Sport: Scoreboard, Dec. 31, 1956

¶ "Gosh, I wish I'd missed it by one vote," said Tennessee's Bowden Wyatt when he was told that the American Football Coaches Association had named him Coach of the Year. Sugar Bowl-bound for a New Year's Day game with Baylor, the Volunteers are balanced on the peak of an unbeaten season, and Wyatt is too busy keeping them there to enjoy the honor. "This puts extra pressure on you," said he.

¶ Wearing the pin-stripe flannels of the New York Yankees will be a profitable pastime next season for Lawrence ("Yogi") Berra and Edward ("Whitey") Ford. In return for last summer's superlative performance (30 regular-season home runs and three in the World Series), Catcher Berra, a ten-year veteran, got a $58,000 contract. No catcher has ever equaled Yogi's pay. Pitcher Ford, who just missed out on a 20-game season (19-6), has an 80-28 record for five years with the Yanks and a 4-2 record in World Series play. All this raised Whitey's pay to $35,000.

¶ Apparently convinced that Middleweight Champion Sugar Ray Robinson really means to tangle with Utah's Gene Fullmer, International Boxing Club publicists set about proving that, come Jan. 2, paying customers will really see a fist fight. Fullmer's right cross, they announced after subjecting the punch to split-second electronic analysis, travels at 30.4 m.p.h., packs a 1,260-lb. wallop. Robinson's right loafs along at 15.2 m.p.h., but it lands with the weight of 1,500 lbs. Robinson, for one, was unimpressed by the revelation. "Don't care how fast it goes," said he, "just so the guy gets the message."

¶ For the fourth straight year (and fourth time in thoroughbred racing), U.S. horse-players bet more than $2 billion. Of the $2,231,528,140 total wagered at pari-mutuel windows in the 24 states where on-course betting is legal, the states themselves took a $164,418,294 bite. Most voracious were the New York State tax collectors, who swallowed $43,177,361, more than one-quarter of the national tax total.

¶ Knocked almost out of the ring in the first round of his rematch with Mexico's Caspar Ortega, former Welterweight Champion Tony DeMarco came back to trade wallops for nine more rounds in one of the most furious fights in years. But DeMarco couldn't quite stop the long-armed Mexicali Indian, lost to him for the second time in a month on a split decision even closer than the first.