Valley Morning Star Harlingen, Texas Tuesday, July 11, 1972 - Page 8
What Is A Sport? by Bob Lapham
JUST WHAT are these things human beings go for that they refer to as sports?
“I'll tell you one thing … if I don't smell no sweat, it aint no sport,” one erudite advocate of the Jock Jungle's more basic philosophies might answer. And maybe he's right.
But the word “competition” is the backbone of “sport”, since that's what it is all about. Of course competition can run from one businessman trying to cut another out of the trade both seek, to wars between giant nations.
Well, maybe in a way both of these could be called “sports”, if you wanted to stretch the basic definition of the word. The former necessitates a set of rules whereby the contestants will be vying on equal terms from the start, and may the best man get filthy rich. The latter in- involves all the concepts of masterful coaching —from the sidelines, of course. The sidelines way back from the field of action.
Both examples stretch the definition of the word, naturally. Which brings us to a couple more, one in particular. Chess and bridge.
The pastimes are highly competitive. Each is climaxed by declaring a winner and a loser—usually. But are they sports.
SI Says Yes
SPORTS Illustrated magazine feels they are, and runs frequent articles on them along with football, baseball, hockey, basketball, golf track and field, tennis and the lot. That isn't to say SI is the ultimate authority, for it can be challenged quite frequently in the way its writers and editors handle things, I feel.
I know absolutely nothing about chess. Nothing. I do play bridge, attested by the fact that I can go down three tricks doubled, redoubled and vulnerable with all the flair of a scrambling quarterback being trapped for a 40-yard loss.
And don't think there's no sweat involved, either. Especially when I am partner to my wife. We both sweat a lot, and the language across the table would rival that of a baseball dugout of a team trailing 11-1 in the bottom of the eighth, with the pitchers harping at the hitters and the batsman blaming the hurlers, both sides pulling out all the stops in their vocabularies' more expressive areas.
Chess, with the big on-again, off-again money match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, is making daily news on the world's wire services. UPI our sports wire (we also have Associated Press' general wires, and it has done likewise) has run lengthy pieces on the goings-on. On our sports hookup, to boot.
We have done little with it, but maybe we should. Maybe chess is just as sporty as the sweat set's stuff.
Since I know nothing whatsoever about the game I yield to a chess nut for the crowd which votes in the affirmative.
Chessmen Do, Too
“CHESS has a bad image among athletes and the public who may think chess players are a little bit sissy,” says Jim McKone, who as sports information director at Pan American University and as a chess player knows both worlds. “However, the facts can be surprising.
“Nobody knows if chess is a sport, an art, a science or just a game. But it is more than an art, because the artist can work alone and uninterrupted. A good chess player is like a shortstop who must think where to throw the ball, to first base or home plate, or not to throw it at all, while somebody else is trying to knock him down at the time. In other words chess has strong rivalry and competitiveness, without physical contact. In that respect it is like tennis, gold and other non-contact sports which involve thinking under pressure.”
On a more local level, McKone says chess is becoming a fast-rising pastime in the Valley. Mike Flewelling, a recent graduate of Harlingen High School is one of the top players. “The Valley champion is James Page of Brownsville. Other top players,” McKone says, “are John Taylor of Harlingen, and three very strong players from McAllen. Clifford Dean and the Garcia brothers, Israel and Clem.”
McKone says the Fischer-Spassky match has increased interest in area chess clubs. “The Harlingen Chess Club, which meets on Thursday night at the Episcopal (St. Albans) church. There is also a Brownsville Chess Club which meets on Friday nights at Higgie's Cafe.”
So McKone is one chessman who feels his game is a sport. Anybody else have any ideas?
What Is A Sport? 11 Jul 1972, Tue Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) Newspapers.com
SI Says Yes. Chessmen Do, Too. 11 Jul 1972, Tue Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) Newspapers.com
