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Sports Highlights Airplane Racing Captain Kenneth D. Chandler won the Bendix Trophy Race (Chicago, Illinois, to Washington, D.C.), covering 619.73 miles at a record speed of 679.053 miles per hour. Archery Joe Fries won the National Archery Association's men's title with 3,333 points at Sacramento, California. The women's champion was Carol Meinhart, who also led the U.S. archery team to victory in the international championships held at Prague, Czechoslovakia. The men's international champion was O. K. Smathers. [All Archery News and Highlights] Automobile Racing Sam Hanks won the Indianapolis 500 on May 30 with a record average speed of 135.6 miles per hour. His car, a Belond Special, sported an engine placed on its side to allow for more streamlining of the body. Terry Townsend won the 20th annual Soap Box Derby at Akron, Ohio, on August 18. [All Automobile Racing Highlights] Badminton Finn Kobero of Denmark successfully defended his title as men's champion in the American Badminton Association's annual tournament atSpokane, Washington, by defeating Eddy Choong of Malaya, 15-10, 2-15, 15-4, in the final round on April 11. JudyDevlin kept the women's crown by defeating Margaret Varner, 11-2, 11-2. Baseball The American League defeated the National League 6-5 in the 24th annual All-Star Game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 9, 1957. Detroit pitcher Jim Bunning was credited with the win, while Philadelphia pitcher Curt Simmons got the loss. Lew Burdette pitched Milwaukee to the World Championship by beating New York in three complete games, including two shutouts and 24 consecutive scoreless innings. He became the tenth man in Major League history to win three times in a World Series and the first to do it against the Yankees. The Series, played October 2-10, went the full seven games for the third straight year. Basketball The Boston Celtics captured their first National Basketball Association championship in April by defeating the St. Louis Hawks four games to three. They won the final game 125-123 in double overtime. The University of North Carolina capped an undefeated 1956-57 season by winning the NCAA National Tournament in March. Harold Worst (below), world 3-cushion titleholder, easily defeated contender Joe Chamaco in a 20-block match in Chicago, Illinois, in the only major billards event of 1957. More than 15,000 men competed in the 1957 American Bowling Congress Tournament held at the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas. Jim Spalding of Fern Creek, Kentucky, won the all events with a score of 2,088, beating a 20-year record. The Peter Hand Reserve Beer team of Chicago, Illinois, won the team event with a score of 3,126. Bob Allen of Yonkers, New York, won the singles championship with a score of 729. Ronnie Jones and Joe Meszaros of Sterling, Ohio, won the doubles title with a score of 1,369. View of the "arena" during the ABC
tournament in Fort Worth. The Women's International Bowling Congress Tournament was held in Dayton, Ohio. The Colonial Branch team of Detroit, Michigan, won the team event with 2,881 pins. Anita Cantaline of Detroit captured the all events with 1,859. Nellie Vella and Jeannette Grzelak of Rockford, Illinois, won the doubles with 1,218. Eleanore Towles of Peoria, Illinois, took single honors with a score of 664. The year's top earner on the professional circuit was Johnny King, who collected a total of $25,191 in prize money during the season. Boxing "Sugar Ray" Robinson lost, won back, and then again lost his World Middleweight title in 1957. Heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson successfully defended his title twice in 1957. The Hibbing, Minnesota, Curling Club won the U.S. Men's National Curling Championship in Chicago, Illinois, in March. The club defeated the Minot, North Dakota, club 12-6 to win the three-day tournament. Fencing The national fencing individual champions at Milwaukee, Wisconsin,were: Janice Lee Romary, women's foil; Dick Berry, épée; Dan Bukantz, foil; and Dan Magay, saber. Football The biggest upset of the 1957 college football season took place at Norman, Oklahoma, on November 16. On that day, some 62,000 fans, the largest crowd ever to watch a college football game in Oklahoma, saw Notre Dame defeat Oklahoma 7-0. The Fighting Irish victory ended the Sooners' 47-game winning streak, the longest in intercollegiate history. Oklahoma, however, still won the Big Eight Championship, with a 6-0 record in conference play. Golf Doug Ford won the Masters Tournament at Augusta, Georgia, April 7, with a 72-hole score of 283. Dick Mayer and Gary Middlecoff tied with scores of 282 in the National Open in Toledo, Ohio, June 16. Mayer defeated Middlecoff 72-79 in an 18-hole play-off to win the title. Gymnastics John Beckner won the N.A.A.U. all-around championship in Chicago, Illinois. The team title went to the Los Angeles (California) Turners Athletic Club. Armando Vega of Pennsylvania State won the N.C.A.A. title atAnnapolis, Maryland. Pennsylvania State won the team title. Handball Vic Hershkowitz won the N.A.A.U. one-wall title in Brooklyn, New York. Hockey The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup for the second straight year, in April. They defeated the Boston Bruins in the fifth game of the best-of-seven series. Horse Racing Iron Liege, Willie Hartack up, won the Kentucky Derby on May 4. Ice Skating David Jenkins and Carol Heiss were the world's outstanding ice skaters of 1957, with three titles each. (below) Miss Thriftway, driven by Bill Muncey, won the 50th Gold Cup BoatRace on Lake Washington (in Seattle, Washington) on August 11. On November 7 Donald Campbell broke his own world water speed record by more than 13 miles an hour. Streaking across Lake Coniston in Lancashire, England, he averaged 239.07 miles an hour. On November 29 Jack Regas drove the national champion hydroplane Hawaii Kai III to a new world's record for the kilometer on Lake Washington -- 194.469 miles per hour. He also set a new mile speed record, traveling at an average speed of 187.627 miles per hour. An all-senior crew from Cornell University went undefeated for the 1957 season and captured the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship for the third straight year, on June 22. It then went on to win the Grand Challenge Cup in the Henley Regatta on the Thames River in England, on July 5. Oarsmen rest after rowing a heat of the Grand
Challenge Cup. The Cornell crew (background) defeated the
Soviet crew of the Club Krasnoe Znamia (foreground) by
one length. Skiing Olympic triple gold medal winner Toni Sailer won trophies in the American International Races at Stowe, Vermont, in the Harriman Cup Races at Sun Valley, Idaho (March 24), and in the North American Alpine Championships at Squaw Valley, California (April 7). Ansten Samuelstuen won the national ski-jumping championship at the Nansen Ski Club meet in Berlin, New Hampshire, on March 3. The National Collegiate Athletic Association meet was held at Snow Basin, Utah, at the end of March. The University of Denver took its fourth straight team title. Ralph Miller of Dartmouth College won the Skimeister Award for the best combined showing in the downhill, slalom, jumping, and cross-country events. He also won the Alpine Title for his combined downhill and slalom records. Speed Skating Defending champion Ken Bartholomew and Bob Snyder shared the United States National Outdoor Speed Skating title at St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 27. Mary Maland won the women's title. James Campbell took the North American Outdoor Speed Skating Championship at Detroit, Michigan. Jeanne Robinson won the women's title. (below) Greta Anderson, Danish Olympic swimming champion, reaching the English shore after a race from France across the English Channel in August. Competing against both men and women, Anderson won the race with a time of 13 hours 53 minutes. Table Tennis Japan won the team title at the world championship tournament in Stockholm, Sweden. Toshihaki Tanaka won the men's singles title. Tennis Winner of the men's singles crown at Wimbledon (June 14-July 5) was Lew Hoad. Althea Gibson won the women's singles crown with a final match victory over Darlene Hard. Gibson teamed with Hard to win the women's doubles. A surprise U.S. men's doubles victory was scored by two unseeded veterans, Gardner Mulloy and Budge Patty. Australia beat the United States to win the Davis Cup for the third year in a row. Track and Field Bob Gutowski of Occidental College wiped the oldest track and field record off the book when he pole vaulted 15 feet 9-3/4 inches in the NCAA meet in Austin, Texas, on April 27. The old mark of 15 feet 7-3/4 inches was set by Cornelius Warmerdam in 1942. On July 19, at London, England's, White City Stadium, four men each ran a mile in under four minutes. The winner, Derek Ibbotson set a new world record of 3:57.2. [All Track and Field Highlights] Water Polo The Olympic Club of San Francisco, California, took the National Water Polo Championship at Pelham Manor, New York. The club had a 164.7 goal average. Weightlifting Russians took six of seven individual crowns at the world championships in Tehran, Iran. |
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