Willard Mullin's 1948 Christmas Panel: Celebrating Sports Celebrities
The page from the 1948 Sportfolio includes an artwork by Willard Mullin featuring names of various sports celebrities in a unique and intricate design. It highlights Mullin's annual Christmas panel, which is considered an honor for those mentioned. The narrative notes Mullin's brief hospitalization for a knee surgery two years prior and describes where his desk was positioned in the office of the World-Telegram, approximately 25 feet from the last in a row of desks occupied by reporters. It hints at an amusing incident where a steel-nerved athlete returned from a fight at Madison Square Garden and observed the arrangement of desks. Mullin humorously recounts his ambition to leap across the desks, comparing his physical abilities to those of Jesse Owens, suggesting a light-hearted approach to his artistic process.