Judge — August 18, 1923 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE “SCIENCE, OF SPORT by Edward Anthony Sketches by Weed HE ONLY THING Professor J. Arthur Thomson failed to include in The Outline of Science” was a chapter on the of sport. will insist that this proves there isn’t any such thing. We don’t share this view. After all, the other sciences are more important and) you can’t’ blame the professor for overlooking what is a minor one even if it does involve major leaguers. The professor probably recognizes its scie Some existence but doesn’t. consider it very important; which is the way we feel about it. And though hardly a_ week pass the without the sport fans reading of cientifie footwork of Battling Whooz- is or the scientific batting of Willie Whatzisname we don't think the fans are interested in) “science” any more than we are. The guy with the wallop has first call on the popular imagination. Cleverness is admired but, as far as most fans are concerned, it isn’t essential. The mob worships at the Shrine of Clout. It stops, occasionally, to say a perfunctory prayer at the ‘Temple of Science, but this doesn’t mean anything. For the kneelers, rushing through their brief prayers, are thinking all the time how nice it would be to get away from there and see some one whale a liner over the A happy woman. fence or knock some one through the rope: Scientific footwork, when it is really that, is a beautiful thing to behold. But it doesn’t come off very often. Time and again a fighter ducks and runs when he’s getting the worst of it only to wake up and find him- self accused of scientific footwork The mob worships at the shrine of clout. 9 in the morning papers. There's no “science” about running when the stuffing is being knocked out of you; it’s just common sense. A fighter who used to be heralded as a ring scientist because he knew when to duck and run was “Dancing Master” Ahearn. There was no question of Ahearn’s gameness; but he knew he couldn't: stand a hard walloping. So he kept out of the way of the hard wallops by dancing around his opponent and making wild swings. No whirling dervish at a Bombay b: ever got in as many steps in a whole day as Ahearn did. in the course of a round. He was so clever he knew how, even when he beating a retreat, to create the impression that he was the aggressor. He would dance back four steps, then menacingly dance up one; but he was still well out of his opponent's range and the ferocious move- ments of his arms and the savagery his glares didn’t mean a_ thing. was more than a “dancing master”; he was a darned good actor. And the proof of it was that oftentimes when Ahearn was beating one of his neatly disguised retreats the fans would yell to him encouragingly as he furiously punched the air, “Attaboy, kid! Keep after him!” O' R CONTENTION is not that the mob doesn't like “science.” But it loves the wallop. Luis Firpo, who recently defeated Jess Willard, i card simply because he ut drawing un hit like a comicbooks.com