Newsday (Suffolk Edition) from Melville, New York • 139

NOSTALGIA Brooklyn The Dodgers had never beaten the Giants in Ebbets Field but Parker passed for one touchdown passed to set up the tying field goal and ran 61 yards to set up the winning touchdown hi his spare time he made a tackle of Len Eshmont to prevent a Giant touchdown The Dodgers won 16-13 And then again on Dec 7 old Acer" Kinard called Parker made happen what had to happen He waa something else" At the time Parker was playing the first year of a two-year contract that made him the highest-paid player in football The price was $12000 a year good salary then was he said And Kinard the great Bruiser waa making $175 a game to block He remembers' learning Danny Fortmaim was making $100 a game to be an all-league lineman with the Bears then Parker lost the second year of that contract when he went into the Navy in 1942 When he came out the Dodgers were no more He played minutes" of toe 1945 season with Boston and then jumped to play for Topping and the Yankees in the AAC- in' 1946 leading the team to the championship game against the Cleveland Browns Often Parker has wondered how he would have done if he had grown up to be a T-formation quarterback He guesses it would have prolonged his career Maybe he would have been a great one Other people ask him what he could have been if he had stuck to baseball an honorable profession the way it is he said knew some people want their daughters going out with us But not sure I would have made it in baseball I was a top minor-league player had shots with the Pirates and Cubs a real fine line between the majors and the top minora There was something I But he had it in football He could beat the Giants And he could make people remember what they were doing on Dec 7 1941 remembers know if the fans were going to hit you on the way out of the dugout or Dodger owner Dan Topping later owner of the baseball Yankees and the Yankees of the outlaw All American Conference in football promised the Dodgers a party if they brat the Giants It was to be at the Pennsylvania Hotel and they were going to see Glenn Miller and his orchestra They were playing Choo Guess Have to Dream the and Cliffs of then The phone number there was PEnnsylvania 6-5000 It was the last game of the season The Giants had clinched the Eastern Division championship The Dodgers were driving for a second-place finish and Parker was leading them The Dodgers won 21-7 the party quite right that day" Parker said Parker was one of the last of the great triple threats He could run pass and kick And he played defense hard to say how tired you were after playing 60 he said really big enough for the game he played" said Kinard now athletic director at the University of Mississippi Parker was five feet 10 and 168 small even in those years But he played football from 1937 through 1941 and in 1945 and 1946 His only serious injuries came as a minor-league baseball player was one of the greatest clutch athletes he made the right play at the right said Jack White general manager at the San Francisco 49ers for whom Parker is a special assignment scout today White was an assistant coach for the Dodgers then He remembers Parker being a fan favorite in Brooklyn the way Dixie Walker was Parker was named Most Valuable Flayer in 1939 while the Dodgers were an also-ran The Giants beat the Dodgers 10 times without a loss through the last game of the 1940 season but Parker led them to a 14-6 upset that day Then the Giants won their first six games in 1941 before they ran into Parker in A Giant Day of Infamy By Steve Jacobson In the Brooklyn Dodger huddle Ace Parker remembers his signals being interrupted by announcements over the Polo public address system William Donovan report immediately to Washington" And more kept hearing the names General this and Admiral Parker recalled "I think I remember everything about that The Brooklyn Dodgers were playing the New York Giants in the National Football League The rivalry was only slightly less vigorous than it was in baseball always looked forward to the game with Parker said did all kinds of things to get 110 per cent up for them I like to say some of them" Parker 0 will be one of four men inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio July 29 Dodger fans of the era from 1930-1944 when Brooklyn had a football team remember him because he could heat the Giants The Dodgers were rarely a contender the Giants always were Pa rker was the equalizer But fans remember that day as a focus of their lives They remember where they were when Bobby Thomson hit his home run and they remember where they were on Dec 7 1941 The Dodgers were playing the Giants and a lot of people were listening on the radio Polo Grounds was jammed" Parker said fans We knew the world was in turmoil We know how serious it was At halftime we heard about the attack We know what Pearl Harbor was amazing part of it was that we never mentioned it in the' dressing room or in the second half We hardly knew what war The rivalry was such that tackle Frank (Bruiser) Kinard who blocked for Parker in 1937 GOLF Golden Bear Jack Nicklaus: Continued from Page 1 Scotland where Arnold Palmer once won The PGA is at Canterbury in Cleveland The Grand Slam of the Golden Age of Bobby Jones toe pro version Nicklaus and the rest pursue and purists might argue that was tougher The PGA never has measured up to the others in any popularity poll but the time that somebody goes into it with the other three titles in his golf bag it will loom monumental No man has gone quite that far' In 1953 Ben Hogan won toe Masters toe US Open end the British Open but he passed up the FGA The PGA format was a long drag of match play then and Hogan feel his legs injured two yean earlier in an auto accident were up to a marathon like that Winning the Grand Slam is so damn hard for two reasons one the tournaments pile on top of one another without much breathing space and two so alone In a team game there is somebody else to take up the slack now and then In golf just you and the ball with a lot of time for walking and thinking Too much time for thinking Nolxidy ever asked Charles Coody about his chances of winning the Grand Slam after he won in Augusta in 1971 Nobody broached the subject with Bob Goalby in 1968 But Nicklaus is something else He overpowering as a beefy young amateur out of Ohio State and the first year he played as a pro (1962) all he did was brat Arnold Palmer in a playoff for toe US Ace Parker however was never a match for Army The big kid sell himself to the fans It was a matter of style Palmer let you know how he felt about a shot If he hit a ball into the fairway he smiled If it went into the trees he suffered If he holed a birdie putt he would exult If he missed one he would twist that photogenic face into terrible agony Nicklaus show much except long drives and low scores Painter hitched up his pants and charged Nicklaus was slow he still takes forever to putt People got on him far being so slow ridiculous for anybody to tell someone else how long they should take to make a he said Palmer said things and he said them quotably well Nicklaus was as helpful as he could be but the words crackle Palmer just smiled his lag smile when one was called for Nicklaus used to wonder if the muscles in his Idee that made smiles were working properly easy for some people to he once said comes naturally for them Foi me a Yet he was never a nasty kid He thought he was pretty important when he first came up and he was right He thought he could brat anybody and he was right about that too- He thought it was enough merely to let people watch him play but there he was wrong Nicklaus a sour puss He was concentrating so hard he just never gave a thought to any byplay between himself and the gallery What appeared to be an aloofness was possibly embarrassment He had played before big crowds before he just handle them Jack was special from the start and in a matter of months he had left ordinary touring pro status far behind That was the old Nicklaus The new Nicklaus smiles a lot in commercials for instance Maybe he was just so hungry to win a half dozen years ago he was too busy for smiling Hie smile musdes work overtime now and while he is no chatterbox he sometimes gabs with the gallery A while ago he appeared bored having won so much' so quickly He work up any excitement about a tournament in New Orleans he would rather go tarpon fishing and he could well afford it Now that he has Barbara and their four children well cared for (number one last year with official earnings of $244490) he has eased up He likes his boat he likes to be home with the kids he likes to fish he -likes coaching a Little League tram Somewhere there must be a proper nickname for him Ohio Fats is pssse Golden Bear is good enough to be the monogram of his line of sports clothing but he is too streamlined for a bear What do you call a nice young man with sunny hair an open face and a sunny smile? Maybe Sunshine Maybe riot How about The Greatest? he said can you call anybody who is still playing golf the greatest? The only way to measure a golfer is to wait until he has finally quit then count up the major championships he has won Players from different eras simply cannot be compared any other way When I quit count mine up and dedde for Right now the count is 13 which ties him with record talked all along of sometime matching Jones Nick- laus said rather quietly at Pebble Beach after winning number 13 I never really expected it to happen I know a funny feeling proud to be in his The biggest fan Jack Nicklaus ever had was his father Charley Nicklaus who owned a few drug stores in Columbus Charley Nicklaus rich but as a kid Jack ratted around the' Scioto Country Club carrying his dubs and hitting a few golf balls of his own Charley Nicklaus until he died a few years ago was almost always in his gallery he was the one with the big smile especially when Jack played the lag ones Palmer was the man in the glare of the spotlight once too In 1960 he won the Masters and the US Open but lost the British Open to Kel Nagle by a stroke He was not a strong challenger in that PGA and in fact has never won the PGA championship Lee Trevino who stymied Nicklaus yesterday smothers his ambitions in snappy one-liners and goes after Nicklaus in his own special way Trevino carries on and on about Nicklaus being the greatest golfer ever to pick up a dub and that there is no way just no way for anybody to beat such a fantastic golfer Then he brats him in a playoff laughing Before the British Open began Gary Player said that maybe Palmer Trevino and himself had made a mistake not taking a full week to practice as Nicklaus had dream of glory is finished for now is he said yesterday trying to dirug off the numbing disappointment was there and I let it get away But now I know that the Grand Slam can be done and maybe it could be next You read it here first TIIE SCOIIEUS Let Trevino Jack Ntcklcut Tony Jacklln Douf Bandera Brian Bamea Gary Player Guy Hunt Arnold Palmer David Vaughan Tom WMakopt Dave Man Clive Clark Peter Tswnacnd Bemarrllnl Johnny Miller Jan Borreateln Bob Charles Peter Butler -Bert Vaneev Bern twin ye Frank Beard Bannerman Craig Defoy McClelland Chrlatie O'Connor Bruce Devlin 70-72-71 88-72 71-71-08-70 281 2S3 75-72-87-72 2K6 2SS 70-74-71-72 287 287 73-71-76-68 288 76-86-72-75 289 74-71-72-73 24) 2B9 390 72-74-74-73-299 78-74-72-73-295 74-72-76-73-295 (113790) 1200O 8125) 6875) Brian Huggett John Garner Jerry Heard Peter Ooaterhuli Peter TTiomaon Bob Shearer Dave Stockton Min Kan Haleh Brian Thomnaon Cunningham Fernanda Kel Naele Peter Alllaa Jack Newton Billy reaper Llang-Huan Lu Tommy Horton V'lnrf Hood -Chie-Haolne Kuo Peter TupHng Sam Dor ranee Ernie Jonea David Oakley Hutchlnaon nrman Wood Andrew Brooke Douelaa Sewell David Talbot Graham Mai-ah David Llewellyn John O'Leary Bob Walker Tlenle Brill Antonio Garrtdo Gary Baleaon John Fowler Stuart Jack Major Victories US Amateur 1959 1961 US 1962 1967 1972 1963 1965 1966 1972 British 1966 1970 1963 1971 Bobby Major Victories US 1924 1925 1927 1928 1930 US 1923 1926 1929 1930 British Amateur 1930 British Open 1926 1927 1930 him by the elbow on lover she said playfully going to put you back on Maybe what also has happened to Nicklaus is that he grew up It takes a while even for kids who at 16 win their 6tate Open golf championships He was a big shot even then and he was used to deferential treatment mass interviews and overflow galleries People liked to watch him crunch a golf ball They liked to watch him play but he never turned them on To the contrary he heard comments like it in the water Fat often enough to let it get under his skin be lying if I said I' care what people thought about me Anybody would care What do those people want from All they wanted from him was to stop beating Palmer It was inevitable that the two giants would meet in something like mortal combat on the fairways Palmer was the king and here came this kid knocking him off just about every time it was a head-to-head confrontation Pack opening of the major-league season now says there is a there will be a modification of reserve-clause contract system the issue that forced the strike Perhaps realization that change is a was precipitated by the recent Supreme Court ruling which invited Congress to look into the matter of reserve clauses Kuhn insists there is no need for Federal control of baseball probably the most regulated industry in the country as it Kuhn says Sure baseball is regulated' but by the owners who have the power to cut and renew contracts arbitrarily that kind of regulation which has the players vowing another strike if the reserve clause modified to parallel pro football's option clause which permits a player to change clubs if he becomes dissatisfied It would seem then that the baseball owners had better modify the reserve clause themselves before someone does it for them When it comes to striking out-people the Federal government has the ability to lead the league PC A collection of opinion and double takes on the world of sports compiled by the Newsday sports staff Open title Any time he won at Augusta he has done it four it was pertinent to ask him about the next three big ones And he was always asked course he would say must break just right but somebody might be lucky enough to do it I might do it but it would be very hard Why you just let me enjoy this one before we talk about winning four? Some day if I win the first three then sit down and talk about the Maybe Nicklaus won the Slam already simply because he never was ready to win it before He come onto toe scene and win every tournament it just seemed that way He was Ohio Fats the big kid who hit incredibly long tee shots His shirttail hung out but he played par-five holes with a driver and a seven-iron He could hit the ball a ton but now and then he would spray a drive into another county and first place would get away Now maybe he is ready Certainly he has changed It used to bother hell out of him to be called Ohio Fats Once at a big tournament Nicklaus strode up to a local newspaperman who had used the phrase in that paper He thumped one foot onto toe table so his massive thigh was crammed the seated nose Nicklaus demanded that feel like Late in 1969 he figured maybe his weight was what made him tired toward the end of his rounds and he dieted down from 215 to 185 He decked himself out in doubleknit slacks and shirts combed his blond hair in a mod mop style and stopped using the driver so much The result: A new Nicklaus Wife Barbara watching bemused as her husband was signing autographs for a bevy of beauties at Augusta the next spring grabbed others who find his actions refreshing especially in a time when athletes all seem to come off the 6a me assembly line There is one thread of similarity however The chess matter loves money the name of the game in professional athletics these days Good but Bobby Fischer chess player said: The site of Reykjavik Iceland was not good the hotel facilities were not good the percentage of the gate was' not good the days for the flight were not good the date for the draw was not good the proposed menu was not good the car provided by tiie sponsors was not good the starting date for the match was not good the lighting was not good the TV camera setup was not good the chessmen were not good the board was not good the chair was not good Bobby Fischer is good and I hope he loses BG Bowie Kuhn Speaks Why does Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn insist on trying to bunt with two strikes on him? Ths normally tight-lipped Kuhn who was silent as a strike by the players delayed the 8MMMID (EHIIBSS Flaky but Good In the past there have bran Phil Linz Bo Belinsky Dick Stuart and of course Muhammad (Cassius Clay) Ali The had one thing in common: They were flakes super flakes if you prefer But the super flake of them all has to be Bobby Fischer not known if Fischer can play the harmonica shoot pool is a bad-fielding first baseman or can predict in poetry the round he will knock out Boris Spassky But a certainty that Fischer has super-ego the necessary ingredient to be a super flake Largely sentiment seems to be against Fischer There are many who would like to see Spassky knock Fischer off his special swivel chair OK to each his own but there are those who find Fischer refreshing like the young Cassius Clay The young Clay was a thorn in the side He was the exact opposite of what the traditional sports hero is expected to be Instead of being modest and unassuming he was brash cocky confident and to the chagrin talented To some Fischer just might be more obnoxious tbnn the young Clay But there are t-inday Jy 1 6 1W Sports7 I.