Sports Leisure

Arthur Arnold DeCarlo never met a man he didn't like. Rarely is seen without a smile on his face. Extends a warm greeting and firm handshake to everyone he meets. Never been known to be unhappy.

He beat Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tom Weiskopf. He won back-to-back professional tournaments in four different years, and when Ben Hogan introduced the 1967 U.S. Ryder Cup team as the "finest golfers in the world," he was among them.

To players, coaches and fans all across Georgia, high school football is . . . part religion, part sport, part business, and all-consuming .

There was so much talent on the 1950 University of Georgia football team it was nearly impossible for anyone to stand out. Nine Bulldogs made it in the pros and six of these, ends Bobby Walston, Harry Babcock and John Carson; tackles Dick Yelvington and Marion Campbell and center-linebacker Art DeCarlo became All-Pro.

Maybe he didn't become president of the United States like Jimmy Carter of Plains, but for a boy born in Clyattville and raised in Ray City, Garland Folsom Pinholster did quite well for himself.

There is a passage in the Jewish prayer book that reads, in part, "only by obedience to Thy commandments, by faithfulness to our duties, by the goodness of our deeds, can we make our worship acceptable to Thee."

Nothing came easy for Philip Henry Niekro, better known as "Knucksie." At 19, he tried out for a pitching job with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This being the month of the Masters, thoughts turn to 90-year-old Charlie Yates who attended 68 consecutive tournaments, played in 11 and was low amateur in five.

Tommy Nobis may be the only football player nearly recruited from outer space. In 1965, when he was drafted No. 1 in the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons and No. 1 in the old AFL draft by the Houston Oilers, Astronaut Frank Borman, command pilot of the Gemini 7 spacecraft, radioed word from space encouraging Nobis to sign with the Oilers. The message was relayed to Nobis, who opted to sign with the Falcons and became the finest football player in the franchise's history.

The first time I saw George Hamilton Brodnax III play a football game, he was a 175-pound end for the old Atlanta Boys' High School. He was running across the pitcher's mound at Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, site of all the Tech High and Boys' High home games. With outstretched hands, his body leaning forward at a 45-degree angle, he raced over the mound, pulled in the ball with his fingertips and carried it across the goal line to bring his team back from almost certain defeat to a 13-13-tie with arch-rival Tech High.