Sport: The Champion

Outside, the crowds quite literally were breaking down the Polo Grounds' gates. In the seasick-green dressing room formerly inhabited by New York's baseball Giants, Sweden's Ingemar Johansson, heavyweight champion of the world, dimpled his chin and changed into his fighting gear. The quietest place of all was the shabby, sweat-reeking quarters once foisted off on visiting baseball teams. There, minutes before he was to enter the ring, Challenger Floyd Patterson, 25, last week climbed onto the rubbing table and dozed off.

Patterson could afford to relax. Ever since Johansson knocked him out and took away his title last June, the nation's sportswriters...

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