Swimming: Tarzan v. the Tads

Long before he prowled the celluloid jungles, Johnny ("Tarzan") Weissmuller was a national hero. To swimming idolaters of the 1920s, the faces of Babe Ruth, Red Grange and Paavo Nurmi paled before the image of the bronzed, high-cheekboned champion. Sportswriters later acclaimed him as the out standing swimmer of the first half-century, and rightly so. When he retired in 1929, Weissmuller held every freestyle record from 100 yds. to the half mile. And who could forget his showing in the 1928 Olympics, when he devastated his own Olympic 100-meter mark in the...