Improvement Era, 1936 by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion

He Scoffs At Handicaps By J. R. Paulson

PHYSICAL handicaps? Wilkins Nuttall scoffs at them.

Although he has no left leg he can swim, play basketball and football, skate both on roller and ice skates, win laurels in diving and tennis, ride a bicycle well, become a regular on a college wrestling squad and climb mountains. Moreover, he does all these things well.

At the Brigham Young University water carnival at Saratoga resort on May 22, 1934, Wilkins took first place in the diving contest against stiff competition. Having but one leg seemingly bothered him not in the least as he executed difficult maneuvers from the springboard and the high-diving platform.

Powerful arms and shoulders-stronger than the average-make up for the deficit of having only one leg. "The leg kick isn't as important as they say," Wilkins answered when asked about how he obtained such speed in his many swimming and diving exhibitions in Salt Lake and Utah county pools. "The lack of one kicking leg in the water doesn't seem to bother me."

Those same powerful shoulders that lend him speed in the water are no doubt responsible for much of his success in wrestling. As a member of the Brigham Young University squad he has made many a two-legged opponent bite the resin.

One of Wilkins' outstanding achievements in sport is his ability to high jump. He can clear the bar at five feet, although he is only or ordinary height. In making the preliminary run he uses his crutch to gain speed. Just before he reaches the take-off he drops this artificial aid and with a bow down on his powerful leg he makes a tremendous leap-and he's over.

In some of the wild regions of Idaho where his parents reside many of Wilkins' feats in climbing mountains have been performed. Mt. Stanley and Mt. Heyburn are two mountains that were climbed for the first time, as far as it is known, by Wilkins and his friends. Timpanogos mountain in the Wasatch range of Utah is another peak that has been scaled by Nuttall. He climbed Timpanogos first when he was but twelve years old.

WILKINS NUTTALL CLEARING THE HIGH JUMP BAR AT FIVE FEET, AFTER HAVING DISCARDED HIS CRUTCH.

Football he has played, and basketball. He played forward on the Twin Falls high school basketball team-the second teams-and was well on the road to a berth on the first team in his senior year when he moved to Provo, Utah, and finished high school at the Provo High School.

In football Wilkins played end. Although he did not reach a degree of perfection that would permit him to be used in the regular games he scrimmaged with the squad and learned the rudiments of the game.

Wilkins skates with a speed that is startling. With his crutch as an oar he can push his way about a roller skating rink with dazzling speed. And riding a bicycle a mile to school each morning seems quite an achievement when all the pedaling must be done on one side.

PROFICIENT as Wilkins is in other sports, swimming and tennis are the two in which he excels.

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