Milestones – December 23, 1957

Monday, Dec. 23, 1957
Milestones

Born. To Bobby Joe Morrow, 22, sprinter who won three Gold Medals in the 1956 Olympics and earned SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’S Sportsman of the Year Award, and Jo Ann Strickland Morrow, 22: twins, their first children; in Abilene, Texas. Names: Ron Floyd and Viki Jo. Weights: 5 Ibs., 11 oz., 5 Ibs. 4½ oz.

Died. Caswell (Cas) Adams, 51, witty, gently satiric sportswriter (New York Herald Tribune and Journal-American, King Features); following a cerebral stroke suffered Feb. 10; in Manhasset, N.Y. Generally credited with coining the name “Ivy League,” Adams co-authored (with H. T. Webster) humor books (How to Torture Your Wife), broke the story (in November 1941) of football’s greatest spoof—the mythical Plainfield Teachers College, invented by Stockbroker Morris Newburger, which each Saturday “defeated” fictitious opponents (Scott, Randolph Tech) largely through the exploits of a hard-running Chinese back named John Chung. After New York newspapers solemnly printed game scores, Adams revealed the hoax with a column beginning:

Far above New Jersey’s swamplands Plainfield Teachers’ spires Mark a phantom, phony college That got on the wires.

Died. John McDowell, 55, acid-tongued, flag-waving sometime Republican U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania (1939-41, 1947-49), among those credited by Whittaker Chambers (in Witness) with hunting down the facts (while a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee) that led to the arrest and conviction of Alger Hiss; by his own hand (gunshot); at his home in Wilkinsburg, Pa.

Died. William Rooe Simpson, 60, last of five generations of William Simpsons who operated (from 1822 to 1937) an elegant pawnshop on New York’s Lower East Side, blithe lender of money against such collateral as the Hope diamond, a Stradivarius, Titian paintings, 15th century manuscripts and pornographic watches, subject of lively reminiscences (Hockshop); of a heart attack; in Brownsville, Texas.

Died. General Napoleon Zervas, 66, swart, barrel-chested Greek soldier of fortune, reactionary politico, onetime (1950-51) Minister of Public Works and Merchant Marine, who redeemed his prewar years as a conniver, gambler and opportunistic plotter with a skillful guerrilla war during the German occupation of Greece (as head of EDES—National Democratic Army), for which he received Britain’s Order of the British Empire, later was credited with rounding up 17,000 Communists in Greece’s postwar civil strife; of a heart ailment; in Athens, where his elder brother, Merchant Alex Zervas, collapsed and died after seeing his body.

Died. Maurice Evans (“The California Comet”) McLoughlin, 67, hard-hitting pre-World War I tennis champ, who revolutionized the game :by twice winning the U.S. Championship (1912, 1913) with his big serve, violent overhead smashes and net-rushing tactics (all previously unknown in big-time Eastern tennis), retired in 1919 after a decisive quarter-finals loss to Richard Norris Williams II; of a heart attack; in Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Died. E. G. (Ernest George) Harcourt Williams, 77, deft, wizened character actor of the British stage (more than 200 plays), screen (Hamlet, Roman Holiday), radio and TV, who joined the Old Vic in 1929, produced (in four years) some 50 plays, revitalized Shakespearean production, introduced works of his old chum, Playwright George Bernard Shaw; after long illness; in London.

Died. Emmett Jay Scott, 84, distinguished Negro leader, longtime (18 years) secretary to Booker T. Washington, onetime (during World War I) special assistant to Secretary of War Newton Diehl Baker, secretary-treasurer of Howard University (1919-34), author of The American Negro in the World War (1919), coauthor (with Washington) of Tuskegee and Its People; in Washington, D.C.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936793,00.html