WPH Press
The WPH has proudly presented the WPH Sunday Stats since the start of 2020, highlighting the Race 4 Eight’s and Icebreaker’s greatest champions, longest winning streaks, greatest accomplishments, tournament directors, nicknames, obscure stats, handball’s origins and history, and so much more. This Sunday we will revisit Really the Greatest, a feature story written by Robert H. Boyle in the March 7, 1966 edition of Sports Illustrated.
The WPH Sunday Stats have featured articles on Naty Alvarado, Sr in Sports Illustrated and the L.A. Times, and an article on David Chapman in Sports Illustrated. This week’s Sunday Stats will revisit a fascinating article on Jimmy Jacobs from 55 years ago in Sports Illustrated. Really the Greatest discusses Jacobs’s dominance in handball and his incredible aptitude for all sports. Jacobs ran a 9.8 100-yard dash, was a skeet shot of championship caliber, was good enough to be invited to play on the U.S. Olympic basketball team, and was considered by many to be the most coordinated athlete in the world.
Legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato stated that the only men who had an equal aura to Jimmy Jacobs were Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson. Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton confidently stated that Jacobs could hit .400 in the major leagues.
Jacobs was a fight film collector, amassing tremendous wealth by acquiring the best fight film library in the world. Jacobs was also passionate about politics, comic books, and of course, handball.
Read the captivating 1966 Sports Illustrated Really the Greatest HERE
David Fink
WPH Historian