Humanbangboard

Kalamazoo, you ain't in a class by yourself ;

I seen you before in a lot of places.

Last week another visitor to Kalamazoo (pop. 54,097) expressed Poet Carl Sandburg's sentiment even more succinctly. He was 16-year-old Herbert Flam, cocky Crown Prince of Tennis. After looking over the field in the National Junior Championships, he said: "I've seen better."

Kalamazoo could be reasonably sure that young Herbert from Beverly Hills was talking about his opposition and not the tennis-conscious Michigan city or Kalamazoo College's high-class courts. He had played there twice before, capturing the

Boys' Championship in '43 and reaching the Junior semifinals in '44. Perhaps he was impressed by the absence of Air Cadet Bob Falkenburg, whose crashing play highlighted the two previous visits.

Although Flam's 133 Ibs. on a wiry 5-ft.-9-in. frame supply no overwhelming power, he is a sharp hitter who makes a habit of nonchalantly retrieving his opponents' put-away shots, and in the long run generally outfoxes them with craftily angled returns. His service is on the weak side, but he has developed a strong specialty--a deft lob with a mean spin.

In the "Kazoo" finals it came in handy against Southpaw Bernard ("Tut") Bartzen, runner-up to Falkenburg last year. Tut learned to play the game by going up against a bangboard daily in the little Texas town of San Angelo, where competition was nonexistent, so he was used to seeing his best efforts returned. Flam's disconcerting returns earned him the title at 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

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