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NEW YORK - (AP) - Carmine
Vingo, promising young Bronx
heavyweight, remained in critical
condition yesterday at St. Clare's
hospital after his knockout loss to
unbeaten Rocky Marciano of
Brockton, Mass.
_Dr.
Vincent A. Nardiello, no op-
eration is in sight unless there is
a sudden change. He has two con-
sultants, Dr. Carl Peterson and Dr.
Bernard Pacella, both brain spec-
ialists.
_Vingo,
who celebrated his 20th
birthday Thursday, was knocked out
in 1:46 of the sixth round Friday
night at Madison Square Garden.
Under New York rules a fighter
must be 20 to go 10 rounds. This
was his first try in a ten-rounder.
_ _ _ _ _ _
* * *
_
HOSPITAL ATTENDANTS re-
ported Vingo was not fully consci-
ous. He had been lapsing in and
out of consciousness during the
night.
_
A slight improvement was noted
early in the day but he still re-
mained "definitely critical." Friday
night, Dr. Nardiello said he had a
"50-50 chance" to live.
_
Winner of 16 of 17 pro bouts,
Vingo was moving into the big time
when he met disaster from the
hammering fists of Marciano. This
was his big test - a bout with rugged
Rocky who flattened 23 of 25 previ-
ous opponents.
_
Marciano dropped Vingo twice,
each for a count of nine, in the first
two rounds of a savage battle. Both
tired in the late stages but Mar-
ciano had enough left to knock out
Vingo with a left to the head.
_
The kid from the Bronx, whose
father, brother, uncle and cousin
were fighters, toppled back like a
limp rag. His head bounced hard
on the ring and referee Harry Eb-
bets removed his mouthpiece after
counting to three. Then he finished
up the count over the prostrate
Vingo.
_
Vingo regained consciousness mo-
mentarily in the ring but lapsed
again and was carried to his dress-
ing room on a stretcher. When no
ambulances were available, he was
born through the street to the hos-
pital, two blocks away.
_
No visitors were allowed Vingo,
but members of his family kept an
all-night vigil. His mother, brother
and sister had been at the ringside
and his mother was summoned to
the hospital.
_
The hospital corridors were
thronged with boxing officals, rep-
resentatives of the International
Boxing club, managers, trainers and
newsmen.
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REFEREE EBBETS said at the
hospital he noticed that Vingo was
tiring in the first minute of the
sixth but added, "he seemed pretty
strong at the end of the fifth."
_
Jackie Levine's Vingo's manager,
said he would have stopped the con-
test in the sixth but for New York
rules that forbids a second or man-
ager to step into the ring before a
round is over. The New York law
definitely prohibits throwing a towel
into the ring to signify an end to
a fight.
_
The general consensus was that
Vingo had fought himself into a
state of exhaustion. When hit by
the final left to the head he col-
lapsed completely and tumbled down,
striking his head. If he had been
fresher, he might have been able
to brace himself somewhat against
the fall.
_
Vingo's close scrape with death
recalled the last and only Madison
Square Garden fatality when Ernie
Schaaf, blond Boston giant, died
after a knockout loss to Primo Car-
nera, Feb. 10, 1933. Schaaf under-
went an operation for removal of a
blood clot on the brain and died
four days after the fight from a
cerebral hemorrhage.
_
Late in the day members of the
family were permitted to see the
fighter. Still not fully conscious, he
was able to recognize his mother,
Mrs. Lucy Vingo. Some improve-
ment was noted.
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