Gil Dodds, 'Flying Parson,' and Sink, Rising Star, Train at Soldiers Field

Gil Dadds, voted "The Most Outstanding Amateur Athlete of 1943," and Roland Sink, currently one of the fastest college milers in the country, are setting a fast pace for Coach Jaakko Mikkola's track team in daily workouts at Soldiers Field.

At the advice of his doctors, who believe that his health would be affected if he stopped running all at once, Dodds is now "working himself town" from the form he exhibited in his races with Gunder Haegg. Interviewed by a SERVICE NEWS reporter yesterday, Dodds said, in answer to questions about his retirement, that he was giving up running in the interests of his ministerial work, sice he doesn't have time to do both. Dodds is taking graduate work at the School of Education.

Roland Sink, short, light, and only 19, has competed in three races this year and won all of them. His 4:17 mile in the New England A.A.U. last week made Boston sports columnists speculate that he may succeed to the crown which Dodds abdicated when he announced his retirement earlier this year. Sink is enrolled in the Naval Midshipmen's Supply School.

Dodds Saga

The Dodds saga began when, as a boy in Falls City, Nebraska, Gil Dodds threw a rock at a passing car. The occupant emerged and gave wrathful chase; Dodds gave him a good race, but finally succumbed. The driver turned out to be Lloyd Hahn, then a famous miler, and he was so surprised at being so nearly outrun that he forgot the damage to his car and gave Dodds his first real instruction in running.

'In his brilliant prep school record Dodds competed in ten official races and won all with records in five. He went to Ashland College, receiving mail-order instruction from Hahn.