The 1920s: Sports: People in the News

THE 1920s: SPORTS: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

In 1929 University of Florida student Walter "Red" Barber delivered his first radio broadcast of a baseball game when he provided the play-by-play for his university's team. He later became known for his colorful down-home style while announcing first Cincinnati Reds' and then Brooklyn Dodgers' games.

On 16 September 1924 Jim Bottomly of the Saint Louis Cardinals set a single-game record of twelve runs batted in.

Frank Boucher, with seven goals and one assist in the nine-game playoffs, led the New York Rangers to their Stanley Cup victory in 1928. The Rangers were the first U.S. team to win professional hockey's most prestigious prize.

In 1928 Avery Brundage was named president of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), which divided control and direction of amateur athletics with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Frank Carauna of Buffalo, New York, bowled consecutive perfect games on 4 March 1924.

On 18 February 1928 C. C. Davis won his third consecutive national horseshoe-pitching championship with thirty-one victories and three losses.

In 1922 Clarence DeMar won his first Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 10 seconds, a time that would not be bettered until 1956. In all DeMar claimed the Boston title six times between 1922 and 1930.

Leo Durocher, who in the 1930s would become a member of the Saint Louis Cardinals' legendary "Gashouse Gang" and, later, a colorfully outspoken manager for the Dodgers, Giants, and Cubs, was called up from the Yankees' farm club in 1928. During the two years he played at shortstop and second base for the Yankees, he averaged just over 31 RBIs per season, for a .258 batting average.

Following her 6 August 1926 swim across the English Channel, nineteen-year-old Gertrude Ederle was greeted by a ticker-tape parade and public adulation. Later she toured as a professional swimmer but dropped out of sight in the early 1930s when back injuries virtually ended her swimming career.

Between 1920 and 1923 Adeline Gehrig, sister of baseball's Lou Gehrig, reigned as women's national foil champion in fencing.

Dr. Graeme M. Hammond retired in 1925 as president of the Amateur Fencers League of America, a position he had held since 1891. He had won the U.S. épée title in 1893 and the U.S. saber title in 1893 and 1894.

In 1927 Willie Hoppe, who would win fifty-one billiards titles in his forty-six years of competition, beat Young Jake Schaefer in a Chicago challenge match, 1500-1196; Edouard Horemans in a New York match, 1500-958; and Welker Cochran in a Boston match, 1500-1189.

Between 1920 and 1925 Rogers Hornsby of the Saint Louis Cardinals led the National League in batting. During three of these six seasons his average was over .400, including his unmatched .424 in 1924.

Eric Krenz of Palo Alto, California, became, on 9 March 1929, the first man to throw the discus farther than 160 feet; his throw reached 163 feet, 8 3/4 inches.

On 5 September 1923 flyweights Gene LaRue and Kid Pancho threw simultaneous punches and knocked each other out.

In January 1921 American professional wrestling champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis, whose real name was Robert Friedrich, defended his title three times: against Earl Caddock in New York; against Dick Daviscourt in Rochester, New York; and against Gustav Suizo in Kansas City.

On 31 January 1920 Joe Malone of the Quebec Bulldogs scored seven goals, a record, in a game against the Toronto Pats. During the 1919-1920 season Malone was ice hockey's leading scorer with thirty-nine goals, six assists, and forty-five total points.

Bo McMillin, quarterback for tiny Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, ran thirty-two yards for the game's only touchdown and a stunning 6-0 upset of Harvard on 30 October 1921. The whole town of Danville and the governor of Kentucky joined the celebration for the returning heroes.

On 6 May 1929 sixty-year-old A. L. Monteverde left city hall in New York City and ran 3,412 miles in seventy-nine days, ten hours, and ten minutes; he arrived at his San Francisco destination on 24 July.

Race-car driver Jimmy Murphy became in 1921 the first American to win the Grand Prix of France in an American automobile, a Duesenberg, and in 1922 took the Indianapolis 500 in a Murphy Special. Murphy died on 15 September 1924 in a crash during a race at Syracuse, New York.

Ernie Nevers, fullback for the Chicago Cardinals, scored all the points in his team's 28 November 1929 40-0 victory against the Chicago Bears.

On 18 June 1921 Charles Paddock, who had won the 100-meter run in 10.8 seconds at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, ran 110 yards (a longer distance) in 10.2 seconds; his record held for twenty-nine years.

On 1 May 1926 Satchel Paige pitched Chattanooga to a 5-4 victory over Birmingham in Negro League play. The game marked Paige's first professional appearance.

Forty-five-year-old goalie Lester Patrick saved the 7 April 1928 game for the New York Rangers when he was forced to play against the Montreal Maroons because of injuries to regular goalie Lorne Chabot.

On 26 May 1928 Andrew Payne, a nineteen-year-old from Oklahoma, won the first Bunion Derby. Devised by C. C. Pyle, the race started on 4 March in Los Angeles with 275 runners bound for Madison Square Garden in New York City, 3,422 miles away. Payne took eighty-four days to reach the finish line. He received the $25,000 first prize from Pyle, who believed he would make a fortune as spectators along the route purchased programs and tickets to see this strange contest. Unfortunately, few people took any notice of the runners, and Pyle lost about $100,000. He tried to recoup his losses by staging the event again the following year but lost even more money.

In October 1926 tennis star Vincent Richards, angered by a U.S. Lawn Tennis Association ruling that players could not be paid to report on tournaments in which they were competing, announced that he would turn professional. Richards, with a wife and family to support, had an $8,000-per-year contract to write about tennis for King Features Syndicate. In the fall of 1926 he and five colleagues made a profitable three-month tennis tour promoted by C. C. "Cash and Carry" Pyle, and in September 1927 he was one of the founders of the Professional Lawn Tennis Association of the United States.

Earle H. Sande, one of the great jockeys of the 1920s, rode two Kentucky Derby winners during the decade—Zev in 1923 and Flying Ebony in 1925. Known as "Big Feet" for his habit of "nudging" other jockeys during tough races, Sande briefly retired in 1928 but returned in 1930 to ride Gallant Fox to the Triple Crown. Damon Runyon toyed with his poem about Sande for the rest of his life:

Sloan, they tell me, could ride 'em;

Maher, too, was a bird.

Bullman a guy to guide 'em—

Never much worse than third.

Them was the old time jockeys;

Now when I want to win.

Gimme a handy

Guy like Sande

Ridin' them hosses in.

In January 1927 Abe Saperstein founded the Harlem Globetrotters, a team of black basketball players who combined amazing basketball feats with comic routines.

Eleonora Sears became the first U.S. women's squash racquets singles champion on 19 January 1928 at the Round Hill Club in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In 1922 Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel, who would later become a legendary manager for the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, had a batting average of .368—the highest of his career—while playing for the New York Giants. When he ended his playing career in 1931, he had a lifetime average of .284.

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt won the King's Cup with his schooner Vagrant in 1922. It was the first of his eleven major yachting victories between 1922 and 1938, including three successful defenses of the America's Cup during the 1930s. Vanderbilt is also credited with inventing contract bridge while on a yachting trip in 1926.

On 2 July 1923 welterweight champion Mickey Walker was defending against Cowboy Padgett when both fell out of the ring and landed on the press table. Padgett broke two ribs and was unable to continue the fight.

Christy Walsh began ghostwriting newspaper articles for Babe Ruth in 1923. Walsh, who may have been the first sports agent, arranged vaudeville and barnstorming tours for Ruth.

In Saint Louis, Missouri, Lt. Al Williams flew a Curtis racer 243.7 MPH to set a new air-speed record on 6 October 1923.

In 1920 Garfield "Gar" A. Wood, the foremost inboard motorboat driver of the decade, set a Gold Cup race record of 70 MPH, a record that stood until 1946. Wood won the Gold Cup, an American race, four times between 1917 and 1921 and, in a succession of boats called Miss America, claimed the international Harmsworth Trophy seven times between 1920 and 1933. He was largely responsible for popularizing motorboat racing as a spectator sport in America.

Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Zev beat the English champion Papyrus in a match race at Belmont Park on 20 October 1923.