A Beverly Hills Beaver

[Yhtapmys]

Handball On Upswing . . . Just Ask Stuffy
By REYN DAVIS
Los Angeles is roughly eight times the size of Winnipeg, but it has 60 times as many regulation-size handball courts.
This is the gnawing fact that disturbs the Manitoba Handball Association, whose devoted members are as hung up on the game as the legions of golf addicts in Manitoba.
As long as the game is confined to one or two courts in Winnipeg, it will always be small.
Like a newly-discovered oil field, handball has barely begun to unleash its full potential on the people of Manitoba. Few sports have a future so promising.
"Talk to your golf clubs." said Stuffy Singer, the reigning world handball champion from Los Angeles. "Around Los Angeles, all the golf clubs are building them."
With handball courts, some golf clubs could stay open all year. The same applies to curling clubs.
Handball's popularity in the U.S. has inundated the colleges.
"Right now, it's the biggest intra-mural sport in American colleges," said Singer. "And they're building more all the time. On all the big campuses, they have plans for as many a 20 more courts than they have now." The University of Manitoba, on the other hand, doesn't have a court. The more recent University of Winnipeg has two.
As a matter of fact, the MHA is deeply indebted to the U of W for lending them their courts for four months this summer.
"It's the best thing that's ever happened to us," said Mel Nelson, who can dole out memberships any day at the YMCA Business Men's Club.
Singer spent Monday in Winnipeg on the first leg of a whirl-wind tour across the Canadian west. He spent Tuesday in Regina. Wednesday, he'll be in Lethbridge, Thursday in Calgary and Friday in Vancouver.
The trip is part of the agreement the Canadian Handball Association has with its American counterpart, whereby the absolute best in the U.S. visit Canada to promote the sport.
Singer was hardly a stranger to most Winnipeggers, although he passed
through almost unnoticed. Those who can recall the great radio series a generation ago will remember the character "Leroy" in The Great Gildersleeve program, borne of another great favorite, the Fibber Magee and Molly show. Leroy was Stuffy.
His 20-year stint in show business also included roles in two other famous series, Beulah and the Beverly Hills Beavers.
Singer's show-biz career ended in 1967. Since then, he's entered the securities business "making money for other people and myself."
He's done as much living as most 50-year-olds, but he's only 27. Besides 20 years in the acting business, his ventures have included a professional baseball stint in the Dodger organization; all-city (Los Angeles) high
school quarterback; city tennis champion; and fourthranked table tennis player in the U.S.
Only baseball and football promised financial dividends, but he sloughed them off, one by one, because he was an "all-field, no-hit" second baseman with a "no=arm" quarterback.
When he graduated from high school, he was a five-foot-three, 130-pound pepperpot. Today, he's a five-foot-eight, 160-pound salty veteran.
He hates losing. "I'm the kind of guy Vince Lombardi would like." he said.
And he proved it Monday by demolishing Dick Chroback, the reigning Manitoba Handball champion, 21-2, then crushing Pat Dunn, the Manitoba spring tournament champion, 21-5.
Behind 13-1 and obviously drained physically, Dunn broke up the crowd of 35 spectators by peering up and asking "What's the score?"
Then, Singer took on the Manitoba doubles, champions, Norm Duncan and Dick Archer, all by himself.
Today, Duncan and Archer can honestly say they beat the world champion. With Singer closing fast, they charged to the front to intercept a bullet kill then finished him on the next try. The final score was 21-17 in favor of Duncan and Archer.
Singer, who calls himself the fastest handball player in the world, proved his claim beyond a doubt, then sat down and reminded himself even the best lose . . . sometimes.
- Winnipeg Free Press, May 14, 1969

[TheSportsmenQuartet]

Didn't Walter Tetley play Leroy on "Gildersleeve"?

[Yhtapmys]

Didn't Walter Tetley play Leroy on "Gildersleeve"?

When I first read the story I thought "maybe he meant on TV" because Tetley wouldn't have been able to play the role. But it doesn't appear Smith appeared on the TV show.

My guess, Sportsmen, is there's confusion in that Singer played the nephew on 'The Hal Peary Show' which was basically the same as the Leroy role on Peary's 'Gildersleeve' show.

Singer appeared on 'Gildersleeve' but in another role.

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