The White Falcon - 09.01.1943, Side 7

7
Cripple-Threat
Sinkwich
By Gene Graff
South Dominates
Grid 'Bowl’ Contests
Hollywood make-believe at its peak couldn’t
have conceived a better climax to the collegiate
football career of Frankie Sinkwich than the
Georgia U. all-American unfurled just a few
short miles from Flicker City when he paraded
his mates to a sterling triumph over UCLA in
the Rose Bowl classic New Year’s Day. That
was Frankie’s last appearance as a collegian
and his performance thoroughly convinced
some 90,000 semi-hostile fans of his brilliance
on the gridiron.
Frankie watched most of the bitterly con-
tested game from the bench, having been forced
out of action early by the return of a painful
ankle injury that had sidelined the Bulldog
star for eight days late in December. But when
his team’s slim 2-0 margin began to slip in the
fourth quarter, Frankie hobbled onto the field
and cemented the victory, bum ankle and all.
He set the stage for the winning touchdown
by pitching passes, then personally convoyed
the ball across from three yards out.
The hole his mates pounded in UCLA’s line
for that “for Frankie” effort was large enough
to hold an American Legion convention. But
that’s typical of the spirit which has followed
the 21-year-old blonde Croatian-American
through his spectacular career. None of the
lesser satellites ever has begrudged the year’s
his mere presence in the line-up seems to in-
ject an invincible spark into his cohorts.
.In sheer power and will to win, Frankie has
no superior. Not a sprinter, he has uncanny
starting speed and abnormal leg-drive. Even
injuries have failed to retard his methodic bril-
liance. In 1941 he was widely heralded as every-
body’s all-American, despite a broken jaw in-
curred in the second game of the season which
put him on a liquid diet through a straw until
Thanksgiving. Handicapped by an “iron-mask”
to protect his jaw, he piled up 1,102 yards run-
ning, passed for 713, personally scored 10
touchdowns, flipped to mates for seven, and
as a gesture of his ability to do anything well,
kicked a 35-yard placement.
His temperamental outbursts once made Fran-
kie the most unpopular man on the campus at
Georgia. But that’s all changed since he eloped
last March with shapely Adeline Weatherly, a
co-ed from Royston, Ga. Coach Wallace Butts
frowned upon the marriage for fear he would
lose his star, but Frankie’s violent flare-ups
of temperament disappeared when the couple
returned to school.
More remarkable than this recent campaign
to curb his temper has been Frankie’s ability
to develop his un-athletic physique into a fear-
some churning assortment of powerful legs,
arms, etc. His 180 pounds are. distributed un-
evenly over his squatty frame, and his diet
troubles parallel those of the movie queens.
His feet are so flat he was refused military
training in his freshman year. All in all, he’s
an amazing gridiron contradiction, but he’s de-
finitely entitled to a position among the col-
legiate football greats of all time,
Football sighed its last breath New Year’s Day, at least until September and perhaps for the duration,
but the dying gasp testified conclusively that campuses of football knowledge from tlTe sunny south-
land — and the non-bowl playing middle west — dominated the 1942 collegiate pigskin parade.
Georgia, Alabama and
Tennessee registered con-
vincing victories, while Ge-
orgia Tech was the only south-
ern casualty. The Rambling
Wreck was favored to bring un-
animous success to elevens from
below the Mason-Dixon line, but
a massive Texas line frustrated
the Techmen, 14 to 7, in the
Cotton Bowl affair at Dallas,
Tex., before a crowd of 3(5,000
fans.
Frankie Sinkwich and his tal-
ented supporting cast of Georgia
U. pounded on the door for three
periods and finally crashed
through in the fourth period to
beat the dogged Bruins of UCLA,
9 to 0, in the annual Hose Bowl
classic at Pasadena, Calif., to the
chagrin of 90,000 partisan root-
ers.
With Sinkwich benched most
of the game after re-injuring his
weak ankle in the second quar-i
ter, his substitute, Charley Trip-j
pi, proved the backfield standout;
by passing well, running rever-j
ses without misfortune, and sen-!
sationally gaining 115 yards in!
27 tries. Trippi, however, lacked
the scoring spark and Sinkwich
had to return to the game in the
closing minutes to plunge for
the clinching touchdown.
When Sinkwich returned to
the game, he flipped two passes
of eight yards each to Left End
Van Davis in the center alley,
moving the ball to UCLA’s four-
yard line. On the next play,
Sinkwich started to slice off
tackle but fumbled, and Herb
Wiener, Bruin end, recovered.
A play later, however, George
Poschner, Georgia end, and
Tackle Red Boyd charged
through and blocked a punt just
leaving Waterfield’s toe. The ball
skidded out of the end zone for
an automatic safety—and two
points for Georgia.
Clyde Ehre, Bulldog center,
intercepted a desperate Water-
field pass shortly thereafter and
Anything can happen in Hollywood and not much was neglected when come-
dians and leading men squared off in a farciful football benefit “game” in Los
Angeles. Here Jack Oakie and Sgt. Joe Louis, a visitor from his Army camp,
exchange autographs on the sidelines during one of the few lulls. The leading
men won, 92 to 79, with the help of a strip-teaser who emerged from one of
their huddles and disrupted the comedians’ defense.
dashed back to the Bruin’s 25-
yard line. Sinkwich and Trippi
collaborated to advance to the
nine. Van Davis reached the
three on two end runs, and then
Sinkwich bowed out fittingly by
limping through right tackle for
the touchdown.
Alabama’s Crimson Tide was
almost as impressive in its Or-
ange Bowl triumph over highly
regarded Boston College at Mi-
ami. ’Bama was completely baffl-
ed by the Eagles’ T-formation in
the first quarter, and the Tide
trailed 14 to 0. But Alabama solv-
ed the puzzle in the second quar-
ter and then went to town to
chalk up five touchdowns and
a field goal for a 37 to 21 ver-
dict.
Tennessee smothered the Tulsa
(Continued on Page 8)
Basketball Scores
Toledo 41, Purdue 37.
Southern California 39, Wash-
ington 31.
Kansas 60, St. Louis 25.
Harvard 31, Michigan State 28.
Iowa State 34, Iowa St. Tchrs.
33.
Georgetown 56, St. Bonaventure
41.
Washington State 55, Wayne 31.
Illinois 38, Stanford 26.
Ohio State 45, Kentucky 40. •
Northwestern 59, Great Lakes
Naval 47.
Minnesota 62, S. Dakota State 52.
N.Y.U. 61, Geneva 46.
Iowa 69, Ripon 36.
Utah State 47, Montana State 38.
Detroit 34, Harvard 19.
Southern California 48, Long Is-
land 40.
Duqucsne 48, De Paul 40.
Pittsburgh 40, Rice 39.
Kansas 31, Fordham 30.
Fort Knox 38, Tennessee 35.
Indiana 40, Nebraska 39.
Wyoming 63, St. Francis (Bkn)
' 38.
N.Y.U. 65, Washington State 55.
Great Lakes Naval 57, Stanford
41.
Southern California 47, Temple
35.
Kansas 63, St. Joseph’s 38.
Camp Lee 51, Virgina 33.
Texas Christian 37, Arkansas 25.
SHORT SHOTS
Cornelius Warmerdam of San Francisco’s
Olympic Club and the only 15-foot pole vaulter
in history was voted the James E. Sullivan
Memorial trophy as the amateur athlete of
1942 “Who, through performance and influence,
has done most to further sportsmanship.” ....
Leslie MacMitchell, N.Y.U. miler, won it in ’41.
. . Previous winners included Bobby Jones and
Lawson Little, golf; Don Budge, tennis; Bill
Bonthron, Glen Cunningham, Don Lash and
Greg Rice, track.
The National Collegiate Athletic Assn, en-
dorsed a full sport program for 1943 at its an-
nual meeting in New York City .... It
passed a resolution urging members of colleges
to permit Servicemen training at their campus-
es to participate in varsity athletics, and
also rescinded their own prohibition of fresh-
man playing varsity .... The national base-
ball publication, “Sporting News,” selected
Branch Rickey, ex-president of the St. Louis
Cardinals and now prexy of the Brooklyn Dodg-
ers, as the No. 1 baseball executive of 1942. ....
Billy Southworth, manager of the world cham-
pion Cards, was chosen as the outstanding
manager, and Ted Williams of the Boston Red
Sox was designated as the outstanding player
of the year.
Francisco Segura of Ecuador won the ninth
annual Sugar Bowl tennis title by defeating
Earl Bartlett, Southeast college conference
champion from T.ulane U., 3-6, 6-2, 6-t, 6-4 ....
Marvin Stahl, long-hitting Grand Rapids, Mich.,
pro, won the Wilshire Country Club “Victory”
golf tourney by beating Ellsworth Vines, ex-
tennis ace, by four strokes before a gallery
of 12,000 .... It was the largest crowd in Cali-
fornia’s golf history .... “Two-Ton” Tony Gal-
ento, ex-heavyweight challenger, is grooming
for a comeback,
...»