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of an Italian or French opera in Arabic; or of a father, noble and brave, a desert chieftain, sword raised high, dedicated to saving the city and his people from the enemy. * * * * * * * Sports In March of 1937, a newspaper story headlined: "A Woman in a Man's World -- Edna" disclosed one of the first of the women's liberation break�throughs in sports competitions. "The Men Resent it but Net Queen Plays in Their Tourney," was the subheading of the story which began: "I think the men resent it," laughed Edna Smith (whose name was a translation of the Arabic "Haddad"), the tennis star who is now performing in her and Cleveland's very first co-ed tennis tournament. Edna was asked how men react to a tennis beating from a woman. Nasty rumors abound that the boys objected to letting Edna into the city men's singles tournament at the Indoor Tennis Center. The dark-haired midget sized (four feet, eleven) city and state champ is the only gal entered. "And on Monday night the worst fears of the male tennisers were realized. Edna swamped Colin Richards by 6-0, 6-2 in the first round. Sunday after�noon she returns to the wars against Bob Tryon of the John Carroll netters. "Putting me in the men's tournament was the idea of Phil Greenstein, manager of the Indoor Center," revealed the possible spear head of a new woman's suffrage movement in the field of sports. |