Events & Discoveries

VOICE OF EXPERIENCE

Boxing's respected historian and affectionate senior critic, Nat Fleischer, editor and publisher of The Ring, the bible of boxing, surveyed his sport at the year's close and wrote:

"Looking over the year one cannot overlook the damage done to boxing by the hoodlum problem. While boxing is a fine sport catering to millions of fans there are, as in all business, the unsavory elements whose machinations place the entire game into disrepute. There is no form of athletics from which more pleasure is derived by TV addicts than boxing. Yet the sport and those in it are constantly subjected to attack and all because of the few who, though keeping in the background, rule over the boxing domain with an iron hand."

He made tart reference to the International Boxing Club ( James D. Norris, president) and "that organization's hold on national boxing," strengthened by the passing of two more clubs which had televised fights nationally. He commended Governor George M. Leader of Pennsylvania "for taking the initiative in combating evils in boxing" and New York's Commissioner Julius Helfand "for his defiance of those who are trying to take into their own hands the regulation of national boxing."

And as to the International Boxing Guild, the managers' sodality, Nat Fleischer noted that many boxers had quit the ring during the year for "lack of opportunity to engage in lucrative bouts, since most of the big-money contests went to a chosen few, managed by members of the powerful International Guild."

"The so-called 'big shots,' " he concluded, "have thwarted the progress of boxing in America."

WILLIE IS LEARNING

Three Miami race tracks joined in a-L testimonial dinner last week for a lank-haired young man named Willie Hartack. Among the presents, in recognition of one of Willie's current preoccupations, was a complete skin-diving set including an oxygen tank.

But before Willie could strap himself into his new present for an exploratory trip in southern waters, the quiet little man had other urgent business to attend to. The business was at Tropical Park, where Hartack, a professional jockey by trade, was cheerfully winning more horse races. When the year 1955 came to a close 5-foot 4-inch, 112-pound Willie had managed to run his season score to an amazing 417 winners. Only once before in the history of the American turf had a jockey passed the 400 mark—Willie Shoemaker had 485 winners in 1953.

Willie Hartack is not nearly as concerned with eclipsing Shoemaker's record some day—or even reaching the financial prominence of his more experienced contemporary Eddie Arcaro—as he is with simply winning races. He admits to an excess of nervous energy and says the best way to get rid of it is to do a lot of riding. He does a great deal—usually averaging between six to nine races a day, many of them on horses that Arcaro couldn't be bribed to ride. He takes chances, sure, and some of them have cost him suspensions for rough riding. But Hartack, who rode his first winner in 1952 (his present total: 1,126), figures he is still learning his trade and won't qualify as a full-fledged master for maybe another eight years (in 1964, say). One of the secrets of his success is an almost infallible memory which permits him to recall the racing traits of hundreds horses, both those he has ridden and those he has ridden against.