universities from the city of New York are sending representatives to the Penn relays. Columbia, Manhattan and N.Y.U. will have large squads on the cinder paths today. However, the Violet team, coached by Emil Von Elling, will have the strongest contingent of athletes from the metropolitan area.
Manhattan college, which won the I.C.4-A team title at the Garden, will not have any Jewish athletes on its teams and neither will Columbia. The latter, nevertheless, has a team of twenty-one men in this city for the track carnival. However, N.Y.U. seems to be making up for this deficiency and almost half of its contingent Jewish.
The Violet sprinters and field men are due to arrive on the eleven o’clock train. The Jewish Daily Bulletin representative in the person of yours truly will be on hand to greet them inasmuch as there is a good chance of grubbing a meal at the Hall of Famers’ expense.
VON ELLINGMEN STRONG IN SPRINTS, FIELD EVENTS
The University Height’s lads, forty-two in number, are regimented into nineteen events. The Jewish athletes who will do their bit on the cinders and over the hurdles are Sidney Bernstein, George Weinstein, Charles Siegal, Eddie Charlop and Danny Skudowitz. In the field events N.Y.U. as entered Julie Finklestein and {SPAN}##{/SPAN} Scheuer, two lads who have {SPAN}##{/SPAN} the metropolitan shot put title in recent months.
Besides these Jewish athletes, N.Y.U. is sure of points for its team title by the performances of George Spitz in the high jump and by Pete Zaremba in the hammer throw. The latter was the hammer throw champion in 1932, 1933 and in the Olympics.
CITY COLLEGE OUT OF RUNNING
The Lewisohn Stadium at City College looks as though a Dillinger outfit had held an annual reunion there. It’s all plowed and dug up and if it’s in the same condition next September Benny Friedman will be able to run a couple of hidden ball blays behind one of the dirt piles. Nevertheless, the spring sports have had to be canceled. Baseball, lacrosse and track have been hit hard. The first two sports are played on their opponent’s fields, but track is suffering most. The sprinters cannot get any outdoor practice and this is the chief reason why City is not sending a strong delegation to the Penn relays this year.
Coach Mackenzie of the Lavender institution did not deem it wise to send a team along to Philly in a poor physical condition. However, it was rumored about the campus last week that Gus Heymann would be the sole representative of the St. Nicholas men in the Quakertown at the relays. Gus is captain of the track men this spring and also was the sprint sensation at the Maccabi games in Palestine two years ago. He set new records at Tel Aviv for the hundred and 220 yard dashes.
This youngster is on the skids this year. He pulled a tendon in the New York Athletic club races early in February and the leg hasn’t responded to treatment, His running thus far is all off form and Gus cannot put too much pressure on the injured spot or else hell be out of competition for a long time to come. In passing up a chance like this Heymann is putting himself in shape for the triangular meet between Temple. N.Y.U. and City which will be held in this city a week from today.
FRIEDMAN BEEFSTEAK DINNER
Last night before we grabbed the midnight train for Philly we dropped in at the beefsteak dinner Benny Friedman, new head coach of the C.C.N.Y. football team, gave to the sports writers of New York. Of course the consensus of opinion around the tables was that Benny will come through with what is expected of him.
Benny had the Lavender lads scrimmaging with the Columbia eleven last week and although the Friedman footballers won’t go as far as the Rose Bowl next season they’ll travel pretty far.
Doc Parker, former coach at the college, was a great fellow but he didn’t have the personality of Friedman nor the magic lure of his name to attract the prospective material that lies dormant in the classrooms of St. Nicholas Terrace. Friedman also has a much better assistant coaching staff than Parker had to help him along. However, we are quite sure that no matter whom G.C.N.Y. gets for a scout they won’t come any better than Roy Plaut, chief aid to Parker and rated by Le Roy Mills, the great kicking expert, as one of the best scouts in the country.
FRIEDMAN QUITE CONFIDENT
Benny is going about his work in a very sensible and sane manner. He is quite cognizant of the fact that the alumni at City College know that he knows more about football than any of them do. As a result he has a free hand to cope with the gridiron situation at the college. But then again you’ll say, anybody can know more about the football game than a City College man.
It is a certainty that Friedman will not win all of his games his first season. Nevertheless we feel more than sure that he’ll break even when the score sheet is tallied up next November.
WRESTLING TONIGHT
Sammy Stein, foremost Jewish challenger for the heavyweight championship, will bid for a shot at either Jim Browning or Jim Londos when he fights against Mike Romano, of Italy in the feature attraction to a finish at Stauch’s Coney Island arena, tonight.
A strong card fills out the bill with Eli Fisher tacking Marshall Blackstock of the University of Georgia.
BOXING SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE RIDGEWOOD GROVE
The Billy Hogan-Teddy Loder scrap is causing a good deal of excitement in Brooklyn. Charlie Green, Jewish bantam champion in the Golden Gloves contest, makes his pro debut against Tony Manupelli of Bay Ridge.
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.
