Sunday, February 25, 1945
SPORTS MAIL CALL:
Clearing Up The Shoe Sizes;
A Phog Allen Rooter Re ports

By Pvt. MERRELL WHITTLESEY
Staff Correspondent

From the mailbag:

In a rather technical but poignant manner, Lt. William H.
Pendleton, USNR, has come through with an answer to one of the
questions which stumped our Q-and-A department and was asked
out loud in this space last week. The one on the size of Primo

 

 

Carnera’s shoes, which is the su

ject of a wacky wager by several

 

GIs somewhere in Italy.

Lt. Pendleton, a salesman for a} ¢

manufacturer of athletic goods be-
fore the war, explains that Da
Preem’s tootsies are fitted by di-
mensions, not sizes, and he suggests
ealling the whole thing off.

On the technical side, the Lieu-

tenant points out that the size of

shoes varies according to manu-
facturer’s lasts (a shoe form) and
to put it mildly, Carnera wears an
outsized last. The largest last in
the city of Brockton, Mass., had
to be built up to Primo’s size by
tacking on pieces of leather and
instead of giving it a size, as it
was all out of proportion, they
merely painted his name on it.

We had samples for our distrib-
utors to use in window displays
and at that time it caused plenty
of interest as the sports pages were
iving Carnera a lot undue pub-
icity at a time when boxing needed
a champion,” the lieutenant writes,
"put I can’t remember the dimen-
sions.”

Lt. Pendleton volunteered the in- |*

formation that Babe Ruth and Ted
Williams wore baseball shoes with
® size difference between the right
and left foot. Probably explains
why neither one of them ever bat-
ted. .500.

—_o-—_——

Im another item from a local
APO, Set. Bernard W. Brown takes
us to task for what he terms derog-
atory remarks towards Phog Allen,
the canny coach of Kansas Uni-
versity basketball. Sgt. Brown comes
up with what we think is a mas-
terpiece of understatement in call-
ing Allen’s views “somewhat for-
ward edicts.” That’s not what sports
pages have been calling them for
@ good many years.

”Alien does not solicit publication
of what you call his *popoffs.’ More
often than not his opinions are
sought by the press, not forced
upon them. No journal is made to
publish his ‘publicity seeking blasts,’
but his authoritative logic makes
- them desired by the press and wel-
comed by both the reading public
and his contemporaries, with the
exception of those with whom he
is currently feuding,” the sergeant

writes. And we might add that

 

 

PHOG ALLEN

 

the latter group is usually a large
one. .

Allen does not actually solicit
publication of his usually radical
views, no, but they are often so
far off track they make news. For
instance, a syndicated columnist
wrote just a few days ago that
Allen’s latest bellow was to suggest

and turn down the ghost post as}.

commissioner of an athletic asso-
ciation that didn’t exist at a salary
he proposed himself, 25,000 dollars
a year.

Phog Allen is a well-known and
respected authority on basketball}
and has a fine record at K. U., the}.
sergeant points out, and he’s right
on all three counts. Right ‘Bow
they’re the best team in the Big
Six this year.

But Phog Allen has been ribbed
on the sports pages for years and
usually he’s asked for it. The
sergeant’s little postscript "I’m not
a K. U. alumnus,” is explanatory:
K. U. alumni don’t mind what you
say about Phog, just so you spell it
A-L-L-E-N. They learned that from
Phog himself.

|

 

THE STARS AND STRIPES