Immortal Gehrig

Sport's No. 1 hero of 1939 is dimple-cheeked, piano-legged Lou Gehrig. Last spring, when a rare form of paralysis compelled First Baseman Gehrig to give up his beloved post after 15 years with the New York Yankees, U. S. sportswriters wreathed their columns with encomiums seldom bestowed on the living. Skimming over the Iron Horse's unrivaled feat of playing in 2,130 consecutive major-league games and casually reviewing his extraordinary batting records (some surpassing those of Babe Ruth), they crowned Lou Gehrig's Honesty, Modesty, Courage. Practically canonized. 36-year-old Lou Gehrig became the idol of U. S. youth.

New York City's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed Idol Gehrig to a ten-year term on the Municipal Parole Commission, to serve as an inspiration to delinquent boys. Rich George Ruppert, brother of the late owner of the Yankees, offered to sponsor the baseball career of a "second Lou Gehrig," to be chosen from the sidewalks of New York (Gehrig's nursery). Last week the Baseball Writers Association of America, waiving the rule that a candidate must be out of play for at least a year, unanimously voted Lou Gehrig into Baseball's Hall of Fame* at Cooperstown, N. Y.

While the Hall of Fame's curator prepared a niche for Immortal Gehrig's plaque alongside Immortal Babe Ruth's (his old teammate), a handful of U. S. high-school kids prepared last week to do-or-die for the Lou Gehrig Cup. Emblematic of the national high-school football championship, the big, silver trophy will be awarded annually to the winner of Miami's "Health Bowl" game. Scheduled for Christmas night this year, its proceeds will be donated to the "Fight Infantile Paralysis Campaign."

First contestants: Miami High School, with a season's record of nine straight victories (over schools from five States), v. Garfield High School, New Jersey champions, two years undefeated.

*Other inmates: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Napoleon Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Cy Young, Grover C. Alexander, Connie Mack, Ban Johnson, John J. McGraw, Morgan Bulk.eley, George Wright, Alexander Cartwright, Henry Chadwick, Cap Anson, A. G. Spalding, Charles Radbourne, Arthur Cummings, Charles Comiskey, Buck Ewing, Eddie Collins, Wee Willie Keeler, George Sisler.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.