PEOPLE
The Doubled, Redoubled and Vulnerable Sporting Book Title of the Week Award goes to Cornelia Sheinwold for My Husband and Other Men I Have Played With. Author Sheinwold tells how a little finesse, an opportune pass and an occasional Bath Coup can make a woman a winner in games with men. If her game is bridge.
Not since the days when Flash Gordon and his pals Dr. Zarkov and Dale Arden subdued Ming the Merciless and his evil accomplice Vultan (thereby liberating the planet Mongo and saving Earth's nitrogen supply from Ming's Nitron Lamp), had Buster Crabbe won a bigger victory. Crabbe, who quit competitive swimming after his record-setting victory in the 1932 Olympic 400-meter freestyle, looked like all those film heroes he played—Flash, Tarzan and Captain Mike Gallant of the Foreign Legion—when he returned to the pool of his '32 triumph for the Senior Sports International meet in Los Angeles. Healthy and handsome at 63, Crabbe set three records for the 60-64 age group, winning the 1,500-meter freestyle (26:59.8—Zowie!) and the 150-meter individual medley (2:23.3—Zappo!) before joining the winning relay team. His best showing came in the same event he won in 1932; he clipped more than a minute off the age group record for 400 meters with a 6:37.1 clocking. Merciless!
And six pitty-pats on the back to Rolf Anselm for winning the third annual Stone Skipping Tournament at Mackinac Island, Mich. Anselm was credited with "dogged determination and classic form" as he rocked 250 other skippers, scaling seven plinkers and six pitty-pats for a total of 13 skips and the title.
Oh, My Aching...
1. SACROILIAC: Mrs. Diane Jenkins won the title of Miss Beautiful Back Nine at the opening of the Sugar Loaf Village (Mich.) golf course's second nine holes. But hers was not the first back roundly acclaimed at Sugar Loaf. When the far side of Sugar Loaf Mountain was opened to skiing two years ago the celebration's biggest asset was a Miss Beautiful Backside.
2. STOMACH: Ellis Robin, a, daring little 81-pound, 13-year-old from Encino, Calif., gave up in the middle of his bold attack on the world banana-eating record. Gutsy Robin had devoured 10 bananas a day during a week of intensive training for the attempt—but could only choke down 12½ on the day of his record try. Aww, nuts. The four-year-old record still stands: 40 bananas in 0.39:40.0, held by England's (are you ready for this?) Tony Figg.
3. METACARPALS: Karate expert Bill Corbett smashed 2,600 bricks with his bare hands, breaking his own world record of 2,051. Also his thumb. Attempting to raise funds for life-sustaining kidney machines in Monroe, Wash., Corbett had expected spectators to contribute $1 for each brick he broke. In stead it was Bill and the charity who were busted: donations totaled only $290, which was $10 less than the cost of the bricks and Corbett had to break the last pile with his head and elbows to save his sore hands.
Oakland's Big Mustache, Ben Davidson, has seen all those dull golf tournaments on television. So to give "some volatility" to the charity meet he sponsors he added a club-throwing contest. And, sure enough, the defensive lineman won the thing himself, tossing a nine-iron 58 yards, 2½ feet. Another entrant, former Raider Quarterback Tom Flores, showed what happens to retired passing arms by lofting his club into a nearby parking lot and almost conking two bystanders.
The play was a quarterback's dream: away scampered flanker Wilber Campbell for a touchdown. Yessir, football fans, Campbell cut quickly for the air-conditioning unit, climbed up to the dorm roof, jumped 20 feet to the ground and blazed a fly pattern to the end zone, uhh, woods. His goal was escape from the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup, Md. and the cops, who last saw Campbell go out for the pass during an inmate's football game, have yet to make the tackle.
"Now stop going around telling everyone that Pepper Rodgers is your father," said Kelly Rodgers' mom after the 8-year-old had been boastfully introducing himself to his new Los Angeles playmates as the son of the recently appointed UCLA football coach. O.K., mom.
The next little scene takes place at church shortly after his mother's admonishment. The minister asked him who his father was. "Well," answered Kelly, "I thought Pepper Rodgers, the new UCLA coach, was, but my momma says he isn't."
THREE PHOTOS
