Wonderful World Of Sport

'WATCH OUT FOR ELMER'

In high school football circles in the Shenandoah Valley this fall the grapevine word is, "Watch out for Elmer"—Elmer Lam, that is, of Elkton High. And the chances are good that, as you read this, college football scouts are packing valises (and carpetbags) for reconnaissance missions into the valley. Wedged between the Blue Ridge and Massanutten mountains of Virginia, they will find the town of Elkton (pop. 1,500). And in Elkton, living on the lip of a rock quarry with the sifting limestone dust and his widowed grandmother, is Elmer. And Elmer can play football in that valley about as well as Stonewall Jackson could whip Yankees.

Not that Elmer Roy Lam, a well-rounded boy, makes anything big out of football. When autumn comes to Elkton he just plays. And the 124 points he has scored or set up in the first five games for Elkton High this year are merely what comes of his playing. Other times he is fully concerned with the other particulars of his 18-year-old, 6-foot 1-inch, 165-pound existence. Elmer's steady girl friend, Jo Ann Monger, is a cheerful cheerleader who lets Elmer buy her Pepsi-Colas and hamburgers after school. She wears his class ring (size 9�) on her size 6 finger, and he wears hers on a chain. Elmer maintains a good B average so he can go to college next fall (Elmer and two girls are all there is to French II at Elkton). And he is assistant business manager of the yearbook and president of the Monogram Club. He has also lettered in track, baseball and basketball.

Last year there were 15 on the Elkton High football squad. This year, two days before the opener with a 36-man team from Winchester, there were only 10—and four of those were converts from the marching band. Coach Gene Giuseppe had to make a room-to-room appeal to fill out the squad. But Halfback Lam tossed four touchdown passes over the heads of Winchester, ran one himself and kicked five extra points. The final score was 35-0. The next opponent, Strasburg, duly warned, smothered Elmer's receivers; so Elmer ran for three touchdowns and kicked two points to make it 32-0. The next week against Dayton it was 41-0, only this time Elmer scored all the points. "I couldn't have done it without the blocking," he said. Perhaps the scouts should look the whole team over.

CHAMPAGNE AND TWEED AT BELMONT

The $150,000 Champagne Stakes at New York's Belmont Park, won last Saturday by First Landing with Eddie Arcaro up, is a time-honored exhibition of the best of the country's 2-year-olds. Coming as it does at first-frost time, it is also a moment when the casual camera can catch the fall clothes that are succeeding most impressively. The chatelaines of Turf and Field Club boxes put their stamp on a new line, a trend, a mode as they move from grandstand to paddock under Belmont's dappling oaks, carrying with them the authority of the unmistakably well dressed. One of the most striking of them all is Mrs. Henry Ittleson Jr. (left). She was first photographed by SPORTS ILLUSTRATED at Belmont four falls ago, as was Mrs. Charlton Henry (below). Then, as now, their preference for the races was tweed, but tweed worn with a difference, turned and tailored in a new fashion by the couturier's hand. This year's tweeds reflect the shapes of this season's fashion: large collars, often lavishly fur-trimmed; capes and jumpers; abbreviated jackets and the high waist of the Empire line.

Mrs. John A. Morris wears mink-collared, abbreviated Persian lamb jacket, matching pillbox with tweed dress. Colors of husband's racing stables are one of the country's oldest.

Mrs. W. Horace Schmidlapp's tweed tunic-jumper is worn over knit dress. Costume was designed by Guy Laroche.

Laura Leonard, in paddock with Robert Strawbridge of Philadelphia, wears a great cape with great collar of red Shetland tweed.

Mrs. Charlton Henry's walking Suit is of black-and-blue tweed with yoke repeating curve of the dramatic collar.