One of the athletic figures of the earlier years of the Amateur Athletic Union has come back some three decades later to accept the highest honor it can bestow—its presidency. Jeremiah T. Mahoney of New York was chosen at Miami by unanimous vote to succeed Avery Brundage as the head of the A.A.U.
It is an eminently fitting selection. In Judge Mahoney the A.A.U. has an aggressive, forceful leader, a man who has made his mark in the world in other fields and who will bring those same characteristics into his new office with him.
The Jewish Daily Bulletin, knowing Mr. Mahoney as a keen, intelligent and honest man asks him four questions on the American Olympic situation.
1. What is his stand on America’s acceptance to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
2. Was Avery Brundage’s statement to the American Olympic Committee in urging acceptance of the Nazi bid made in good faith?
3. How does he explain the fact that the 1933 A.A.U. resolution condemning any action toward acceptance was not even brought to the open floor at the 1934 convention in Miami?
4. Will he give his pledge that he will bring up the question of acceptance to the 1936 Olympic Games if there is any doubt in his mind whether Germany has discriminated against Jews in sports?
JEWS IN SPORTS
Mike Kupperberg, former captain of the City College football team, dropped in to our office the other day to talk about his brother Mickey, who was just declared eligible to play on the Minnesota varsity basketball team.
Mike raved about Mickey. "He’s a great basketball player. Holman wanted him to register at City but I told the kid he’d have a better chance of getting a job afterwards if he went to a big time school like Minnesota."
"You remember how good he was on the James Monroe High School team two years ago. He made every all-scholastic and all-city five that was picked by the experts. Eddie Stelzer and Mickey are out there now and they’re both making good. Mickey wasn’t so hot in his first game but he’s got the stuff. Here’s a letter in which he says how tickled the coach is that he was declared varsity material. It’s the first time in eleven years, he claims, that two Jewish boys have played on the Minnesota basketball team."
MIKE A GOOD ATHLETE TOO
Mike also was a good athlete in his day. He was picked as the best athlete of the college when he was graduated in 1933. He led the frosh footballers in 1930 and was captain of the Beavers under Doc Parker in 1933. He also wrestled in the heavyweight division. As a catcher on the college nine he was unexcelled. A veritable tower of strength he was jinxed by physical misfortune.
Mike once played football with a fractured rib plastered together. His collarbone was cracked twice but the boy still loves athletics.
Some years ago, in order to keep in trim, he joined a Y. M. C. A.
This ‘Y’ was very near his home and allowed Mike the free use of the gym and pool on condition that he participate in its athletics. As an active athlete for that organization he entered the Catholic regional wrestling tournament.
We received a ticket from his organization one day inviting us to attend the championship matches. We went and we recall the scene quite vividly. It was the final match in the heavyweight listings. The announcer bellowed forth in a stentorian voice . . . "For the heavyweight title of the Catholic regional championships of Greater New York . . . introducing Meyer Kupperberg."
THE MERIT AWARD
Each year the publishers of Ring, a boxing magazine, select a man "who did most for boxing in one year." A gold boxing belt is awarded to the man thus chosen.
Barney Ross, lightweight champion of the world, became the first Jewish fighter in history to receive the Merit Award as the outstanding fighter, the greatest attraction and the boxer who helped the game most.
This year Barney was elected as the greatest fighter of 1934. And, immediately, rumors along cauliflower row had it that Barney was the logical recipient of the Merit Award for the past year. Nat Fleischer, the publisher, would not confirm the statement but intimated that "Barney was the best bet."
Buddy Baer is the outstanding fighter whom the experts claim did boxing for most in 1934.
THE SPORTING CALENDAR 92D STREET ‘Y’—WRESTLING TONIGHT
The wrestlers of the 92d street Y. M. H. A. having beaten the strong 23d street Y. M. C. A. heave-and-toss men take on the Bensonhurst burpers, officially known as the matmen, from the Jewish Community Center of Bensonhurst.
The Manhattan team will once again be led by Murray Adelman, the 126-pound metropolitan senior champion, who still has to be defeated in a match this season. The teams will come together at 8:30 in the mid-town gym.
CHAMP SHOT PUTTER
Jules Finkelstein, the Brooklyn Behemoth, who dethroned his teammate, Babe Scheuer, as metropolitan shot put champion with a record heave of nearly fifty feet, is practicing daily for the Maccabi tryouts. Jules is considered one of the best Jewish weight men in the country today. His only rival in the shot put event is Dave Smukler, football ace who made gridiron history at Temple University last season.
Smukler, however, is not considering a berth on the United States Maccabi track and field team to the second Maccabiad. Finkelstein is. To date the record of the later surpasses by far the excellent achievements of Dave Adelman and Harry Schneider, weight men of the first American contingent.
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.
