Laurels & Leverage

Two outstanding athletes won topflight sport awards last week, and incidentally helped fortify their bargaining positions for 1950.

Big (6 ft., 190 lbs.), fleet-footed Jackie Robinson, 30, the first man to cross the color line into the major leagues, was voted by the sportwriters Most Valuable Player in the National League. As second baseman for the pennant-winning Brooklyn Dodgers, he had been the league's batting champion (.342) and leading base stealer. The award would give him extra leverage in prying more salary out of Boss Branch Rickey than the estimated $22,000 he got this year. Said Robinson: "I don't know how much there was to those rumors about Mr. Rickey wanting to sell me, but I know one thing. I'll never leave Brooklyn. If I was sold . . . I'd quit." He might quit anyhow, he thought, after one more season. It was also a big week for Jackie Robinson Jr., who celebrated his third birthday with his parents and neighborhood friends (see cut).

Massive Leon Hart, 21, an end for Notre Dame, won the Maxwell Memorial Trophy award as college football's player of the year. Although he still has two more games to play, rival pro leagues were bracing to bid for the tall (6 ft. 4 1/2 in.), rugged (252 lbs.) lad from Turtle Creek, Pa. In the All-America Conference, the Baltimore Colts had rights to him. In the National Football League, clubs drew lots a fortnight ago. Six men made wry faces, but Coach "Bo" McMillin of the Detroit Lions clutched his slip of paper as though it were a sweepstakes winner, let out a happy bellow: "Hart!" Leon could sit back and watch the bids come in.

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