Failure of Toronto Maple Leafs to make the National Hockey League playoffs this year will result in a com- plete rebuilding job. ‘Shortly after Conn Smythe publicly re- buked general manager Hap Dap and Coach Howie Meeker (above) Day resigned. Defenseman Jimmy Thomson also an- nounced that he was through with Smythe and the Leafs, Sert Whgte's after Smvthe had criticized him for his union activities. SPORTLIGHT OU could depend on Conn Smythe, the Toronto Tory who is president of Maple Leaf Gardens, come out in com- plete opposition to trade unions, The new hockey players’ as- sociation threatens to hit Smythe and other ice moguls in the pocketbook, where they bleed. Consequently Smythe is somewhat less than pleased when one of his hockey slaves, Maple Leaf team captain Jim- my Thomson, becomes an offi- cer of the new association. Many years have passed since I covered the NHL as sports editor of the pre-war Daily Clarion. Even in those days his players had to jump when Smythe sneezed, and the passage of time hasn’t altered Marse Connie a bit. Unfortunately for Smythe, the world hasn’t stood still. Open shop hockey is coming to an end, and his King Can- ute efforts to halt the tide of unionization will come to naught. Zero, that is. To chastise Thomson for his temerity, Marse Smythe bench- ed him. Maybe Thomson is slated for the axe, but if he gets bounced, he’ll return to haunt his former boss in an- other NHL uniform next year. You can’t return to slavery onee the chains have been broken, as Smythe will learn. Writes a colleague Canadian Tribune: in the “Maybe we’re coming to the end of the Smythe era. Maybe there’s a palace revolution brewing around the big Toron- to Gardens. Maybe Hap Day will find other pastures. May- be Howie Meeker — the coach usually takes the rap for every- thing — will be given the gate. “As for Thomson and the players’ association, let Smythe be warned that if he starts any union-busting tactics around this town, he’s in for trouble, not only at the box office but before the _TV sereens. And Imperial Oil won’t like that. “The truck drivers vut at Smythe’s big sand pit recent- ly fought back to wring a few concessions from the boss-man. Among Leaf fans, a healthy percentage are good union men who know how to handle union-busters. Smythe will be playing the wrong hand if he tries to make Jimmy Thom- son the goat. “After all, as Jimmy says, Ted Lindsay, the association president, hasn’t done so badly since the union came into ex- istence. There’s no reason why we can’t have top-grade hockey and a union to protect the players.” CONN SMYTHE Will Floyd Patterson surpass Joe Louis? By LESTER RODNEY In December when 21-year-old Floyd Patterson knocked out Archie Moore to become the youngest heavyweight champion ever, you had to think back to the night in June, 1937, when 22-year-old Joe Louis knocked out’ Jim Braddock to become the youngest ever. Both fights happened in Chicago. Both the precedent busters were Negroes. But a lot of things are different, more than the nostalgic fact that Joe Louis won his title over the radio, with the listeners having to imagine how the great moment looked while Patterson won his over TV. Ninteen years measure many changes, and while they do that they provide a reminder of things that haven’t chang- ed and need changing. There was much explosive excitment over the advent of young Louis as the best hand- ler of his fists in the United States and the rest of the world. You must remember that before Louis did it, there was an article in Readers Di- gest entitled “Why Joe Louis Must Never Be Champion” and that was the way things were. A lot of people who couldn’t stand the idea of a Negro being champion, who were worried about it giving someone “ideas,” placed their fervent hopes in Max Schmeling. Nazi Max was their man all right. He proclaimed loudly that he would beat the “untermensch” and end the “black dynasty.” He had Herr Hitler rooting him on. But his program ran into a little trouble. Joe Louis’ fists. To those in 1957 who would like a “better example” for the youth of America than a Negro champion — and though these are far fewer in number than in 1937, they still exist — the only hope on the horizon would seem to be luring Rocky Mar- ciano out of retirement. This desire merges with the purely business instincts of the fight promoters who drool over the fabulous gate such a fight would bring next summer. So Rocky is getting a lot of pres- sure to unretire. bes BOs Bos None of it takes on the racist atmosphere of the Schmeling- Louis fight, or the explicity stated “White Hope” comeback of Boilermaker Jim Jeffries re- turn to take on the first Negro champion, Jack Johnson. But it will be part of the pressure. The guess here is that Rocky will stay happily retired. He is a man going on 33 who made his money, has a bad back and would have to work like the very devil to whip himself into any kind of shape resembling that which helped make him one of the most formidably conditioned and determined fighters the ring has ever seen. It would be most unfair to Rocky. The man says he has no idea of changing his mind. I for one believe him. I know there is a lot of cynicism about retirements, and what the lure of one more big gate can do. But to have spoken to Rocky is to feel that here is a sincere man who wasn’t and isn’t kid- ding about what he says. One thing you know. If Joe Louis dumped Nazi Max Schmeling back in 1937. Rocky were to come back to meet Patterson, it would be the | money and nothing else. No crass and subtle “white hope” stuff could affect him as it did Jeffries (who later in life denounced racism). You see, young Rocky Marci- ano grew up with an idol named Joe Louis. Yes, things have changed, since young Joe Louis’ hand was lifted in Cominsky Park that June night in ’37. Yet you can’t say there is no special significance to the fact that young Floyd Patterson out of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyve- sant region, the newly crowned best fighting man in the world, has a dark skin. That time is not yet. As long as there are Montgomerys, as long as there are lynch-backed disenfran- chisements in Mississippi and other parts of the land, so long will there have to be a special meaning to young Floyd Pat- terson’s ascension. His fists are surely sending a message to- someone. ce it xt Archie Moore should have become a tragic figure after the Floyd KO, but somehow the tragedy is all literary, and in real life the vital Archie doesn’t submit to such a form- ula. He was on the Steve Allen show along with Paterson two nights later and when asked how he rated Patterson as a fighter laughed “He’s liable to kill someone!” As to what ad- vice he had for young Floyd, it was something about taking on all comers, bar none, and making Archie his press agent, MARCH 29, 1957 — When the fight was over, it was suddenly strikingly odd that these two should have been in the same ring together at all, for in truth, Archie could be Floyd’s-father. A man of 40 can have a fine set of tennis with a man of 21. But fighting is something else, es- pecially when the man of 21 is a Floyd Patterson. You think that if things were different, as they will some day be, Archie would be honorably re- tired these five years, without worry, hailing Patterson as a 40-year-old fan instead of go- ing into the ring with him. Will Archie fight again? You wish he would quit now. But who among us really has the right to pompously advise him what to do? He was shamefully deprived of security a long time and none of us did enough about it. How good will Patterson be? Will he be better than the mag- nificent Louis? I suspect he will, He is better now than Louis was at 21. The runners run faster now, the ballplayers hit them further, and Floyd Patterson could become the greatest heavyweight to ever pull on the gloves. ia A Castle Jewelers ; Watchmaker and Jewelers Special Dis- count to all Tribune Read- ers. Bring this ad with ou. Granville Street TT i DU TG ae y 7152 PACIFIC TRIBUNK—PAGE 14 oz]