FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

By:  CLAUDE NEWMAN

Now that Uncle Sam, the well meaning old fellow, has picked the best there is in athletes -- male and female -- it is to be hoped that they do considerably better than the squad which bore the American shield into the Olympic Games at Amsterdam in 1928.

This is to be devoutly hoped for especially in track and field, the "main event" of the Olympiad.

The last time that American track and field warriors had to travel and see the world (to Amsterdam), they did shabbily indeed.  In fact, they did so badly that Ray Barbuti, the many-muscled 400-meter runner, was the only American to win a race on the flat.

Prospects are better this year, much better, but when you think back eight years you remember that they also were good in 1928.

FRANK WYKOFF & JESSE OWENS

That year there were many hopes for Olympic titles, among them record holding Frank Wykoff in the sprints.  This year there are many other seemingly unbeatable young men, among them Jesse Owens, who will seek an Olympic "triple" in the 100 and 200 meter and broad jump as a result of dominating these events in the final tryouts on Randall's Island in New York over the week-end.

All we hope is that Owens does better than some other "super" stars we have sent overseas, only to find they were cheese instead of filet mignon.  Owens, we believe has the ability to come through, if not with a "triple," certainly with a double in the springs.

Owens may have failed last year, partly because of Eulace Peacock, but he as been so handy in his chosen events this year that even an ocean voyage should be little handicap.

EASTMAN FAILURE BAD SHOCK

Two of the great shocks of the final tryouts were provided when "Big Ben" Eastman failed to qualify for the 800-meter and Foy Draper fell a trifle short in the 200 meter.

If there was anyone we expected to make the team, it was Eastman in the 800, although we realized that nothing is sure but death and taxes and that even the greatest of stars can have an off day.

Frankly, the 800-meter assortment won't seem quite right without Blazing Ben, the holder of the world's record.  But we guess he wasn't good enough, since he finished only sixth in the final won by John Woodruff of Pittsburgh.

It even was surprising that Ross Bush of U.S.C. finished a notch ahead of Eastman in this race.

FOY DRAPER & RALPH METCALFE

Two genuine surprises were afforded in the 200 meter trials -- (Foy) Draper and Ralph Metcalfe!

All season long the stumpy-legged Draper, a little man with a big heart, was conceded to be one of the finest 220-yard dash men in the country, and 220 yards in a blood brother of the 200-meter.  Yet the best Draper could do was a fifth in the 200-meter final yesterday, a notch behind Metcalfe.  And Metcalfe, considered the best bet of them all in the 200-meter, failed to get in the necessary first three, led by Owens!

If Owens, the tryouts' top performer, can hold his form, it looks as though your Uncle Sam will have another double winner in the sprints.  Eddie Tolan, a bundle of speed, succeeded in winning both gold medals at the 1932 Games, a feat comparable to that of Percy Williams of Canada in the 1928 Olympiad.

WYKOFF MATERIAL FOR A STORY

Material for a real human interest story is wrapped up in the person of (Frank) Wykoff, the man who not only failed in 1928 but who even was out of the money in the dashes.

Wykoff never will come closer to falling in his life than he did Saturday and Sunday in the Randall's Island tryouts.

If a seventh man weren't allowed to run the final heat, he never would have made his third Olympic team.  He was shut out in the qualifying heats and was forced to run an extra race in order to get into the final.  But he made it there, and put on a great burst of speed to finish third behind Owens and Metcalfe in the 100, thus earning the trip that may enable him to grasp the honors denied his flying feet at Amsterdam in 1928.

Quite often it happens that a man just barely able to make an Olympic team proves the hero of the Games, and there is no better setting than for Wykoff to win the 100-meter sprint.

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Joe Louis may have blown up in his countrymen's faces, but the United States Olympic team ought to bring some high honors to the black race.

With Owens in three events and the world record-making Cornelius Johnson and Dave Albritton in the high jump, we don't know how the black folks can miss a celebration that will equal in enthusiasm the welcome given Tolan in 1932.

The ease with which Owens has been winning against the hottest kind of competition indicates that he should win at least one, and perhaps two events in the Olympiad.  Of course, we realize that the athletes of other nations are good, too, but they will need to be deluxe to beat Owens in the two sprints and the broad jump.

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"UNTOUCHABLES" IN HIGH JUMP

(Cornelius) Johnson and (Dave) Albritton will be the "untouchables" of high jumping if they can equal Saturday's effort in the Olympics, 6 feet 9 3/4 inches for a new world record!

Johnson, the Californian, and Albritton, from Ohio State, naturally, never have gone that high before, but think how it should bolster their confidence against the world's best jumpers at Berlin!

And think of Johnson's reaction yesterday -- to break the world's record, and while telling about it over the radio, learning that Albritton had done likewise to share the honor.

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The big "kick" of the tryouts from this far away vantage point, was that three pupils of that ace of coaches, Dean Cromwell, made the United States team in the pole vault.

EARLE MEADOWS, BILL SEFTON, AND BILL BARBER

Earle Meadows and Bill Sefton, an incomparable pair for any college, and Bill Barber, the man who failed to win the even in the 1932 Games, comprise the vaulting team.  It is a marvelous team, all of the consistent over the 14-foot mark.

Graber is out of school but he fails again in the Games he will be cheered by the knowledge that if an American wins it, that winner will be from the same school instead of Stanford.  Bill Miller, you know, won in 1932 when Graber was supposed to!

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