Athletes Have Diversity of Superstitions

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 10

Athletes Have Diversity of Superstitions

Johnny Leckie Has Black Cat as Mascot

MORRIE BROWNLIE’S PANTS Like everybody else, athletes have their superstitions, even if it is only the footballer who tries to dodge a No. 13 jersey. Johnny Leckie, the “Billy” Murphy of the New Zealand prize ring to-day, has now won his 14th fight on end. In his 13th, the young Dunedin boxer, whose courage in the ring is beyond question, was in a blue funk before the fight started. Once he got into his stride, howover, there was no holding him. Johnny’s mascot is a black cat. It is never far away when the Leckie boy is fighting. PRAYERFUL NURMI Paavo Nurmi, greatest distance runner of all time, is more than superstitious. Before he gained his triple triumph at the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924, competitors from all nations were amazed to find the Phantom Finn secreted in his dressing room, engaged in prayer. The wiseacres shook their heads mournfully when the All Blacks trooped off to Africa on Friday, April 13. Is it a superstition come true?

A BROWNLIE SUPERSTITION Morrie Brownlie, hard-headed captain of the Silver Ferns, has his own pet superstition. All the time Hawke’s Bay was in possession of the Ranfurly Shield, its dynamic leader used to play in a very old, very faded pair of