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SPORTS fr^p V^> ff Jt 4 Can 'Snooks' Do It? Ezzard Charles is a former Heavy¬ weight Champion of the World, whose friends call him “Snooks.” If this seems a curious name for a profes¬ sional bruiser, well, Ezzard is an un¬ usual fist fighter. He is a music lover out of Cincin¬ nati, and I shouldn’t be surprised if his favorite musical character were Sweet Alice, the lovely but hyper¬ sensitive heroine of the song, “Ben Bolt,” who “wept with delight when you gave her a smile and trembled with fear at your frown.” Though Ezzard has not been seen to shed tears in the ring, he did quail fearfully under the scowl of Jersey Joe Walcott on June 5, 1952, and thus tossed away a chance to become the first man in history to regain the heavyweight title. Pretty soon now, Charles is going to get his second chance to regain the championship. (He won it in his first title bout, defended it successfully eight times, lost to Walcott on his ninth defense and lost again in an¬ other match with Walcott.) Now he’s going to try to take it away from Rocky Marciano. There is an unshakable conviction here that Charles cannot possibly beat Marciano in any ring on any night; and yet here is what happens to all of us when a heavyweight title first is coming up: We start saying to ourselves, “Now wait a minute. Marciano is an awk¬ ward boxer, right? Right. Charles is a pretty good boxer, right? Right. A boxer always has a chance with a puncher, hasn’t he? He has. So . . . “Look,” we tell ourselves, “until that night in Pittsburgh when Jersey Joe stiffened Ezzard with a left hook, Charles always was a better fighter than Walcott, wasn’t he? Well, Wal¬ cott gave Marciano the toughest fight of his life and was winning off by himself until Rocky tagged him in the 13th round. Couldn’t Charles . . .?” Funny thing, none of this will be part of a deliberate effort to build up the Marciano-Charles fight. We’ll all be dead serious about it, asking ourselves these questions as the night of the fight draws near. One thing we’ll forget. We don’t re¬ member that Charles lost to Walcott in one of the poorest fights Walcott has made, and that Marciano knocked Walcott out on the best night Jersey Joe ever knew. Funny, but we’ll for¬ get that. Seagrsm-Distillers Corporation, New York City. Blended Whiskey. 86.8 Proof. 65% Grain Neutral Spirits. 21