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fi'l PAGE 5 - PLAINDEALER - FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1»M National news The other side of the Olympic gold ByL By Leon Daniel [National Reporter LOS ANGELES -- Unsung gladiators dreaming not of gold medals but of money and fame ply their deadly craft in the heart of Skid Row in this Olympic City of Angels. The grubby Main Street Gym is a world apart from the antiseptic training facilities provided for the amateur athletes who will com­ pete in the Olympic Games. The second-floor gym fronts a street notorious for transient drunks, dope pushers and mental­ ly ill wanderers. "Do not spit or throw gum on the floor," instructs a sign on the wall, which is festooned with posters of fights from the past, including the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling rematch of 1936 in Yankee Stadium. Men are methodically pounding each other in two decrepit boxing rings and others are working out on four heavy bags and a couple of speed bags. Odors of perspiration a n d l i n i m e n t p e r v a d e . Distinguishable over the din is the thumping sound of leather col­ liding with human flesh and bone. If the staging of the 1984 Sum­ mer Olympics represents a triumph of planning, financing, technology and something new called sports medicine, the Main Street Gym is a throwback to darker time. "See that kid?," said Frankie Williams, 69, a wiry little manager and trainer who once fought professionally as a lightweight. "He's taking too much punishment. If he keeps on fighting, he'll get hurt. He's got guts but he takes too many pun­ ches. He ought to quit and get a job." Chances are, Williams said, the sparring youngster propelled by a dream will meet the fate of Fran­ cisco "Kiko" Bejines, who died two years ago after taking a terri­ ble beating from Alberto Davila in a bantamweight championship bout in Los Angeles. "I was in Bejines' corner that night," Williams said. The site of the tragedy was the now seedy but once opulent Olym­ pic Auditorium, built for the 1932 Games in Los Angeles in the dep­ ths of the Great Depression. Still the World Boxing Associa­ tion champion, Davila stood near­ by, taping his hands in prepara­ tion for a workout. He has never considered hanging up the gloves that he knows from personal ex­ perience can grievously damage an opponent's brain and snuff out his life. To Davila, boxing is indeed what the late A.J. Liebling dubbed "The Sweet Science." But Davila and Williams know what the fam­ ed writer for The New Yorker knew -- that a blow to the head can kill a man in the flash of a se­ cond or render him a vegetable for life. "The difference in amateur and professional boxing is ex­ perience," Davila said. There is another difference. Amateurs boxers wear foam- padded headgear designed to pro­ tect their brains from the shock of blows. Damage from such blows, Beating the heat Dale Johnson, of Clinton, IL, uses a sheet as a large shield to keep the sun off his head as he rides through a soybean field. Johnson was using a hoe to hack at weeds in the field, a once-a-season chore. U of I study says many couples headed for divorce By United Press International CHAMPAIGN - Despite pro­ mises of "Until death do us part," marriages are increasingly en­ ding in divorce, a University of Il­ linois sociologist said this week. Robert Schoen, acting head of the U of I sociology department, recently completed a study of peo­ ple born from 1888 to 1950, which showed people are living longer, getting divorced more frequently and remarrying more often. The study, "Marriage and Divorce in 20th-century American Cohorts," shows 46 percent of the marriages of men and 42 percent of the women born between 1948 and 1950 end in divorce. The study shows those marriges last an average of 25 years -- one year more than today's mar­ riages. "We live in a very different society than we did 30 years ago," Schoen said, explaining that the higher divorce rates could be ex­ plained by the changing roles of men and women. It's possible couples stayed married longer years ago because the wife didn't have a means of support if the couple divorced, Schoen said. Other findings of the study in­ clude: •Men and women born in the 1980's can expect to live about 20 years longer than their grand­ parents, with the average age for today's girls estimated at more than 77 years and for today's boys at just less than 70 years. •Men and women are waiting longer before marrying. Men born between 1948 and 1950 married on the average at age 24, compared to the average age of 26 for people who were married in 1980. The average marrying age for women has increased from 22 for those born between 1948 and 1950 to 24 for women married in 1980. •As more people divorce, more remarry. Eighty percent of the divorced men born in 1888 remar­ ried, compared with 83 percent of the divorced men born between 1948 and 1950. The percentage of divorced women remarrying has increased from 75 percent for those born in 1888 to.77 percent for those born between 1948 and 1950. •The longest duration for mar­ riage peaked at 30 years for those people born in the 1920's. The average marriage today lasts 24 years. Williams said, can be cumulative. "They always tell you about the guys that die," the old fighter said. "They don't tell you about the guys who're nuts. I see guys walking out there on Main Street who're pitiful. I've seen kids go blind." Too often, Williams said, boxers do not know when to quit. "Fighters always need money," said the man whose largest purse was $1,200 for a bout in San Diego in 1941, his last fight. "Every time my wife had a kid, I needed another fight." But even the pros do not fight just for money. "They've got to love it," Williams said, explaining that there is a lot of the amateur in every professional champion. He said most managers take a one-thircLfiut of the purse. "Most rmnagers are greedy bastards," Williams said. Jose and Julio Rodriguez, 16- year-old identical twins, share an identical dream. They want to be champions. "They're dedicated," said John Montes, their trainer, watching his charges train. "They eat, sleep and dream boxing. I'll turn them pro when they're 18." The twins, born in Mexico, came to the United States at the age of 8 and now cook hamburgers at a McDonald's when they are not training at the Main Street Gym. "I feel like I'm ready to turn pro now," said Julio, slamming his fists into the heavy bag. "They're good boys," Montes said. "They're trying to help their mother feed their brothers and Soviets build an aircraft carrier to rival U.S. By United Press International LONDON - The Soviet Union is building a large aircraft carrier that will give Moscow the ability to match the firepower and clout of its American counterparts for the first time, Jane's Defense Weekly reported Tuesday. Quoting Western intelligence sources* the latest issue of Un­ authoritative defense magazine said the Soviets were planning to build up to eight of the large car­ riers. The first, currently under con­ struction at the Nikolaiev yard on the Black Sea, would be more than 1,000 feet long and could carry 60 to 70 high-speed fighter aircraft, Jane's said. In Brussels, an official at NATO headquarters said the new Soviet aircraft carrier, which will almost certainly be nuclear-powered, will be operational in the early 1990s. "We have had indications for some time already that the Soviets have been building something like this," the official said. "But we estimate it will be at least six to seven years -- into the early 1990s -- before such aircraft carriers become operational. Up to now the Soviets have not had big carriers like the U.S. Navy that can carry conventional lan­ ding and take-off fighters," the of­ ficial said. sisters. There's nine in the family. No father. They're trying to make something of themselves." Montes, who has seen men die in the ring, said, "Boxing is the hardest profession. It takes discipline. Your're in that ring all by yourself. Sometimes I try to discourage kids. I tell them to go back to school. But some kids just keep coming back for more." Throughout the Olympics, there will be a lot of ink on the sports pages about dashed dreams, but at the grimy little Main Street Gym, dreams die harder. Parties blamed for boring conventions By Julianne Hastings UPI TV Reporter NEW YORK - Don't blame the networks if political conventions no longer provide the high drama and suspense of real live televi­ sion, says TV consultant Jack Hilton. The political parties themselves are the culprits. Hilton, TV consultant and pro­ ducer for 305 of the Fortune "500" corporations who also has advised some 500 political candidates, said party rules and endless rounds of primaries and caucuses have made convention watching pretty ho-hum. "They used to be called nominating conventions," Hilton said. "That now is a misnomer. It's a coronation. ...V Life's "little" problems Robert Hall, of Detroit, uses a crate to overcome one of the thr<£j[ greatest problems facing the nation's little people--elevator but­ tons, drinking fountains and counters of all kinds. Hall sips a beer a&> Busch Stadium after a softball game which was part of the Lltflfe* People of America's Convention. « *31 or just looking ... you can see all counter* for *lw business ami latest * Atari <3W <.\ * I.B.H. * * Zonl * School Dist #155 i i a s as easy as ft- #sr - - - * • • ; ; Routt 14 Md inn Strut, C/yjttl Like * 0 '•41* NASA to develop space tug By United Press International WASHINGTON - The space agency this week took a major step toward the development of a unmanned space tug that would start flying in 1990 to ferry satellites to and from space shut­ tles in orbit above Earth. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded preliminary design contracts totaling $5 million for the "orbital maneuvering vehicle" to LTV > V Aerospace in Dallas, Martin Marietta Aerospace in Denver and TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif. 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