¶ For a year’s guarantee of $35,000, brooding Alex Olmedo, 23, California’s Peruvian-in-residence (University of Southern California), quit amateur tennis to join the pros. In a 65-match world tour, Olmedo will hazard his erratic shots against canny Old Pros Pancho Gonzales and Ken Rosewall, a test which should quickly settle the question of whether The Chief is the flash who won the 1958 Davis Cup, or the flub who helped give it back to Australia this year.
¶ One day after he became the No. 1 draft choice of the National Football League (selecting team: Los Angeles), Halfback Billy Cannon, 22, Louisiana State’s sprinting strongman (6 ft. 1 in., 207 lbs., 100 yds. in 9.4 sec.) completed his sweep of football’s two highest honors by winning the Heisman Memorial Trophy as “the outstanding player of 1959.”
¶ Charging like an affronted rhino, Gene Fullmer, 28, roughhoused flustered Challenger Spider Webb, 28, around the ring in Logan, Utah, to win a unanimous decision, keeping the middleweight championship of the National Boxing Association (recognized by all states but New York and Massachusetts, which still hold Sugar Ray Robinson champion).
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