A roundup of the sports information of the week
BOXING—Ingemar Johansson. Sportsman of 1959 (see page 18), stepped into ring at Goteborg, Sweden last week, not to fight but to second for Swedish Heavyweight Thoerner Ahsman. Ingemar's man showed fine fighting power of his own, scored 5-round TKO over Italian Champion Bruno Scarbellin, advanced another notch in eliminations for the European championship, vacated when Johansson became world champion.
Sugar Ray Robinson, middleweight champion of the world in New York and Massachusetts, returned to the wars after 21 months of often-litigious leisure to pound out TKO over Bob Young in nontitle bout at Boston. Robinson, who said he "wanted to give the people a good show for five or six rounds" was shaken by a left hook in first round. "That changed my mental attitude completely," acknowledged Ray who dropped Young four times in the second before fight was stopped at 1:18. Bout was warmup to championship contest with Paul Pender in Boston, Jan. 22. Pender, meanwhile, was called before Massachusetts boxing commission to explain his charges that "boxing is rotten clear through, infested by gangsters and thieves," and should be suspended for five years.
HORSE RACING—Santa Anita celebrated opening of its Silver Jubilee meeting with the $25,000 California Breeders Trial Stakes. With Warfare, champion 2-year-old of 1959, scratched because of a fever, Willie Shoemaker found his only competition was Noble Noor. Before the largest Santa Anita crowd in over a decade he sneaked T. V. Lark through a tight field and dashed home¾, of a length ahead of Noble Noor for his fourth of five victories for the day. To celebrate its Silver Jubilee Santa Anita plans to run $3.5 million worth of purse and stakes races during its 55-day meeting. In 22 meetings since the track opened 25 years ago, more than a billion and a half dollars have been plunked down at its mutuel windows, of which $104,300,000 has gone to state taxes. In past 14 meetings Santa Anita has raised net of $6.5 million for charity.
FOOTBALL—Both Colleges and pros (National Football League) set alltime attendance records last season; colleges for the sixth straight season, NFL for the eighth. The colleges drew over 19 million fans and the top 10 drew over 50,000 per game. The 12 NFL teams drew more than three million. Seven showed an increase over 1958, only three (Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles) a decrease. Six teams averaged more than 50,000 per game.
PHOTO
T. V. LARK WINS OVER NOBLE NOOR