THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SPORT

OVER AND UNDER THE ICE...

Within shouting distance of the Wisconsin capitol dome in downtown Madison, sleek Skeeter Class iceboats whip at mile-a-minute speeds around a diamond-shaped course in one of America's oldest and most venerated winter sports. Indeed, before anybody was ingenious enough to invent racing cars, speedboats and aircraft, ice-boating was about the only way a real speed demon could experience the thrill of going a mile a minute. Speed is still a major factor in the sport's appeal.

Thanks to a succession of sturdy cold fronts whistling out of Canada, the 1955 winter has brought the iceboats out on lakes all over the northern tier of the U.S. Madison's Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club played host to 50 of the 450-pound Skeeters in international class championship competition on Lake Monona, and even in the East, where relatively mild winters have prevailed recently, long-suffering iceboaters are looking forward to a renewal of the Eastern Ice Yachting Association championships.

Muffled thoroughly in foul-weather gear as protection against biting winds, iceboat sailors will haul their craft hundreds of miles on car top or trailer to compete with each other. They range in age from subteens to veterans in their 50s, all bent on the thrill that comes with speeds that can frequently approach 100 mph on downwind runs.

Skeeter pilots, snugly dressed, discuss their exploits on Lake Monona before International Skeeter Association races.

...IN A GREAT WINTER FOR IT

These adventurous citizens, bundled eerily-in rubber swimsuits, are an advance-guard type of skin diver. They are preparing to descend into 35 feet of 36° water on Connecticut's icebound Mt. Tom Pond. Skin diving under ice has been going on for several years among a few hardy folk of the northeastern U.S., but the high cost of protective suits has kept it from becoming a contagion. Equipped with regulation breathing apparatus, two skin divers and a photographer climbed down a ladder and prowled the water for two hours. Outside of numbed faces, they reported no ill effects. The suits kept them warm.

The results of the foray were otherwise disappointing. The divers didn't see much. Visibility was poor—only six to 10 feet. No fish were spotted. Skin diving the year round, while certainly possible in cold winter weather, seemed hardly worth-while compared to what the diver can see at this time of year in warmer waters.

The divers found some other sobering thoughts about under-ice skin diving. Each man had to go below with an umbilical-like rope attached to him so he could find his way back to the hole in the ice. They also chopped an experimental escape hole in the five-inch ice cover and found it required 10 minutes. In case of breathing-apparatus failure, that would be more than enough time for a man to drown.

Icebound skin diver hacks away from underneath at ice cover on Mt. Tom Pond, testing time required to chop escape hole.

BASKETBALL: THREE CAMERA FRIEZES

The camera catches a rhythmic referee, impassioned pretty girls, and a towel-twisting coach at 1) a Notre Dame-Illinois game, 2) a Champaign County (III.) tourney and 3) a Wheeling high school game

1
REF ENRIGHT: WATCHES PLAY TAKE SHAPE
KEEPS UP WITH FAST BREAK
RELAXES DURING TIME-OUT
POINTS OUT VIOLATION
SIGNALS PERSONAL FOUL
GETS AHEAD OF PLAY
PEERS TOWARD SCORES
INDICATES "NO BASKET"
OBSERVES TOSS

2
CHEERER CHARLENE HULS WHOOPS AS OGDEN HIGH SCORES
MAHOMET HIGH FANS BEG THEIR TRAILING TEAM FOR A RALLY
SWEATER-CLAD RANTOUL DRESS-ALIKES HAVE A TENSE MOMENT
RANTOUL CHEERLEADER DEANNA IRLE YELLS ENCOURAGEMENT

3
COACH STAN CULP STARTS OFF RELAXED
FLAILS FLOOR WITH TOWEL AT BAD BREAK
FORGETS TOWEL DURING DEEP THOUGHT
EXHORTATION BRINGS MOP-UP MOTION
TOWEL FLOPS UNDER BENCH MOMENTARILY
LOSER CULP WEARS MANTLE OF MOURNING

OL' CASE TAKES THE YOUNG'UNS ASIDE
Charles Dillon Stengel set up shop in St. Petersburg, Fla. last week, fully three weeks before the major league training season begins, to look over 30-odd young baseball players who hope some day to take permanent possession of the revered New York Yankee uniforms they are now wearing. Most of the youngsters whose eyes follow Casey's admonitory finger will return to Yankee farm clubs when the established players report March 1. But Stengel is overlooking nothing. A year ago in a similar look-see session at Miller Huggins Field, the Yankees spotted a young pitcher named Bob Grim who came to the majors and won 20 games, along with Rookie-of-the-Year honors. With Allie Reynolds retired and Johnny Sain threatening to, Casey could sure use another Bob Grim.

TWENTY FIVE PHOTOS