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CLAIM WYKOFF FIRST IN RACE
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'Hap' O'Connor Saw Race; Frank First, Tolan Second, Says Umpire
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By: BILL BARNETT
PERCY WILLIAMS, Canadian Olympic games champion and one of the
classiest sprinters ever to wear a spiked shoe, may become a resident
of our fair city within the next month or so, according to Leo (Hap)
O'Connor, who has just returned from Vancouver, where he was an umpire
in the defunct senior amateur baseball league. "Hap" was rather
emphatic in his statement that Williams want to get away from
Vancouver, and that the youthful sprinter was anxious to locate in
Southern California and finish his university work here.
Another bit of news let loose by O'Connor this morning was that
Frank Wykoff, Glendale's but of fame, was "jobbed" in the Vancouver
meet, and instead of finishing third, actually was first, with
Williams third, and Eddie Tolan, a close second. "It was a hometown decision,"
declared 'Hap.' "Wykoff won by six inches or
so, was right at the finish, and able to walk, too.
"This Williams kid is sick of the North
and wants to get away. He's had one year of college work,
attending the University of British Columbia, and I know he would be
glad to come here if I could get him a job. It would be pretty
nice to go out to the Coliseum three or four times a month and watch
Williams and Wykoff and some of the other stars stage a couple of
races, wouldn't it?"
Besides Williams, Claude Bracey,
the Texas flyer, had made it known that he may change his address to
Los Angeles some time this summer. Having a trio, or rather
quartet of such sprinters as Charlie Borah,
Wykoff, Williams, and Bracey would do the track and field game a world
of good locally. Since the palmy days of Sir Charles Paddock the
stands have been rather empty during the track season, but if one
could gaze upon the above mentioned racers galloping down the
straightaway two or three Saturdays a month it's a cinch that 50,000
or so would turn out for each meet. |
