Category Archives: Sports

Jim Murray, May 24, 1961

        May 24, 1961: Donald George Bragg is depressed. In the first place, some young upstart had just broken his listed world record in the pole vault. In the second place, the upstart had done it using … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 23, 1961

        May 23, 1961: The Angels, who have a clear track to 10th place at the moment, are even ready for desperate measures. They are encouraging people to come out and root AGAINST them. I tested this … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 22, 1961

        May 22, 1961: A horse, left to his own devices, would no more run a race for his daily oats than you would wrestle the butcher two out of three for a pork chop. It's that … Continue reading

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From the Drawing Board — Jack Clark

       May 20, 1960: Jim Murray has the day off, but I couldn’t pass up this artwork by Jack Clark. I can’t find anything about him in The Times' clips, but I’ll keep looking.

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Jim Murray, May 19, 1961

            May 19, 1961: Jim Murray revisits the 1960 crash of a chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly football team, killing 22 people.  As always, he does a terrific job.

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Jim Murray, May 17, 1961

        May 17, 1961: John F. "Pep" Lemon, an old-time catcher, is superintendent of parks in the city of Fullerton and his job is trees and shrubs and lawns. But it's also kids. Pep never had a … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 16, 1961

        May 16, 1961: A batter who has only to tell a real curve from a slider has an easy job compared to the general manager who has to straighten out the curve balls thrown at him … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 15, 1961

            May 15, 1961: Norman G. Dyhrenfurth, an old friend and a perfect dynamo of human energy, is a man who not only thinks Mt. Everest is a place to be but a place for … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 14, 1961

            May 14, 1961: Rinold George Duren, is the victim — or the beneficiary, if you want to look at it that way — of the most monumental case of nearsightedness in the annals of … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 12, 1961

        May 12, 1961: Paul Pender is not really a prizefighter at all. He has retired from the game more times than Jackie Jensen. He is a fireman by trade and he still reaches out instinctively to … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 11, 1961

            May 11, 1961: The horse player is the hardest guy I know to please in the whole world of sports. He is grumpy, cynical, suspicious. He never smiles. No matter what happens he is … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 10, 1961

        May 10, 1961: Things have gotten so desperate the Yankees have taken to trading four of their players for two Angels, a ratio, which, if it holds up, will ultimately mean the whole New York franchise … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 8, 1961

        May 8, 1961: I was rooting hard for old John  Longden on Saturday. You knew it was his last long ride around Churchill Downs. John has won races under all kinds of conditions, including three at … Continue reading

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From the Stacks — ‘The Long Season’

    I haven’t read a baseball book since my mother gave away my trading cards of the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Braves. No, I’m not quite that old. I got them from a neighbor lady who was surreptitiously … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 5, 1961

        May 5, 1961: The strange story of Gene Littler illustrates the elusiveness of golf. Seven years ago, this calm, compact young man was almost everybody's best bet to corner the game of golf altogether….  The top … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 4, 1961

        May 4, 1961: Once a year, golf and Las Vegas get together — and in the view of both, that's often enough. It costs Vegas' Desert Inn $150,000 and a swatch of headaches. It costs the … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 2, 1961

           May 2, 1961: It has been said this is a so-so field coming up to the Kentucky Derby this year, but it is only in retrospect that anyone can evaluate. A derby lineup is like … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, May 1, 1961

            May 1, 1961: Les Richter, middle-guard linebacker and mad red dog of the Rams, spends each football season as the Dracula of the line-of-scrimmage and each off-season as the William Jennings Bryan of sports.

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Jim Murray, April 30, 1961

            April 30, 1961: Down on the field, a team called the Los Angeles Angels were playing once again. It was possible to close my eyes and go back to 1944, the first time I … Continue reading

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Jim Murray, April 28, 1961

        April 28, 1961: Jim Murray dips into the mailbag and finds letters from Frank Capra and George Kennedy, among others. Meredith Willson wants Murray to write a baseball comedy so he can use it for a … Continue reading

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