Dear Editor:

‘ Thank you for for ex-
cellent coverage (re. the July
16th issue of the NEWS)of
the Sea-Festival Slo-Pitch
softball tournament.

I, along with, I'm sure,
many thousands of North
Vancouver sports fans were
holding our breath waiting
for the results of the game
the NEWS team was in.

Boxers

‘Not bums’

TORONTO (UPC) - In a
dingy. cramped, one-room
gym above a garage on
Toronto's west side, two
Canadian champions,
George Chuvalo and Trevor
Berbick, throw verbal
punches in defense of a
disordered, much-maligned
kingdom.

“I got some things | want
to say. One of them is that no
matter what a lot of people
are thinking, any man with
the courage to get into that
ring is no bum,” said Ber-
bick, the Canadian
heavyweight champ’ who
caught John Tate in mid-
retreat June 20 and axed him
with an overhand right.

The not-so-classic punch
did the job and powered
Berbick to the forefront of a
sport that is not taken
seriously in Canada until a
man dies of ring injunes.

The same night. in the
same ring, young lightweight
Cleveland Denny was
knocked into a coma and
died 18 days later. The
coroner’s verdict: death
from too many punches to
the head. The _ nations’
lawmakers, boxing of-
ficialdom and many men and
women in the strect were
outraged

Berbick, former maitre d
and professional scuba
diver, a man who reads
books and. attended
university, ts annoyed. Does
the Canadian champion
really have to come out and
say he ss no bum? Well
almght then, “lam no bum.”
says Berbick

The self-indulgent drivel

your paper prints in its sports
pages, never fails to amaze
me.

In the winter months — it
was stories, compiete with
pictures yet, of your soccer
team competing in a league,
which at best, is at, or near,
the bottom level of lacal
competition.

And now, a headline story
of a slo-pitch softball

defend

He will fight No. 1
Canadian challenger Ron
Rouselle in Edmonton in
August for a modest sum of
about $50,000. Until then he
must also fight Denny's
legacy and the uproar which
caused the president of the
Canadian Boxing Federation
to label the state of the sport
“a bunch of junk.”

One of the insults Berbick
has had to bear is the notion
“we poor bums can't do
‘anything else but fight so we
have to be protected.”

Berbick once took a part-
time course at Dalhousie
University and has even
spent a few hours searching
for a “good book” in the
university archives. He, like
many of the politicians who
now take a long-distance
punch at his profession, did
not finish college either.

Lansdowne Gym seems an
unlikely place for a
champion. The walls are
covered in yellowed fight
posters, rows of yellowed
Streamers hang from the
ceiling, the floor is con-
Structed of plywood sheets
covered with unnumerablic
musty throw rugs.

There are three puffy.
tape-repaired punching
bags. Old men on the nod,

burly and overweight,
lounge on crumbling
couches, analyzing the

champion and an obscure
featherweight working at the
bag. In between they analyze
fights that were decided long
ago
George
portly,

Chuvalo, the
former Canadian

tournament.

For whose benefit, or for
what purpose, other than to
satisfy your own childish
egos, are these
written? —

Self-parody can be witty
and entertaining. When it is
unintentional, it is a pathetic

embarrassment.

Spencer Cowan

North Van

heavyweight king, is

analyzmg his career of 90
professional fights. In many
places the sheer longevity of
it would be enough to pet
him lionized.

Chuvalo, also no bum.
suspects there are a “few
bums” in the sport.

“Uniike other sports,
boxing is run by a bunch of
commissioners who know
nothing about it. It's
amazing, all these guys who
have achieved nothing but a
political appointment.

“Why is it run that way?
Well, because we (boxers)
are supposed to be stupid. I
have been in favor of
reforms for years but nobody
listens "til someone dies.”

Divers hold
meet

Sunday, July 20, at the
Ron Andrews Pool, the
Cruisers divers hosted a
meet with the Coquitlam,
Port Moody. and Richmond
Clubs invited. Thirty-six
divers competed on the onc
and three metre boards and
the Port Moody team won
the meet.

Among Cruisers winners
was Leah Bergen, who came
m first in the girls 10 and
under one metre board
event, and also took first
place in uhe 12 and under
three mctre board.

Janice Kusnir came im first
an the girts 11-12 onc metre
board, and Frank Baamicr
took third place in the boys
11-12 one metre board.

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