European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 1, 1953, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes january 1953 american olympic Victory featured 1952 sports peaceful year compared to headlines i by Jack Ellis sports editor i the sports year of 1952 seemed almost complacent after the hectic of what with no fixes and the failure of the new York giants to write a sequel to the Miracle of coogans this year there was no Homeric swat by Bobby Thomson that was heard around the sports but on 23 in Phila a Young Man landed a swat that was hard enough to win the worlds heavyweight Champion that was the night Rocky Marciano lifted boxing most prize diadem from ageless Jer sey Joe Walcott in the 13th round after suffering a first round Knock sown and trailing on Points All the olympics topped year but if any one event brought the year 1952 out of the common place it was the olympics staged in the capital of Little with the cold War reaching the Heights of sound and fury from Moscow and the fruitless peace debates in pan Mun Jom a jittery world awaited the entry of the first russian team to compete in a modern olympics since the Days of the whatever the of their the russians proved to be extraordinarily Well trained ath letes and their sportsmanship and conduct were beyond although they failed to win a single Gold medal in the mens track and Field present Day criteria of olympic they piled up so Many Points in gymnastics and women track and Field that it was Only a spectacular Las Day spurt by the that won the unofficial final Day comeback athletes scored an amazing 111 Points on the final Day to amass 614 Points to russian the olympics itself was a magnificent staged in a City of Only there were a record number of entries a record number of and As a corollary to the whole Sale shattering of an Iron curtain runner turned Iron Man and achieved the greatest single performance Ever in Dur ing olympic Emil a czech army wet three olympic records in winning the and meters and the Marathon in an almost unbelievable the slender whose wife won women javelin Gold ran agonizing style but his opponents never saw All they Ever saw of him washes Horace an Fri the Winner and new Champ Rocky Marciano looks Down on the slumping Jersey Joe Walcott after delivering his knockout punch to wrest the heavyweight title away from Walcott in the 13th round on 23 in Philadelphia municipal press photo Man on loan to the olympic turned in greatest Vic Horace amazed his follow ers and the rest of the world by winning the Steeple Chase in record beating out Vladimir of who was supposedly but using the water barriers As an Aid instead of an bounded around the olympic stadium the Winner to become the first american Ever to take the event and the first yank to win an olympic distance race in 44 in the americans won 40 Gold medals and in the track and Field Competition we garnered 14 of the 24 medals As Well As one of the nine women swimming and the carried off six of the eight mens events and two of the women diving the took the basketball Crown after reaching the finals against Russia Navy kept their record unimpaired by winning the eight cared event Rutgers swept the sculls pair without coxswain in yachting we had two wins in five classes in four old perhaps our biggest Victory came in the fighters took no less than five Gold medals out o the 10 the Host ended up sixth in the final computations but Vas first in the hearts of the competitors and some correspondents who covered the Gigantic athletic no olympics had Ever been put on More successfully and in none was the True olympic spirit so the 1952 olympics May never be equalled either for ability or the was not quite so successful in the Winter olympics staged at from a team mrs Andrea Mead Lawrence became the Only american Ever to win two Gold medals in skiing and As a matter of course Dick the Harvard swept to his second straight olympic figure skating title with unparalleled Grace and baseball major league baseball ran Al most True to form in the dodgers under Charley Dressen didst blow it this time and they went into the world series against the perennial american league the last pass three great pro fool Ball quarterbacks Hung of their cleats at the close of this they were left to right Bob los Angeles rams Sammy Washington red and Frankie san Francisco press photo Champion new York if the regular season was some what the series More than made up for the with their magnificent Joe had the Yankees on the ropes most of the series and Only a couple of old Reyn Olds and big John a Bright Young i c k e y the series out in the seventh and final tanks 4th straight it was the fourth straight world championship for the Yan Kees and the of per Fessor Stengel started his Amer ican league career with a world championship in 1949 and had yet to lose a fall classic it tied him with John Mcgraw and Joe Mccarthy for four straight pen Nants and Only Mccarthy had gone on to win four straight the National leagues got some satisfaction in the All Star game by winning the rain shortened of Hank who was named the leagues most valuable belted a two run Homer in the fourth to win for the a Bobby the pint sized Philadelphia athletic South won the american league most valuable managers get a on the debit the season was highlighted by the wholesale removal of five skip pers got the a and the sixth quit at the end of the one of Rogers set some kind of a record by be no fired by the Louis Browns and within three weeks hired y the Cincinnati reds in the National other replacements saw Steve Oneill succeed Eddie Sawyer with the Phillies Charlie Grimm Ake Over for Tommy Holmes of he braves Fred Hutchinson re Ieve red Rolfe of and Marty Marion head the Browns after who replaced Luke i Sewell of the Billy Meyer resigned As Michigan state football Best tech next Boss the pirates after staying with them All year and Fred Haney was named Boss of the team that had fewer Bona fide big leagues than it had Bat football football took its accustomed place in the sport life the biggest controversy of the 19521 Grid season was or against the notre Dame j to the proponents of limited televising won Over the hotly protesting Irish of notre Dame and the quakers from old but the Irish shift came with a it was their Biff one of the season and handed Southern California its first defeat in 10 the legality of the shift is still being discussed but the Victory is now in the records and it made the Irish the most up setting team in the they beat okla homa and All four of them being their respective conference and tied Ivy league Munns mastodons the Irish bowed to Michigan state and Pittsburgh but the loss to state want so hard seeing As How Biggie Munns Midwest Masto dons won the mythical National championship and Munn was voted the coach of the Munn guided his who used the split straight Wing and double plus spreads to their 24th straight next year Biggie and his spartans will officially enter the big 10 and the Outlook is Bleak for the Otter nine right behind Munns spartans came the rambling wreck from Georgia Bobby Dodd engineered his team to a South Eastern title by winning 11 tech thus was slated to meet Mississippi in the sugar loft miss got into the new Orleans classic by virtue of an but twice tied one of her victories was the upset of the Scourge of the conference and unbeaten until the longhorns of Texas went continued on Page it top 10 sports stories picked by staff Here Are the 10 top sports stories of the year As picked by the sports staff of the stars and stripes wins the summer Pic Zatopek triple told medal performance in the olym Pic Stengel leading the new York Yankees to their fourth straight world series Mead Lawrence win Ning two Gold medals for the in the Winter olympic unexpected show of strength in the Marciano winning the f heavyweight mafias setting a world record for Ais second straight olympic decathlon b o r o s the open and world Champion ships in Bay Robinson retiring at the end of the 13th round against Joey Maxim Fer the Light heavyweight performance of the naval Academy eight dared Shell that swept 11 Home races without a defeat and then went on to win an olympic Gold
