Hawks Obtain Levinsky for $10,000

"Streaky" Alex Levinsky, the Jewish lad who was signed by the New York Rangers last year with so much pomp and circumstance, has been sold down the river to the Chicago Black Hawks.

This action does not mean that Alex has been relegated to the limbo of a minor sextet. The Black Hawks are one of the best ice teams in the circuit and it may prove a boon for the former Maple Leaf star. With the Black Hawks Levinsky will have a chance to show the stuff that is in him and to prove why he was considered a crack defense man.

Alex was kept out of a number of games simply because Les Patrick, the manager of the Rangers, didn’t think that he was up to scratch. But the mere fact that the Hawks paid $10,000 for the Jewish third-line man is ample proof of his worth as a defensive performer.

HAS PLAYED HOCKEY FOR FIFTEEN YEARS

Levinsky is 25 years old and has been playing with a hickory stick since he was ten. He was born in Syracuse in 1909 and moved with his family to Toronto in 1914. He learned to skate on a pair of double runners as a kid of seven and took up hockey with a boy’s club when he was ten. At that time he played on the forward wall of the Toronto Junior Hockey Unit and developed such remarkable speed for a kid his age that he was nicknamed "Streaky."

In 1925 he joined the Toronto Marlboros, one of the best amateur groups in the Ontario Hockey Association. He played with this club until 1930, shifting from forward to defense. As a third-line he was considered one of the best defensive men of the Canadian leagues because of his speed, stamina, alertness and ability to take it and hand it out near the net.

Five years ago the manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped in to see Levinsky’s team in the championship play-offs. He was so impressed with the Jewish lad’s excellent defense exhibition that he signed him immediately.

Since that day Alex has been making a name for himself as one of the best counter-attackers in the game. And, after the way the Rangers played last year Les Patrick decided that what he needed was a new team. The purchase of Levinsky was one of the first suggested and Alex was under option as early as last February. Patrick considered this a wise move—the first because of Levinsky’s playing ability and the second because of added box office value inasmuch as the new player was Jewish.

FIRST RANGER GAMES WERE EXCELLENT

In his first few trials with the wobbly Rangers Alex showed his stuff. In the rest of the games— the Rangers as a team went to pieces and could be found all over the ice except in the places where they were most needed. Patrick blamed Levinsky.

Whether Patrick was right in blaming the Jewish skater is another matter. We have disagreed all along. The fact that the Black Hawks were willing to part with ten grand to secure him bears out our conviction in the matter. Levinsky must be good. He wasn’t given the chance in New York that he deserved.

Alex left New York yesterday for St. Louis, where he will join his new team.

N. Y. U. QUINTET SEEKS 26TH STRAIGHT WIN

A. N. Y. U. team that seemed hopelessly beaten in the first stages of its game against Temple unfolded an irresistible drive midway in the first half to topple the Philadelphia five from the ranks of the unbeaten. It was the Violet’s twenty-fifth consecutive basketball victory, a string rolled up during two seasons.

N. Y. U. wasn’t in the game at all during the first half until the last six minutes. Then the Violet, which had taken ten minutes to score its first goal launched a terrific drive that carried it from seven points behind to the lead. At this point it revealed what a smooth, well-coordinated machine it could be. Once having stepped into high speed they continued in this gear for the rest of the game ending with a 38-22 triumph.

The Hall of Fame quintet faces little opposition from the St. Francis five which it meets as its next opponent. The Saints haven’t produced nearly as good a team this year as their usual court squads and should prove no obstacle at all to N.Y.U. in the latter’s drive for its twenty-sixth straight victory.

Sid Gross, the captain, Willie Rubenstein, Irwin Klein, Milton Schulman, and Joe Rosenstein, an all-Jewish five, are the reasons for the Violet’s winning streak. These lads accounted for twenty-six of the thirty-eight points collected during the evening. Other Jewish lads — substitutes—accounted for the remaining twelve. Leonard Maidman scored ten and Tergesen tallied two.

MAX AND BUDDY BAER ON ROSS BOXING CARD

When Barney Ross meets Frankie Klick next week in Miabi Beach for the junior welterweight title, Maxie Baer and his kid brother Buddy will appear in exhibition matches on the same card. This should be a sell-out. It’s one of the greatest drawing attractions on one bill that we’ve seen put together in years. The cash customers will see plenty of serious fighting when Ross and Klick pair-off. There will be enough clowning when Maxie steps into the ring against some rube from the South to assure the government of an added tax for amusement. Likewise, the fans will witness the great art of set-em-up and pushem-over when Buddy faces his man. Buddy will try to add his next opponent to his list of ten busts whom he has fought in the last ten weeks. The card is a natural.