PAT ON THE BACK
Ray Hill, 22, is a stalwart tackle for Texas Christian University and a man of probity. In the T.C.U.-Oklahoma game, Ray's testimony to his captain that an end-zone pass had touched ground before it was caught led T.C.U. to accept an "incomplete" ruling after the field judge had signaled touchdown. The touchdown, if allowed, might have made the upset of the week. Oklahoma won only 21-16.
Danny Drinnen, 13, is a real all-round athlete. A member of the Knoxville, Tenn. Little League Yankees, he led his league in batting and fielding over the past two years, was unanimous choice for All-Star shortstop and is Midget Baseball Player of the Year. Danny has also won national and regional acclaim in football, swimming and track.
Harry Reeves, 44, Detroit policeman, and MRS. ALICE MATTHEWS, 36, of Broomall, Pa. are national pistol champions for 1954. Reeves, who took up the pistol in 1936, won the men's title for the sixth time. He was world's all-round champion in 1949. Mrs. Matthews has been shooting for 12 years, holds about a dozen national records and has more than 250 trophies for excellence, most of them won with a .38. She is one of the few women in the country to have an instructor's pistol rating.
Bobby Goodspeed, 15-year-old high school junior from Wetumka, Okla., was named 1954 world champion all-round junior cowboy by the American Junior Rodeo Association. A devotee of Roy Rogers, western music and steak, Bobby has been rodeoing "seriously" for two years. His father, Jess Goodspeed, is a former world champion professional calf roper. The all-round junior cowgirl is pretty NATHALYNE KENDRICK, 16, a blonde, blue-eyed veteran of 12 years in rodeos who expects to continue in them "all my life." Nathalyne prefers popular music (Eddie Fisher, Joni James), has a boyfriend ("I'm not exactly going steady") and dotes on banana splits, "would eat them for breakfast" if her mother would let her. Nathalyne lives outside Houston.
Shirley Thomas of Ottawa, Canada's leading horsewoman at 19, completed a tour of Europe where she won trophies in Ireland and England and national titles in Belgium and The Netherlands. Shirley also loves flying, has 52 hours of solo time toward a pilot's license.
SIX PHOTOS