The Month in sports

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: The Month in sports
Creator: Wilkins, H. F.
Language: English
Year: 1928
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Fulltext: 22 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1928 The Month in Sports By H. F. Wilkins Outstandingly notable in fall season sports of the Philippines is the advent of a game new in the Orient. American football has crashed the Asiatic gate on a basis that makes it look like a permanent addition to the field of athletic entertainment. You never can tell for certain about the per manency of such innovations. The grand old game of the pigskin and gridiron may fa’ down badly with the climatic and environmental test which the Philippines will put upon it. But it has caught the imagination of both American and Filipino sports fans to the extent of jamming Wallace field with three or four thousand persons on three outstanding occasions, and it has led to the formation of at least four teams, now developing under capable coaching into for midable football machines. At least some measure of credit will always attend the Philippines for being the first oriental country to foster if not to adopt the game of American football. The game started in Manila the first of August, with the formation of a team composed of young men in business in Manila calling themselves the All-Americans. With commendable initiative and perseverance they dug up enough equip ment to fit out eleven men in football togs, and began consistent and persevering practice every afternoon. Fortunately they had enough really capable football material to furnish a flip and a thrill to those who saw their first game against a makeshift team from the 31st Infantry, which the All-Americans won, 12 to 0. That was August 6. On the following day, the University of the Philippines announced the formation of a foot ball team under the leadership of R. G. Hawkins, a law student. This team is scheduled to play soon, after a month and a half of practice, during which Johnny Taduran, one of Manila's fore most athletes, got his collar bone broken. That was the first casualty of the season. The Uni versity team is not under the college banner, but authorities are seriously considering making American football part of their athletic program next year. On August 20, the All-Americans had their second game with the 31st Infantry. They won again, this time 7 to 0, and Bill Young, captain of the team, stood out as the conspicuous star. Others in the lineup, whch was fairly well standardized by this time, included Steves, Ray, Dolan, Richard, Killman, Cochrane, Barbier, Ellis, Tremblay, Johnson, Lash, McCarthy, Kneedler, Clausen and some substi tutes. If the game flourishes, their names will become historic. A flying squadron of experienced football men from the Camp Nichols Air Corps came on the scene and administered to the All-Americans their first defeat, September 3. There was a crowd of nearly 4,000 out to see this game. The All-Americans put up a good fight against a heavier and faster line and back-field, but lost, 6-0. It was a bitter pill. They met Camp Nichols again September 30 and tied them in a scoreless game on a field of mud, so that took some of the sting out of that first defeat. Another team calling themselves the Inter nationals has thrown in the gauntlet. If heavy football togs and the strenuous nature of the game combined with inevitable injuries to in. experienced players, and a climate that makes heavy clothing unbearable, don’t clog the game, American football has a fair start toward be coming one of the orient’s best drawing cards in athletics. Soccer.—It took Filipinos and others, even qualified sports observers, a long time to dis cover that American football is not by any means the same game as soccer football, which has been for years the football of the orient. Sports editors persisted for a couple of months in calling the All-Americans soccer players, which disgusted them. Not until the advent of the famed Loh Hwa soccer team, champions of China and Australia, did it become clear that soccer football and American football are in classes by themselves. The Loh Hwa team came, saw, and virtually conquered in Manila. They won five games, tied one and lost one. Had it not been for an unfortunate and sensational circumstance in their last appearance on Wallace field, the inva sion would have been entirely successful—from the Chinese point of view. As it was, they departed with every assurance to their Filipino hosts that they held no hard feelings and that they were going back to their homeland with nothing but praise for the land to the east of the China sea. Their manner of winning those five games was never more apparent than in their first appear ance, September 9. They were playing the so-called All-Manila team, a composite of what were supposed to be the best soccer players in Day by Day Destruction Hides Inside Your Motor Engine Your automobile may run with apparent smoothness and efficiency— yet, hidden away in the engine crankcase, old, worn-out oil may be slowly wearing and wrecking many costly engine parts. As you drive along, kilometer after kilome ter, day after day, drops of unburned gasoline and little particles of dirt, carbon and steel are constantly entering and mixing with your crankcase oil. Oil used for 1500 kilometers is invariably thinned out, weak and full of destructive foreign matter. Mobiloil Make the chart your guide Play fair with your engine. Even with Mobiloil protection, contaminat ing influences are at work. Keep your Mobiloil full-bodied and fresh. Regularly drain off the old oil, and replace with new, every 1500 kilometers, and you’ll give your car more kilometers of quiet trouble-free power. VACUUM OIL COMPANY NEW YORK, U. S. A. ILOILO MANILA CEBU Manila. The Chinese won a moderately fast game solely because of superior teamwork. They knew how to play together, and the AllManilans didn’t; they took the game, 3 to 1. They next played San Beda and met a bunch of players that held them to a scoreless tie. This was something of a surprise, for San Beda was regarded as inferior to the All-Manila aggre gation. The Chinese won their next two games, against Santo Tomas and a composite team from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, both of them by a 3 to 2 score. Then they met their Waterloo in a clash with the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation team. The P.A.A.F. won, 3 and 2. There was a pardon able objection on the part of the Chinese team to the authenticity of the winning score. They claimed it was not a scoring shot, and the matter was put up to the committee in charge of pro motions and never properly settled. The game stands on the books as a loss to the Chinese. In the Loh Hwa team’s fifth game in Manila, their second meeting with San Beda, which team Thinned-out oil does not protect—it permits friction, causes burnedout bearings, scored cyl inders, seized pistons, engine labor and loss of power. At least half of all automobile engines develop the noises of wear long before they should. The cause is not reckless driving, but reckless lubrication with used, impure oils. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1928 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 23 had previously held them to a scoreless tie, occur red the incident that put a blot on sportsmanship and will linger unpleasantly for some time to come. Some call it an echo of the riot that occurred in Shanghai at the time of the Far Eastern Olympic games last year, when some Chinese mobbed a Filipino team that beat them. In any case, the last quarter of the game ended in a thoroughly unpleasant riot that taxed the ingenuity and craft of the police. The Chinese :d sprawling by a San is on the sidelines joined that some of these latter of unorganized warfare ’hich were wielded jin quarters. The tance of two police said to have been preventing wholesale in case of emergency, escaped with injury, but the pride of Filipino sportssuch performances be wiped muddy as it is, offers an interthe oriental attitude to:st. One of the Filipino wise observer of his own can’t get over the idea and that it can only ’ Too bad, but the oriental race that hold will probably be the art of self-defense of sportsdom in the Philippines, as it probably always will. Out standing among events of significance in recent months is the changing of the financial control and management of the Olympic stadium, anil the advent of a Filipino fighter from a sojourn in the States that taught him enough to wrest the flyweight title from the heretofore invin cible Little Moro. The conqueror is Pablo Dano, at present writing seeking the bantam crown held by the same Little Moro, long armed and cagey. E. G. Redline, genial and well-known sports man of long standing in Manila, is secretary of the reorganized Olympic, and upon him de volved the duties of matchmaker and manager when Eddie Tait went to America to see the Democratic bout at Houston. Kid Johnson, featherweight champion of the orient, continues to be the stadium’s best draw ing card. His title has been at stake several times recently, once in the last month against Joe Hall, highly touted Negro fighter from Buffalo, who outboxed Johnson but lost the decision anyway, and more recently against Young Aide, who went to Australia and annexed the featherweight crown of that island continent. Aide took a terrific beating from the champion. Joe Hall went to Shanghai. Filipino fighters have been doing well in the When Telegraphing Use The Radiogram Route Via RCP ORLD IDE IRELESS w RADIO CORPORATION OF THE PHILIPPINES 25 PLAZA MORAGA | Always Open I 2-26-03 I Phones: 2-26-01 2-26-02 States. Young Nacionalista is making almost as much money as Pete Sarmiento used to. Pete, by the way, is about through. He went back to the States after failing dismally here, and lost his first fight hopelessly. Nacionalista nearly kayoed Fidel La Barba, the college fighter recently, but lost the decision. Speedy Dado is doing well, so is Syd Torres. Olympic Games.—No resume of recent sports news would be complete without mention of Filipino participation in the Ninth Olympic Games at Amsterdam, Holland. Four return ing athletes with Dr. Regino Ylanan of the P.A.A.F., coach and mentor, got the reception of a lifetime when they returned September 19 on the German ship Derfflingei. They were wined and dined and feted and congratulated by congressmen, tradesmen, sportsmen and representatives of the governor general. Dr. Ylanan told Manila at a banquet that “they did their best,” and Manila took the four athletes to its bosom. The four thus honored were Simeon Toribio, IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 24 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL October, 1928 who took places in the preliminaries and finals of the high jump; Teofilo Ildefonso, who won points for the Philippines in swimming; Anselmo Gonzaga, sprinter, and Tuboran Tamsi, swimmer. The captain of the American Olympic track team said of Toribio after he got home that the Filipino should have won first place in the high jump; he never saw such a marvelous natural spring in his life; but Toribio hadn’t the form. Basketball.—Manila and the Philippines in general have seen an active season in the well known cage game. The Ateneo won the N.C.A.A. championship among schools of Manila. This is the big prize in scholastic basketball. They did it by beating Letran college in their final game, 32 to 14. It was the first time in five years that Ateneo had taken the cup. The best brand of basketball is seen in the Army leagues. Most of these have not finished playing. Interservice games have drawn packed houses all season. The American Association Basketball League is the big league among the service men. There is a stiff fight on for suprem acy. Bowling.—Basketball has attracted no more attention than has bowling, both in the schools and in service competition. The Philippine Bowling Association, the big league of pindom, got into action October 2 with eight teams com peting for supremacy. Rivalry is keener this year than ever before. Baseball.—The coming season in the king The King’s Horn: A Moral Legend of Su By Frank Lewis Minton It is easier to close the mouths of rivers than the mouths of men. This is a Sulu proverb. Once upon a time, according to the aged story tellers and sages of Sulu, there lived a great and powerful king, an emperor of many lands, who collected tribute from all the islands of the east. Because of his tremendous power and wealth, everyone thought that this monarch must be a very happy man, and perhaps he would have been—for he was a wise ruler—but for the fact that he was afflicted with an unsightly and rather ludicrous blemish. He had a small horn grow ing near the top of his head. Of course the people did not know of the king’s hom, as it was ordinarily covered by his crown or turban, and he was most careful to keep it hidden from his wives and the household servants. But the fear that it would eventually be discovered, and would make him ridiculous in the eyes of his subjects, preyed upon the monarch’s mind until it became an obsession which threatened to unseat his reason. It was the king’s habit to have the court barber cut his hair at regular intervals, as he was most fastidious in matters of personal appearance; but after the appearance of the hom, he allowed his hair to grow to such length that it became quite noticeable, and finally caused sarcastic comment among his wives. So the king, being a man of great wisdom and resource fulness, decided upon a novel and obviously feasible plan to guard his secret: He would kill the barber immediately after having his hair cut, so there would be none to betray him. The king was a man of action. The morning after he had hit upon his ingenious plan, he appeared with a stylish haircut. His wives fawned upon him, and the public smiled approv ingly. That same afternoon it was announced that the court barber had mysteriously dis appeared. A searching party was organized, but no trace of the missing barber could be found, and it was finally decided that he had been spirited away by a jinn, fallen a victim to black magic, or possibly had been seized by a crocodile. Four weeks later the acting court barber disappeared under circumstances similar to those surrounding the mysterious evanishment of his luckless predecessors. And thereafter, with appalling regularity, the court barbers of Mantapuli* disappeared one after another within a few days after the advent of each new of sports looks promising indeed. Two teams, one from Cavite navy yard, and one from Meralco, are pledged to enter the Philippine BaseballjLeague this year, and Judge.Frank B. Ingersoll, the/Judge Landis of the Philippines, has-been working on organization of service Captain “Bill” Young teams until the optimistic tone of his predictions begins to build up a solid background. There will be something doing, and baseball in the islands is due for the jolt that it needed last year to bring it to life. moon. The terrifying mystery of the disappear ing barbers caused much consternation among the people, and actual panic to the tonsorial craftsmen of the capital. No trace was ever found of the missing men. True, a turban which may have belonged to one of the barbers was found in the river, and some maintained thereafter that the crocodiles had eaten the barbers. But why should the crocodile attack but once each rnoon, always at the same time? And why should he invariably choose the court barber? Sage, soothsayer, priest and medicine man vied with each other in theorizing over the fate of the unfortunates. The consensus was that it was all the work of wicked jinns. No one dreamed that the king had killed his barbers. Why should he try to keep the deed a secret? He was an absolute monarch. It was his right, even his duty, to kill such of his subjects as dis pleased him. But no amount of moralizing could alter the dreadful fact. Barbers began surreptitious migration^ to parts unknown. Barbers complained of the lack of apprentices to their honorable craft;. Barbers looked fear fully at each other, wondering who would be the next to receive the dread command to attend the king. Finally, when only a scant half-dozen barbers were left in Mantapuli,, the choice of the king fell upon one Uzman, jan old man who was accounted very wise. Uzman received the summons smilingly, and with a reassuring word to his lamenting friends and family, arrayed himself in his finest robes. “I am an old man,” he said, “and I doubt if either jinn or crocodile would have much use for this tough old carcass.” Now be it said to the king’s credit, that he had long cudgeled his brain in an effort to devise some scheme whereby he could avoid the monthly murders of his barbers. He was not particularly cruel at heart, and the disposition of the remains entailed’a lot of hard, uncongenial work which could not be trusted to any of his servants. Moreover, he had taken.an instant liking to old Uzman, who was deft in his ministrations, a model of decorum, and seemed to have an infinite capacity for silence. So when the monarch’s hair had been cut to his satisfaction, he was loth to strike the blow that would send another court came the Indarapatra, the rulers who flew to Sulu, men tioned in folklore narrated by Dr. N. M. Saleeby. barber to the ugly, wallowing crocodiles at the river bank. And the old man had not once mentioned the king’s deformity, apparently had not even noticed it. “If he had been the ordinary garrulous type,” mused the king, “it wouldn’t have been so bad. There is really some pleasure in killing a barber who talks too much.” So he bade Uzman to sit beside him, and began talking to the old man of current topics, ultimately referring to the dis appearance of the court barbers, and commenting upon some. of the ridiculous theories advanced by the wise men of the kingdom. Then he changed the subject to human weaknesses, notably the prevailing tendency to talk too much and man’s inability to keep a secret. “It is a habit which often proves fatal,” he concluded. Then Uzman arose and addressed his king. “Your Majesty,” he said earnestly, “I under stand your meaning, and appreciate the situa tion in which you are placed. I know, more over, what becomes of the court barbers. I am an old man, somewhat learned, and although my insignificant life is not worth the snap of your Majesty’s fingers, yet would I beg you to spare it for the little time I have left to live; for with age has come wisdom and discretion. Your secret is safe with me; and since the gods command that even the king shall not kill except in cases of necessity, or to glorify them, my death would only cause Your Majesty unnecessary annoyance and, possibly, a measure of sorrow.” The king looked long and searchingly at the barber. “Are you sure,” he demanded sternly, “that you can keep my secret?” “I am sure, O Mighty Emperor,” replied the barber. “I swear it by the honor of my wives and the heads of my beloved sons.” “Your life shall be spared,” decided the king, with a sigh of relief, “and you shall be my court barber to the end of your days.” For several months Uzman lived quite happily in the midst of the luxury'with which the king showered his favorite servants. The old barber’s food was of the choicest from the king’s own table, he was arrayed in silks, the number of his wives had been doubled and he was the favorite companion of the monarch. His former friends who had lamented him at parting, now forgot their fears and became envious of his good fortune. Priest, soothsayer and medicine man secretly hated and feared him for his ap parent immunity to the jinns, and for his rather patronizing manner. A proud man indeed was the court barber of Mantapuli. But there was one fldw in the beautiful fabric of this new life. He was possessed of the greatest secret in the world, and he dared not tell it! He could not tell his admiring friends how im portant a personage he really was. He could not brag to his chattering wives that he was, as he believed, wiser than the king. He mused, “Of what use all this glory if I may not tell it to my sons?” The great secret grew irksome. It .fairly gnawed at his vitals. He became nervous, irritable, morose. He avoided com pany. Fearing for his life, should he let slip some hint of the secret, he drove his wives from his quarters and barred the door so that none might enter unannounced. Often he considered dashing into the street and shouting his secret to the world—until swift death should relieve him from his suffering; or going to the monarch and requesting that he be executed lest he violate the royal confidence. He was not of the stuff of which suicides are made. At last his mind could stand no more. He became partially demented, but even so his dis cretion did not quite desert him. One day he broke completely under the strain. “I will run away,” he decided, “so far that no man can find me, and there I will shout the king’s secret to the very skies—to the very City of the Gods.” He slipped out of the palace, hurried through the outer gate of the city, and dashed into the neighboring wood with a speed well nigh incredible in one so old. “I must . hurry,” he panted, “lest I shout my master’s secret where all may hear.” Hour after hour he pushed blindly on through the forest, stumb ling over jungle vines, falling, cursing, crawling, throughout the day and far into the night, until at last he fell, exhausted and fainting, at the