Document text
Acc ssion no.
WPA' L. C. PROJECT
Form --3
Writer' UNIT
W 3662
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped front
lash. Offiss
Label
Amount
5p
hilkleril_...Collection (or Type)
Titieliports...tswiimint)
Place of origin..C.bitiliggs....111L110.1.4 Date..1011
Project worker 811S.X.9111
Project editor
Remarks
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLEICEE
STATE
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
FORM A
Circumstances of Interviei
Illinois
Sam Ross
713:. Rush Street
April
Sports (swimming)
1. Date and time of interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant
Self
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
None
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
CHICAGO
NO. Words
41y .240
.009
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number tb which the material refers.)
W3662
TEXT -1
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
JOHNY WEISMULLER'S STORY
I don't know haw I did it. I smashed out there and at the end
of the hundred I know I had pulled my cork. At the seventh length
the little man in the green hat with the hammer in his hand started
to work on me. Every time I hit the end of the pool the little man
pounded my head until by the time I hit the ninth length my eyeballs
were hanging out of my head. I don't know haw I got.through the rest.
But when I popped up at the end and saw the look on Bach's (Baohrach,
coach) face I know something happened. Then I'm told I did 2: 08.3
for the 230, cracking my own world's record. Can you imagine thatt
And in the oondition I was in.
SPORTSMANSHIP
This took place at a national A.A.U. championship in 1931. There
was a breastroker named Tommy Blanketberg who had won the 220 breast-
stroke championship the year before because there was nobody of topnotch
caliber to compete against. Be was defending his title. A, week before
this meet at the national interoollegiates Austin Clapp had beaten Buster
Crabble in the 440, after Crabble had been conceded the race by the
experts. All these men were from Los Angeles. Just before the breast-
stroke race was about to begin, Crabble approached Elankenberg and
gave him a rib. "I hope you win, Tommy," said Crabble. Tommy knew that
he didn't have a chance. "You hope I win, you bastard," said Tommy,
"like I hoped you'd win the 440 against Clapp".
TEXT
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
HOW IT FEELS TO BE AN OLD MAN
This happened at the national A.4.11. indoor championships in
Chicago in 1928. Weismuller was defending his backstroke title in
addition to the 100 and 220 yard freestyle. In the big meets the
officials work the preliminary heats in this manners a sure winner
is put in each heat; the first four winners and the tecond fastest
time qualify for the finals. Some kid named George Kojao who was
in his last year high school, an unknown, was put in leiamuller's
heat. Be had traveled sitting up for 20 hours to compete in this
meet. Be got in that pool and kicked water in leismuller's face
all the may in. Weismuller qualified for the finals with the second
fastest time. That night, the house was packed. Everybody was very
tense. Who was this kid? ?There'd be come from? Be had upset the
dope and broke the world's record in the afternoon. Nobody had a
doubt but that Weismuller would oraok the kid up in the finals. The
keen competition has a way of doing that to a newcomer. The race
started and at the end of the hundred Kojao and Weismuller were tied.
They had to go under the record for the hundred to stay together.
On the sixth lap, Weismuller cracked completely and Kojao kept right on
going, butchering the water and the former champ. Be went under the
record he had established that afternoon. Weismuller swam in third.
After the event, in the shower roam, Norman Ross, whom Weismuller had
displaced previously, slapped Weismuller on the back and said, "flow's
it feel to be an old man?"
TEXT
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
JUST A CASE OF NERVES
There was a guy at school who was the fastest swimmer I had ever
seen outside of Weismuller, in practice. He could do world's record
time for the 50,100, and 220 crawl. When he got in a dual meet with
another university nobody could come near him. In the conference
championship he tied with his team mate, who was three seconds behind
him always, for first. At the national intercollegie.tes he couldn't
even qualify for the finals, while his team mate got third. At the
national A.A.U. championships he could hardly move. The trouble was:
he'd get so nervous that his muscles would tie up and he couldn't get
co-ordinated.
GAG
At the national outdoor championships of platform diving, there
was a former diver sitting in the stands and he called a coach over
and yelled, "Hey, I got a kid for you who dives off the ninety foot
platform into a damp rag." "I'll take him," the coach said, "if be
uses the damp rag to dry himself."'
TALL STORY
"Yeah," the coach of the New York A. C. said, "there was all that
money riding on the fourth race and would you believe it, the four
horse parley came through." We all look at Joe peculiarly. Finally
our coach said, "Say, Joe, that must have paid off in telephone numbers."
TEXT -4-
CHICAGO FOLKSTUFF
MODESTY
"Say. I hear you're good. A champ, or something."
"Sure, you ought to see me do the under water high hurdles and
low hurdles. I'm terrific. And the pole vault. I do that under
water pole vault for a world's reoord every time."
AS LIFE GUARD SCHOOL
There are the good swimmers and bad swimmers. The bad swimmers
are usually the tough guys or football players who work against their
coaches' orders because the coaches are afraid the boys will soften up
for the coming season. Watching the boat tests are always fun. You
do it against time. You're supposed to push your boat out, hop in, row like
hell to the man in the water about 300 yards out, drop your anchor, drop
your oars back in the boat, then jump for the man, drag him on to the
boat, pull up anchor and row back to shore. Usually a man forgets to
drop his anchor and the boat drifts away when he jumps for the rescue;
or he forgets to throw his oars in and he loses an oar during the
rescue; or he forgets to pick up his anchor before going back to shore.
Watching these is always good for a laugh.