SPORT IN AMERICA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 110, 19 February 1935, Page 7

SPORT IN AMERICA.

A VISITOR'S OPINION. (Special to the ''Guardian.'"/') ' WELLINGTON, Feb. 16. That sport in the United States, and particularly amateur athletics, is starting to boom again is the decided opinion of Mr, Bob Edgren, the well-known American sporting writer and cartoonist, who is at present in the Dominion. He is the son of Mr R. W- Edgren, who for 18 years was sports editor of the u m\v York World."

R. W. Edgren was a graduate of the University of California, and was a noted athlete in hia| day, excelling as a hammer thrower, and always a friend of Bob Fitzsimmons, J. J. Corbett, and Jack Dempsey. Bob Edgren has followed in his father's footsteps, and also describes and ilustrates sporting events of note. He said yesterday that last year a national universities' athletic meeting was held at the Olympic Stadium at Los Angeles, and the crowds were five times larger than in previous years. Athletics flourished in Southern California, he said, where the climate much resembled that of New Zealand. For the past 11 years, the field and track championships at the annual national amateur athletic meetings had been carried off by the University of California, the University of Southern California or Stanford University. Rugby football had been restarted a couple of years ago in Southern California, and last year a team had been I sent to British Columbia. The game had also been set going in the eastern universities, where .visits from teams from Cambridge University had aroused much interest. Bob Edgren attended the match for the heavy-weight boxing championship of the world between Primo Camera and Max Baer, in which the Italian giant was dethroned. One rumour current in America was that Camera, just before the fight, suffered so much from varicose veins that his legs had to be doped to enable him to take the . Max Baer had restored boxing to popularity, Mr Edgren said. He was a spectacular fighter, and a great showman, and the crowd flocked to see him. Jack Dempsey had taken the new champion under his wing, and this had helped his popularity. . . Questioned as to whether professional lawn tennis had 'come to stay, Mr Edgren said that William T. Tilden had never been more popular than lie was to-day. His defeat of Coehet and Vines had made him an idol, and he had certainly made a lot of money last year. There was every indication that professional lawn tennis was popular with the public. . . Just before leaving California for New Zealand, Mr Edgren had the pleasure of following a four-ball golf match in San Francisco in which Lawson Little the amateur champion of Britain and America, and Bobby Jones were on opposite sides. They were partnered by two of California's leading amateurs, and some fine golf was seen. Only four holes out of the eighteen were won, and these were all taken by Bobby Jones, who holed out at one hole from a bunker. Lawson Little usually had the advantage oyer Jones off the tees and after the second shots had been played, but the Atalante lawyer was infinitely superior on the greens*