• U.S.

Sport: Yale’s Russell

1 minute read
TIME

One of the best wrestlers Yale has ever had is a junior who is almost stone blind.Last week 165-lb. Bob Russell stalked his Columbia opponent by the sound of his footsteps, pinned him in 5 min., 42 sec. with a reverse body lock and nelson. It was Russell’s first intercollegiate match.

A splinter from a banged croquet mallet pierced Bob Russell’s left eye when he was five, and sympathetic blindness struck his right one. He studied from first grade through high school at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, learned Braille and how to use a typewriter. He was a mainstay of the Institute wrestling team that consistently licked Columbia’s freshmen and jayvees. In 1941 and 1942, Russell won the middleweight championships at the Westchester (N.Y.) County tournaments.

Russell is infectiously cheerful. He does not use a dog or cane. “On a quiet day,” explains Coach Eddie O’Donnell, “Bob can hear a tree.” He likes to fish and plays poker for profit with Braille cards. Some weekends he hitchhikes from New Haven to Manhattan.

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