The Camden News from Camden, Arkansas • Page 7

(Ark) July i. 1972 The Pathetic Fall of Joe Louis: Why? JOE KOI IS. left, posed for this race track publicity picture last with former Jockey Con McCreary. Rod Milburn Two Track Stars Wonder If All Worth the Effort MURRAY OLDERMAN BEKKELEY, Calif should be elation but isn't, be ing possibly the fastest man in the world For Jean-Louis Ravelo- manantsoa, there is the depress, ve tenseness in know ing that 10 years of concentrated effort to become a world-class sprinter can be destroyed in a split second For Rodney Milburn, who is much younger, there is the irritation of realizing it will all soon end and be little show lor fell the work For two years. Jean-Lo us.

who comes from thrt big island of Madagascai off 4 coast of Fast Africa, was undefeated in the 100-yard dash Then he came up empty the other night in Los Angeles "I had no and now he must gear him self up again for the final trek to Munich and the Olympic Games, where he will be one of the favorites in the 100 meter dash That's a rare distinction for an athlete from the Malagasy Republic. Ravelo- manantsoa has been called a man of letters there are 15 in his name, partitioned into seven syllables Joe Sargis of simplifies it lie calls him Ravioli shudders Jean Louts, who speaks English with a delicious Jean Pierre Aumont accent, since French is an official language in that republic lie is 29 years old and comes from the capital city of Tananarive, where his late father was a Ford sales manager. He competed in the 1964 otymptef at Tokyo where he did nothing Four ears later in Mexico City, reached the 100-meter finals and finished last he says. was going to quit My father had passed away and I had to work I was studying law and working for an insurance company An American with the Peace Corps in Madagascar persuaded Jean Louis to come to the United States in 1970 on a scholarship at little Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif Ills wife has to work while Jean-Louis baby-sits for their two-year old daughter and goes to school he sighs studies are not easy a language barrier still Going to school and studying hard and traveling, it gets to you This is a very tough life I train by myself You know, there are other things in life besides running glad in a way I finally lost I had no excuses different for Rod Milburn, who is the best high hurdler in the world and perhaps the most dominant man in his event in all track and field He has a two year winning streak unbroken Where Jean-Louis is squat 1 5-8) and muscular and intense. Rod is a svelte six- footer and loose.

He figures he now has won more than 70 high hurdles races in a row The last race he lost was to Willie Davenport in the 1970 National AAU meet was fed up at the says Rod "I was tired and wanted to quit He was also 20 years old then can't afford to quit now," he continues put too much time in Three years of my life have gone down the drain No matter where I am, I get away from running going to give up after the Olympics Hod has other ideas be a senioi at Southern Uni versity in his home town of Baton Rouge. La and when he gets back from Munich, he'll tin out for the football team as a wide receiver, with a pro career in mind "The time you devote to he says, could use to do other things You take a European tour in the summer and when you come home you got no money in the bank After the track season, nobody knows you any more. If I had worked last summer, I could have made something like $3,000 This wav you got to go for scratch For both Jean Louis Ra velomanantsoa and Rod Milburn however, in the hair trigger world in which they live, where a momentary loss of concentration is an athletic tragedy, there still remains the of one final payoff which can't be calculated in money A gold medal at Munich Muhamad Ali To Fight Patterson NKW YORK There is every indication that Muhammad All and Floyd Patterson, a pair of ex heavyweight champions. will meet here Aug 28 The two fighters signed a contract Thursday for a bout at Madison Square Garden on that date, but there always the chance that one of their insignificant opponents in match could throw a roadblock into the scheduling All. gunning for another crack at Joe Frazier's title, has a July 19 date in Dublin with Alvin Lewis.

Patterson, looking for his first shot at Frazier, Pedro to here on July 16 Harry Markson, director of boxing at MSG, could cancel an Ali-Patterson fight if one of the big names has a miserable night against one of the "The contract has an escape clause," Markson pointed out, aays that the match is void if something happens to lessen a fighter's present value as an attraction Assuming the bout goes on as scheduled, Ali will receive a guarantee of $250.000 against 35 per cent at the gate and Patterson will get against 2f per cent Ali is 1-0 in their series, having scored a 12th round technical knockout over Patterson seven years ago in Las Vegas, Nev "Floyd has proven to me he's got enough left for one more fight," said a taunting Ali at the signing "He's such a nice guy. I let him call me Mr Clay OKLAHOMA CITY AP The Oklahoma Boxing Commission has taken it upon itaelf to "strip" Joe Prasier of his heavyweight Oklahoma at least and says Is will recognize the winner By IRA BERKOW NEA Sports Editor NEW reading the absorbing but frustrating book, "Brown Bomber: The Pilgrimage of Joe (World. by Barney Nagler, the nagging thought remains: why did it happen? For the first time, the pain, paranoia and hospitalization of Joe Louis are told in detail. Graphically, we see how Louis fought a real battle with cocaine and a delu- sionary battle with "Mafia assassins" out to get him. We see Louis, at age 56 in 1969, once the most fearsome and respected of our athletes, sleeping with his clothes on in a tent in a hotel room, after having stuffed the vents with paper.

He was afraid of being gassed, and was prepared to bolt the room at a notice. "It was the most pathetic thing in the said his wife, Martha. We know that he took cocaine, and that his life almost ended when he had a bad dose (he was rushed to a hospital and his stomach was pumped). Clues are strewn throughout the book as to why the life of Ixiuis, who held the heavyweight boxing title longer than any man in history (from 1937-1949), disintegrated so. Perhaps his son, Joseph Louis Barrow who signed the papers that finally committed his father to the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital, had it right: "I help thinking of Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman.

In the play the name was Willy Loman, wasn't it? Well, a correlation between them. Willy a grand guy. just like my father, and then he started growing old and losing his customers? He was never really aware that he had lost his territory. the tragedy of it, just like my Perhaps the sports hero never faced responsibility except in the arena He made over $10 million in purses, but wound up owing the federal government $1,250.000 in taxes. The internal revenue service has since dropped the case, out of hopelessness.

One of lawyers wrote a letter to a federal judge, saying in part: At an early age (Louis) was schooled in profligacv instead of thrift. From the age of 19, he was surrounded by men of wealth who made money quickly and easily. During his championship period no brakes were applied to his After one fight, for example, after most of his purse had been siphoned off to pay debts, Louis still bought a irl friend a $10,000 mink coat, to the consternation of is accountants as well as his wife. In later days, he was welcomed in Las Vegas as a drawing card at gambling tables and given thousands to gamble. The knew it would get its money back, since Louis never took part of it home but stayed to lose it all.

He tried several comebacks after his first retirement in 1949. but never earned nearly enough money to pay his debts. He bounced around. When he became a wrestler, a reporter asked how it felt for a great champion to sink so low. beats said Louis in his pithy manner.

Nothing could ever match his vibrant life as champion. He had no other interests, except golf. He spent long hours in bed watching television. He had a 10-room apartment in Los Angeles equipped with nine TV sets. What was wracking his mind, in later years? Debts? Boredom? What drove him to cocaine, this seemingly strong, imperturbable hero? What drove him to his madness and terror of the Mafia? Did his own commitment to an insane asylum in 1916, when Joe was two years old, play on his mind? We sure.

A longer, deeper book by Nagler. whose style is easy and unpretentious, may have filled in the gaps. For now, though, we are left with the lingering image of a recuperating Louis who has in fact found for himself that, as he once said of an opponent. can run but you hide of a planned bout between George Foreman and Oscar Bonavena here this fall. The commission announced Thursday it would henceforth refuse to recognize Frazier because of "his failure to defend his title against a bona fide contender in 16 months," or since Frazier won a unanimous decision over Muhammad Ali in New York March 8.

1971. The action of the commission and the announcement of the planned Foreman-Bonavena bout came in a news conference held by John Miekovsky, chairman of the commission, Dick Sadler, manager for Foreman, and promoters of the contest Miskovsky and the promoters said the Foreman-Bonavena contest would be billed as first heavyweight championship fight Al Oerter, Has Flung By IRA BERKOW NEA Sports Editor NKW stead of going to the Olympics where he would inevitably win another gold medal for the discus throw, Al Oerter will remain home in Long Island sprinkling water on his turnip patch. He says he probably won't even watch the discus com petition on television. see the true Olympics on television, says Oerter. fact, you hardly even see the true Olympics at the time of the event.

what happens in the pits in the two weeks before the event that Oerter is an undeniable expert on the subject. He performed the unique feat of winning gold medals in four successive Olympics. 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968 Oerter believes that at age 35 it would take him three hours a day of twirling and lunging and grunting and heaving his heavy plate to assure himself gold medal No. 5. Once it took him half that time.

too much to ask of a family man at my says Oerter. So he will spend his time now putting tne vegetables on the table an organic gardening and utting bread on the table e's data communications manager for the Grumman Corp.) for his wife and two daughters He stays in condition by Jogging 15-20 minutes a day, and adamantly says he lias flung his last serious disk. He has lost 60 pounds to irove it. He woula beef up 295 pounds for the event, but now is back to his weight, a weight which AL OERTER flings his way to his fourth straight Olympic discus championship at Mexico City In allows the 6-4 Oerter out of a chair without a struggle. can stay away from the discus throw if I want said Oerter recently, at an Olympic fund-raising luncheon sponsored by tne Red Barn Restaurants, fact, one reason I was so successful at it.

Other guys would practice all the time. practice sometimes. kept me He says he never has had an interest in spectator sports, and the discus throw is no exception. The Olympics for Oerter was never approached as the programs state, "in the spirit of international comity to be advanced by the celebration of chivalrous and peaceful Nor did he ever begin a swirl in the discus circle for the glorification of his country. rTm as patriotic as the next says Oerter, I wanted to win for me.

It was a personal thing. I know it was the same for the others, The Olympic Village was a good place to be chummy with people from other na- Dallas Cowboys Open Football Camp Today Play All Stars Soon THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (UPI) The Dallas Cowboys open their training camp Friday to officially begin the 1972 professional football season. High on Coach Tom "must do" list is finding a backup quarterback in the event of injury to either Roger Staubach or Craig Morton. The defending Super Bowl champions will have more than 50 draft choices and free agents to start rookie camp, but that roster will quickly dwindle once the veterans report July 12.

The quarterbacks and wide receivers are expected at camp on Sunday. Dallas gets a two-day jump on Los Angeles as the first camp to open. Most of the other pro camps begin next week. The Cowboys will also be the first team to play a game since, as defending league champ, they will meet the College All-Stars in Chicago July 28. The Cowboys have more than their share of quarterbacking talent with Staubach No.

in the NFL last year and Morton No. 7 in the conference. But times being what they are the possibility of injury must be considered and Landry wants to prepare for that eventuality "Hopefully, find a rookie who can fill the bill as our third Landry said "If we we may have to go into the market and get another quarter who can give us the depth that we need "It would be critical if one of the quarterbacks were hurt and we were left with only one l-ast season Dan Reeves was considered the Cowboys, third quarterback, although his principal position was at running back This year, however, Reeves has retired as a player and will devote full time to his duUes as offensive backfield coach. Dallas drafted only one quarterback last January, taking Scooter Long mire of Utah in the 16th round Three others, none of them household names. 4-Time Olympic Champ, His Last Serious Discus tions, as long as they competing in your event.

scarcely tried to improve another discus performance," he said. What Oerter will be miss ing on TV, he said, would be the that goes on in the pits, the practice ses sions for two weeks before the event. walk over to a Romanian discus thrower and ask him how Poland was, said Oerter. He was walking around like King Kong, now he was shrunk to size tell another in prac tice that he was really throw ing well and to keep throw ing, hoping the guy would himselftire himself out Meanwhile Oerter watched from a su- ine position in the grass en another opponent bragged that he had just thrown 225 feet, Oerter with feigned comradely interest would insist on seeing him do it again. he didn't," said Oerter, was all downhill for him from then Oerter got his first such psyching lessons in his first Olympics, 1956, when, he recalls, "I was the rawest of He was practicing with Fortune Goraien, then the favorite and world rec ord holder.

Gordien followed Oerter in the throw. He gradually began to hurry his throw so that Oerter hardly had time to breathe. made me so nervous," recalls Oerter, I finally threw one It was an accident, but it whistled right past ear and slammed Into the net. It could have taken his head off. He was shaking.

He hurry me any more after i will report as free agents. Some of the most lively competition during training camp will probably involve the kicking game. "The actual kicking specialists, Mike Clark place kicker and Ron Widby punter, at times performed very well last year," said Landry. "At times they perform as well as we would have liked, but I still feel they are National Football players. "The competition for the kicking positions is going to be a little stronger.

Toni Fritsch the Austrian who briefly replaced Clark last season until an injury forced him to the sidelines has reached the point where he is going to challenge Clark very strongly for the placekicking job World Chess Matches On Tuesday By IAN WKSTERGREN REYKJAVIK, Iceland UPI- After two weeks of behind-the- scene diplomacy and much talking, Bobby Fisher and Boris Spassky have agreed to get down to their real chess The match for the world title now held by the 35-year-old Russian will begin Tuesday in the Icelandic capital The winner gets $150.000 and the loser 100 000 Spassky, a handsome Leningrad journalist who makes a living playing chess the year around, will make the first move. He won the draw Thur sday r.ight and will play white, meaning he will make the first move The 29-year-old American will play black in the first game In succeeding games they alternate. Despite the charges and countercharges exchanged between the two champs there was no sign of personal animosity between the two. Applause Exchanged When Spassky was introduced at the draw, Fisher applauded And when the chapplenger, dressed in a green suit and red Ue. was presented, Spassky gave him a big hand.

As they shook hands at the end of the ceremony, Spassky held on to Fisher's hand and said. good The ceremony confirmed that all the problems that delayed the match for nine days finally had been settled It began with Fisher refusing to come to Iceland for the originally scheduled start July 2 because he was not happy with the financial terms. Jim Slater, a wealthy British banker, saved the match when he offered to double the prize money from $125.000 to $250,000 Fisher finally turned up July 4 but by then, Spassky was upset and threatened to pull out. He first demanded that Fisher forfeit the first game, then asked for an apology from the American and finally asked Dr Max Kuwe, president of the InternaUonal Chess Federation. FIDE, to admit that he violated the rules when he postponed the match in absence instead of disqualifying the American.

Kuwe Admist Mistake Kuwe, himself a former world champion and the last non- Russian to hold the title, promptly penned a declaration admitting that he had made a mistake Thursday, Fisher broke the ice when he wrote a letter to apologizing for his "disrespectful Fischer admitted he had "offended you and your country, the Soviet "I simply became carried away by my petty dispute over money with the Icelandic chess Fischer wrote in his letter Spassky accepted the apology, although it was not delivered directly to him by Fischer. In the end, the Russians appeared to have dropped their demand that Fischer forfeit the first game HOME, SWEET HOME? Not In thelnajor leagues, where try to make sure you can't go home again. Dave Marshall (18) of the lets was tagged out by Houston's Larry Howard, above, but Duffy landed safely when Minnesota catcher Phil Roof (8) dropped the ball, below. I.