Harry Boykoff

Big Man

 

One of the most fantastic basketball players in modern times has been a tremendously tall, deadly shooting Jewish boy named Harry Boykoff. At nine-and-a-half inches over six feet, he towered over all opposition during a half-dozen year period in most spectacular fashion.

Once upon a time there were few very tall men in basketball. The game requires perfect coordination, speed afoot, no awkwardness. And most tall men, that is men inordinately tall, lack the speed required of this court game. Some of the finest players in history have been way under six feet tall; on the other hand, some of the silliest-looking basketball players have been the bean-pole athletes who were put into a game merely because of their size - and they found the little men literally ran rings around them.

During the past few decades tall men have become a major factor in the game. Astute coaches in high schools have taken the gangling giants and have taught them some of the tricks which give an athlete coordination. By the time these overgrown boys get to college, they have learned how to keep off other people's feet. Within a year or two they learn to move around like an average-sized basketball player. And when they do that, their height becomes a great advantage in the game.

Now coaches look for tall men, knowing that careful