The Army last December chopped up the Pacific into four competitive zones, then plunged into a wholesale, 15-sport Olympics. For the Army Air Forces, which did a heroic shuttle job (example: G.I. horseshoe pitchers were flown from Honolulu to Korea for interzone eliminations), it was a big job. Last week, with full colonels competing with and against buck privates, the program reached its final fury. Major-sport results:
Tokyo’s 41st Division basketball team upset the dope by whipping Okinawa’s Flyers (Long Island University’s 1942 wizard team almost intact), then flattened Hawaii for the championship.
The Marianas swimmers—forced to make a two-mile swim ashore after a plane crash in which six of them were killed—came in a bad last behind the crack Philippines squad (60 points), Hawaii (54) and the Japanese Area (41).
In baseball, no one could touch the Manila Dodgers—thanks mainly to the strong right arm of Pfc. Kirby Higbe. After the Brooklyn Dodgers’ pitcher shut out the Marianas All-Stars, 11-0, his team took the title with a ragged 12-7 win.
In the football windup—the 11th Airborne Angels v. the Honolulu All-Stars—a dead-eye quarterback named Mel Malloy (from Chicago’s Austin High) stole the show. In a drizzling rain he pitched two touchdown passes for the triumph (18-0) over the Jock Sutherland-coached Honolulu eleven.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- How Canada Fell Out of Love With Trudeau
- Trump Is Treating the Globe Like a Monopoly Board
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- 10 Boundaries Therapists Want You to Set in the New Year
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Nicole Kidman Is a Pure Pleasure to Watch in Babygirl
- Column: Jimmy Carter’s Global Legacy Was Moral Clarity
Contact us at letters@time.com