enish Sports Scene: Some Brilliant Moments, But Generally on Decline (Copyright, iutiu, el eFillSt1 Telegraphic Agency, Inc.) BY HAROLD U. RIBALOW Since last year's survey of the Jewish sports scene, a handful of Jews have done remarkably well, while, in the main, there also has been a decline of Jewish participation in sporting en- deavors. This is not a para- doxical statement, but can be , Dome out in the paragrapns ahead. For example, as we run down the list of Jewish athletes in one game after another, we dis- cover fewer and fewer names • • • but, at the same time, those who have done well, have been brilliant. As an instance, there was QSZJULCULUISAJLSUARLULQ.311.SLULW-9-1-9_ . . . . _ DEARBORN ROOFING CO. . For The Best In Roofing . : _ - - Happy Holiday 272 Curier, LO 2-4788 Dearborn Township tra-o -- Happy New Year DEARBORN FISH .8t. 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TE 4-8334 Cf.01110.41=1/1.1•1 ■ 11411iCI ■ Mili14 ■ 04 ■ 04M1WHII=.0111•11..M.41111111.0 ■ 11•111 ■ (.010. 41111104.1 ■ 1 1 01111• p c. i> C a P P D Happy New Year DETROIT X-RAY SALES TE 1-6140 51 Temple : ..i. . Happy New Year To Our Friends and Patrons DEXTER-BUENA VISTA SERVICE Complete Motor Repair 12850 Dexter TO 6-9481 Larry Sherry, the right- handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1959, he was just another name on the roster for most of the year. We all remember how excep- tional he was in the World Series that year. Thus, he entered the 1960 season as one of the big baseball per- sonalities. Articles were writ- ten about him in all the sports journals and in many of the slick mass magazines. He said he wanted to be a starting pitcher, even though he won his fame in relief. During the 1960 season, he was an in- and-outer. He couldn't win frequently enough as a start- er. He did pretty well in re- lief, then he was hurt, and then he came back again. Yes, he is a regular with the Dodgers, but not the over- whelming star he had been in 1959. That's how baseball is. His brother Norman, formerly the third-string catcher for the Dodgers, fought his way into a better post on the club and caught more frequently. He, too, became a regular—on a team which scarcely resembled the world champions of 1959. And Sandy Koufax, the fast-balling left-hander, was like the little girl in the nursery rhyme. Wh was but whe he , very g id. was bad he was And so, except for the gem stars of the game—the usials the Williams, the DiM gios- there is no true sis ncy. is de- Harold Sey seball's finitive histo es that i ea days, the tantial number d In the '30s J •re s, there also 'ish f excellent ning, like Hank lay •rd-on, nberg, Sid an troub and -ed Sing- it in the ' , for some 11. and the so- ason or other 1 looking for c logists are al the caus , there has been a noticeab decline of Jewish the national game. players urse, there always is O We had an Al Rosen, h ne of the very best of them all, but now the Jewish stars come one at a time. Boxing also lacks the big Jewish names of the past. Al- phonse Halimi, the Algerian- Jewish featherweight titleholder of a year ago, was beaten twice by Jose Beccera and he now is in retirement. Except for wel- terweight Ronnie Cohen, who is now fighting his way to the top rank (and isn't there yet due to the minor league oppo- sition he has faced), there are no Jewish fighters around. Again, it is a matter of eco- nomies. Jews are refusing to. earn a living by fighting with gloves. As Jews climb up the economic ladder, they shun box- ing. It is bad- for the game,. perhaps, but not bad for those who stay away from it. But more puzzling is the absence of Jews in basketball. Once more, the only player of importance is Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals. Schayes. seems to be able to go on forever. There are no other Jewish players to join himintheprofessional league. This past year, I at- tended many college games, a few professional games and a brilliant All-Star exhibition. Practically all the athletes come from colleges — and Jews do attend institutions of higher learning. Yet even here, there are no Jews. There are a great many Ne- gro hoop stars—and they are excellent players. But where there once were literally scores and scores of outstanding Jew- ish basketball players, you just don't see any in the game today. Is it a de-emphasis of sports? A notable illustration of this trend—among Jews — is Bran- deis University's decision to drop football as a major inter- collegiate sport. When Brandeis first came into the sports scene, it went all out in many games. The school hired Benny Fried- man, who had been a Michigan star and a professional football star and a notable coach. Top athletes were noticed to enter Brandeis. Schedules were ambi- tious. And, at the beginning, Brandeis did splendidly. Now, however, the story is that there aren't enough alumni to sup- port a team, or those that do exist, are unwilling to give their money for a ranking club. One result was that Brandeis com- menced to lose more games than it won. This is even worse than having no team at all. End re- sult: no team at all. In horse racing there was one moment of brilliance for Jew- ish followers of the Sport of Kings. Hirsch Jacobs, a New Yorker born and bred, became the first horse trainer to saddle more than 3,000 winners. Horse racing is not a "Jewish" game, but it is interesting that one of the greatest trainers in the world—a man who has taken so- called mediocre horses — and has to his credit more winners than trainers with the best race horses in the world, is a Jew. It was a remarkable year in chess because there was a championship held in Moscow, between Mikhail Botvinnik, the world champion, at 46 the title- holder for 12 years, and Mikhail Tal, at 23, the youngest chal- lenger in the history of the game. Although Bobby Fischer of the United States, at 16 had won most of the chess notices in the world, Tal was the young man who took the title, not Fischer. Tal upset Botvinnik in a match which was one of the most fascinating in the long history of the game. 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