World War II Chronicle: January 24, 1943
Click here for TODAY’S NEWSPAPER
Rear Admiral Robert H. English, the Commander, Submarine Forces, Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC), is among several Naval officers aboard a transport plane that has gone missing. Pan Am Flight 1104 took off from Honolulu and was three hours ahead of schedule as the Martin M-130 flying boat headed for Treasure Island. This is in fact the Philippine Clipper, which was on Wake Island when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 8, 1941 and had 26 bullet holes to prove it. Also aboard is Capt. Robert H. Smith, who commands the Pacific Sub Fleet’s Squadron 2 (SUBRON 2). Lt. Edna Morrow is returning to the States after the nurse learns she has terminal cancer. Stay tuned for more…
George Fielding Eliot column on page five… War’s 177th week summarized on page 23… An article about the Coast Guard’s corsair fleet on page 25… Final installment of Eddie Rickenbacker’s story on page 27… Sports on page 29. Former Boston Braves second baseman Carvel “Bama” Rowell, who joined the Army after the 1941 season, has been married. In 1946 he will hit the Bulova clock above the scoreboard at Ebbets Field, which supposedly inspired Robert Redford’s dramatic home run into the lights in the movie The Natural. If you don’t hear the music when you think of that scene, you aren’t wired right. Also, Bob Johnson is fed up with the A’s and is holding out. The five-time all-star has been Connie Mack’s left fielder for the last ten seasons…
The St. Louis Browns have selected Cape Girardeau, Mo. as their spring training site. Travel restrictions mean that Hot Springs, Ark is out and teams had to select sites closer to home. Their games will be played at Fairgrounds Park, which is now called Capaha Park and is home to the Southeast Missouri State University Redhawks (they were the Indians when I attended school), the Prospect League’s Cape Catfish, and the Cape Capahas — the country’s oldest amateur baseball team.
Local businessmen paid for new wooden bleachers which were still in use a few years ago when I last went to a college ballgame, but Capaha has since been upgraded to new seats. The floor is still wooden, which has surely been patched plenty of times over the last 80 years, but the historical connection is still there.
Although the league told teams to pick spring training sites east of the Mississippi, baseball permitted the Browns to set up shop in Cape Girardeau. The Cardinals will settle on their training location tomorrow…. Four former NFL football players are pictured atop page 30: Bill Edwards played linebacker for the Massilion Tigers whose quarterback was the legendary Paul Brown. Edwards and Brown both went to Ohio State, where Edwards captained the freshman football team. He later transferred to Wittenberg University and was called the best center in the country by Grantland Rice.
Brown just finished his second season as head coach of the Buckeyes, leading them to a national championship. Had it not been for half the team missing the game due to bad drinking water on the train ride to Madison, Wisc., Ohio State most likely would have finished the season undefeated. The two Massilion men will reunite after the war when Brown hires Edwards to be Cleveland’s tackle coach.
Before joining the Redskins in 1941, Ed Cifers played for Bob Neyland at Tennessee when the Volunteers went 31-2 and won the Southeast Conference all three years. Cifers was named to the All-Pro team last year, and his little brother Bobby is a tailback and currently shredding punting records. Neyland says Bobby Cifers is “the greatest athlete I ever had the privilege to see.” He joins the Army Air Force and plays for Randolph Field Ramblers in 1944 and the Army Air Force Training Command Skymasters in 1945. After returning to civilian life, the Cifer brothers face each other in the NFL.
Another Redskin, Dick Todd, led the league in yards per carry and total yards in 1940 and was a two-time Pro-Bowler before the war. Also pictured is two-time Pro-Bowl selection, Chicago Bear tackle Ray “Muscles” Bray. He is considered to be the strongest man in professional football, but will play this year for the Del Monte Pre-Flight Navyators in Monterrey, Calif. with Ed Cifers.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 24 January 1943. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1943-01-24/ed-1/