18, 1954
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Price Has an Unusual Training Program
By PHIL DESSAUER
Norman—(U.P.)-Picture a homerun slugger who keeps in shape by slapping infield grounders . . . A golf pro who practices on a miniature course. . . a boxing champ who trains without hitting a sparring partner.
Picture those things and you get some idea of the training program of Neville Price, the celebrated jumping jack from East London, Africa.
Price, the University of Oklahoma's National AAU broad jumping champion, prepares for track meets by not jumping for distance.
Between meets the '25-year-old kangaroo-in-spikes contents himself with a few jumps at a mere 20 feet or so—a distance that would call for a propeller and flight insurance for most of us.
"I just strive for a correct push-off from the board," he says in an Oxford accent. "I want to hit it with my body erect so I'll have the center of gravity directly beneath me, and I concentrate on having my knee bent so I can spring higher."
When Price speaks of a bent knee, he is not talking about a quarter-bend or a half-bend. One time he went with such a will he hit himself in the jaw with his knee and broke a tooth.
In any case, the business of the knee-bend and the center of gravity enabled the Sooner springboard to push off from 24 feet, 5½ inches in the AAU meet at Madison Square Garden — considerably below his 24-9 indoor Big Seven record and his 25-2 top mark outdoors.
The way to become a champion jumper, Price believes, is to become a champion runner. Price is a 9.8 man in the 100-yard dash, but ironically it was a race he lost that turned him into a broad jumper.
"I always thought I was a dash man," he recalls. "But in high school I went to a meet and got beat, so the coach stuck me in the broad jump. I hit 22-4 and then I stuck with it."
"Speed is the most important aspect of jumping," he said. "The faster you go the farther you go, combined with a little height. I really push myself hard in October, November, and December, getting the sprinting peak I want. Every day I job the hills of the campus golf course, run the stadium steps, do stretching exercises and do lots of sprinting.
"Once I reach a 100-yard speed of about 9.8, all I have to do is maintain it all year and I'll get the same length of run in the broad jump."
Golfers Tee Off In Florida Match
Another team ranking high among the favorites was the pairing of dentist Cary Middlecoff of Memphis, Tenn., and Skip Alexander of St. Petersburg, Fla. They were runner-up to Worsham and Kroll last year, and Middlecoff proved that he is in top form by finishing in a tie yesterday for top professional honors in the special one-day Pro-Amateur tournament.
Miami Beach—(U.P).The defending champion team of Lew Worsham of Oakmont, Pa., and Troll Kow of New Hartford, N.Y., headed a starpacked field of 40 teams teeing off today in the first round of the Miami Beach Four-Ball Invitation Golf tournament.
Worsham and Kroll won the title in match play last year, but for this year the competition has been changed to medal best-ball play over 24 holes, with one round to be played each day.
100 Candidates Try Out for MU Football
Middlecoff and Freddie Haas of New Orleans each shot a six-under-66 over the Normandy Isle course to lead all professionals. They were closely pressed by Gerry Kesslering of Toronto and Johnny Palmer of Charlotte, N.C., each with 67, and four others who shot 68—Bob Toski of Livingston, N.J., Bob Kay of Hartford, Conn., Mike Homa of Rye, N.Y., and Sammy Snead of White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.
The newcomers were Charles Denny, and John Stephens. Denny, a sophomore, played on the Bengal basketball team, and Stephens, a freshman, was chosen as the outstanding Kansas high school lineman in his senior year at Coffeville high school. He also played on the Missouri university freshman basketball team. Both men are ends.
Columbia—(U.P.)-Two newcomers were among the 100 football candidates who reported to Missouri university Coach Don Faurot for the first workout of the spring season yesterday.
The first injury occurred yesterday when fullback Harold Phomezek twisted his knee. The extent of the injury was not known.
Akron, Ohio — (U.P.)—Rocky Castellani, the No. 1 contender for the middleweight title, scored a technical knockout over Phil Rizzou of Brooklyn, N.Y., last night in the fifth of a scheduled 10 round fight.
Castellani Knocks Out Rizzou
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Selected with Gola were Dick Rickettts of Duquesne; Ed Conlin for Fordham; Togo Palazzi of Holy Cross' National Invitation tournament champions, and Larry Costello of Niagara. The mythical team was selected by United Press sports writers with the advice of eastern coaches.
New York: All-America Tom Gola, who leads LaSalle into the NCAA championship competition at Kansas City this week-end, was the outstanding choice on the 1954 United Press all-East college basketball team announced today.
The slugger still wears the elaborate cast which encases the ailing left collarbone he fractured during the opening of spring practice at Sarasota, Fla., but his encumbrance soon may be removed.
Cambridge, Mass.: Outfielder Ted Williams leaves Santa Maria hospital here today on the first step of the long road back to active duty with the Boston Red Sox.
Williams is under orders from his personal physician, Dr. Russell G. Sullivan, to engage in "no fishing, no batting, no activity." Dr. Sullivan said that with some luck and proper care, Williams may be back with the team early next month, though probably not for full duty.
Washington: Senate investigators scheduled public hearings today on Sen. Edwin C. Johnson's blunt assertion that beer and baseball should not mix.
Williams Leaves Hospital, to See Action in April
601 Mass.
Phone 3380
The Colorado Democrat was waiting to testify as a monopoly subcommittee began consideration of his bill to balk such beer-and-baseball blending. Johnson said the measure is aimed "specifically" at the St. Louis Cardinals and brewer-owner August A. Busch.
Rv UNITED PRESS
University Daily Kansan
Thursday. March 18. 1954
New York—(U.P.)-Big Neil Johnston, pro basketball's leading scorer for the last two years, today credited a sore arm with making all his sports dreams come true.
Sore Arm Made Johnston's Basketball Hopes Come True
Johnston, scoring star of the Philadelphia Warriors in the National Basketball association, came out of nowhere to become a court ace. Originally, he had been trained by his hopeful father for a big league pitching career.
"It was my dad's dream to see me play big league baseball," the lantern-jawed Johnston recalled. "He would rather see me play one baseball game than 50 basketball games."
"The sore arm changed all that," Johnston grins happily down from his rangy six feet, eight inches.
He was in the Philadelphia Phillies farm system just three years ago, a promising fast ball pitcher who was a bonus player signed while still a sophomore at Ohio State. His father was happy but Neil wasn't.
So Neil went his father's way, pitching at Terre Haute in 1949 and 1950 and posting an 11-12 record in each of those years. In 1951 he was moved to Wilmington of the Interstate league and there his arm started "tightening up."
"They sent me to Tri-Cities in the Western International league in 1952 but the arm was gone," the towering blond explained. "I was a fast ball pitcher without a fast ball."
That gave Johnston his "out." Unable to pitch, he maneuvered a meeting with Eddie Gottlieb, owner-coach of the Warriors. Gottlieb tookure and found that Neil was six feet, eight inches instead of the six,
Better Photofinishing 721 Mass. Ph.41
one look, whipped out a tape meas-
sick which he told Gottlieb he stood.
one look, wipped out a tape meas- six which he told Gottlieb he stood. He had played a bit of basketball at Ohio State before becoming ineligible by signing a baseball contract. But he was rusty and, in addition, the Warriors had the sensational Paul Arizin. Thus, that first season, despite his height Johnston stood in Arizin's shadow.
But then Arizin was called into
Johnston when Johnson has come
into his own.
"And he'll be even greater in the next few years." Gottlieb laughed. "He learns fast and we work hard to correct his faults."
He's durable, too, this slow-speaking, fast-moving man who was honored by the New York writers yesterday as the outstanding pro player of the year.
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