BROKEN ATHLETES

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 March 1930, Page 9

BROKEN ATHLETES

SURGEON’S REPAIR SHOP. SAN FRANCISCO, December 27. Iron-fisted actors in the punch-and-sanguinary show call him “the mittmender,” and to others he is the Remaker of Champions. But certain it is that the husky parade that winds through the ante-room of Dr Wilfred G. Fralick’s office in New York constitutes a “Who’s Who” of the boxing game and of the sporting world in general. For Dr Fralick operates a repair shop to which men with names made famous by blazing headlines on the sports pages bring mighty fists that have been crumbled, strong arms that have been twisted by an awkward heave of a baseball or a football, tissues and tendons torn by the ill-timed swing of a golf club or a hockey stick.

Dr Fralick is by profession an abdominal surgeon with a distinguished practice, but in the last fifteen years he has built up a new fame as a repairer of athletes. Noted champions have beaten a path to his door. Tunney, Dempsey, Sharkey, Firpo, and even the new outstanding contender for ring honours, Max Schmeling, have taken their physical and sometimes their mental troubles to this friend of the pugilistic game. Once an amateur boxer himself, Dr Fralick probably is more familiar than any other surgeon with the peculiar physical requirements of the leather pushers. Dr Fralick is not just a “bone-' setter.” He is an expert surgeon who reconstructs hands, arms and shoulders with intricate and delicate operations and ingenious splinting, and who delves into the sensitive nerves, muscles, blood vessels, tissues and tendons of hands and arms.

“The vocational surgeon must do more for an athlete than just set a bone back in place or temporarily cure a shattered hand or broken arm,” pointed out Dr Fralick. “The affected part must be built as firm as ever—sometimes better than ever. “For instance, if a fighter’s shoulder becomes dislocated, it is a simple matter to reset it and relieve his pain so that he may take a job as a house painter or carpenter or bookkeeper without fear of further injury. But if he fights again and throws his arm in the same position that it was at the time of its previous injury, out it will go again.” . Jack Delaney, in the midst of his short and brilliant career, suddenly went bad, and lost two fights in a row. His dynamic right lost its blasting force, and sports writers were consigning him to the fistic graveyard. Then a friend called Dr Fralick, and

Delaney became his patient. Dr Fralick discovered that a ligament in Delaney’s right arm was torn, the cartilage injured, and a bone splin. tered in his right knuckle. He mended the torn ligament and injured cartilage of the centre knuckle, and operated on the hand. Two months later Delaney came back with considerable gusto, a fast and dangerous fighter. Gene Tunney, a young man who had tremendous driving power in his arms, but surprisingly weak hands, owes some of his success to Dr Fralick. The retired heavyweight champion had taken his hands to the Maine woods in an attempt to strengthen them, but had little success. The bones in the knuckles were badly shattered. Months before the fight with Dempsey in Philadelphia, Tunney went to Dr Fralick, who later sat at the ringside and watched the fists that he had mended beat the great Manassa mauler into submission. The doctor admits that it is a

great thrill to witness me come-uacK of the fighters he has worked on, and he seldom misses a major bout, because he has personally treated the big boys who crawl through the ropes. The betting ring, it is said, would give a pretty penny for the knowledge of the condition of the gladiators who are under the care of Dr Fralick. A few years ago a packed house sat in Madison Square Garden at an indoor track meet which featured the famous sprinter Murcheson. Just before the main event it was discovered that Murcheson had strained a tendon in his right leg. Fralick was in the spectators, and the race was delayed while he examined the runner. The doctor sent for splints and tape. Murcheson did not win, but he ran one of the best races of his life. A list of Fralick’s famous patients includes most of the best ringsters— Fitzsimmons, Berlenbach, Bud Taylor, Johnny Dundee, Sammy Mandel, Kaplan Routis, Harry Wills, Jack Delaney, Harry Ebbets, Sid Terris, Jack Ziyic, Tony Vaccarelli, Young Stribling, Benny Bass, Persons, Sharkey, Schmelling, and many a minor pug. Frank Chance took an injured wing to Fralick for repairs, and he gave Wild Bull Melhorn back to golf by setting an injured finger. “Bat” Battalino, new world’s feather-weight boxing champion, is Fralick’s latest patient.