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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1938)
The Coaching Situation; Oregon's Gridiron Future Depends Upon Activities Board’s Decision Shields—For Succession to the Throne 'JNTERU are too many reasons pointing towards Gene Shields as the best man for the head football coach position to war rant the University's going afield to make its choice. When all the limitations of finanee, time, and personnel are considered, the field for the choice has boon greatly narrowed. The nmo'pnt and the setup which Oregon can offer is not sufficient to entice a man of proven (’oast or other first-rate conference capacity to Iho job. No matter what the choice, Oregon, as other schools, must gamble in selecting a gridiron tutor and because i! is limited to men who are on the upward path or want to be on the upward path, the Uni versity must throw its none - too - large “bread” upon the water and expect to find few really promising men taking the bait. A process of elimination leaves Shields head and shoulders above the remaining men in the field. There is only one candidate on the list with “major league” football exper ience. And football in the Far Western con ference, the Northwest conference, and the Oshkosh Valley Grocers’ conference is as far removed from Coast; conference football as college baseball is from the brand in which the American and National leagues indulge. J^TNF years nl Oregon in the Coast associa tion as a scout and assistant conch -and n good one—have given Shields an asset of primary importance which the rest of tin men available do not have. For this reason alone Oregon will he indulging in less of a gamble if it puts its money on its own horse. In a sense, the selection of Shields is tin only possible answer the athletic activities board can find to its present problem. To bring in an outsider would mean the revamp ing of the entire coaching staff which means paying the salaries of two sets of coaches for th o next six months while one set works. This could be avoided in the occasion of an outside choice only if flu- members of I In present yt a IT* would be willing to hold their positions under the new regime and only if the new man would be willing to tackle tIn job without the presence on that staff of a single man who had worked with him and knew exactly what he was trying to do. # * <* 'T'lIKSE reasons, along with tin* success of promoted line couches at Stanford and California, the fact that Shields hsjs earned the position through years of loyal service under three head coaches, and the argument; Gene knows the weak points of Oregon posi tion as the smallest school in the conference with attendant financial limitations, have been most generally advanced by those favor ing, Shields for the Job. Arriving at the Oregon line coach as the best mafi by a process of elimination or as the best possible choice under the circum stances are means of amassing a terrific body of evidence in his favor. But they are not fail* to Candidate Shields. For Candidate Shields is not merely the best bit of tutorial flotsam tossed Oregon’s way by the tides of football fortune. lie is a capable, intelligent, and person able man—a fine football player from an Oregon football family while in college and oik* of the most successful line coaches in tin* nation today in point of players developed and of success of lines when material avail able is considered. I He can stand on his merits in this or any other group of “first flight” coaches—and, if fortune smiles and circumstances are pro pituous, his success as a line coach indicates he may soon be promoted into the “cham pionship flight" through this or some other position. JT Is important to lie ;i 1 <1 <* to sav, “He’s bad nine years of experience1” lint it is far more important to consider what Shields has done with tliose years during which lie has been on the "University payroll. The University catalogue says: “Alfred Eugene Shields, M.S.. . Instructor in Physical Education; Assistant Athletic Coach -11. S. (102ft) M. S. (10:11). Oregon. In structor and Assistant Coach (1020 . .). Ore gon. No one will deny the records show that Shields has produced great lines from not, al ways st rung material and has brought numerous individuals to their greatest pos sible efleetiveness and some to stardom. But still more important, he has served those years and has always been tremendous ly respected and liked by his men among the men lie has tutored flene has many friends. On the campus he has been equally well received and seems to have at. his dis posal a great deal of the facility for making friends with students which has made Bill Hayward the beloved tradition that lie is. '’JMIKIJE has been so mo opposition 1o Shields but it has not, apparently, arisen on tho campus. Tlio varsity football coaching staff and especially Mike Mikulak, himself men tioned as a prospect, have been enthusiastic in their support of Shields, and has indicated its desire to work under him. The criticisms have not been well founded. The most otlen heard is that the appointment of Shields would mean the continuance of Oregon football as in the past. What continuance there would bo if Shields were named would be to the advan tage of the team. ITe would retain some of the basic features of the present system. But, as assistant coach, Shields has not always been in agreement, with the methods used by his superiors, although loyal to them. Shields has indicated that Oregon would play a different type of football under his tutelage. Practice habits and hours would be revamped. The tempo of Oregon’s game would he speeded up by the curtailment of use of such things as the huddle. Emphasis would be placed on better morale on the bench and better quarterbacking and morale in tin* field. A football coach has many off-the-field duties. It has been said that Oregon’s present line coach doesn’t have complete alumni sup port. This also might be an advantage. In the past Oregon lias swept coaches into office with tremendous displays of enthusiasm—and out of office when disappointment and re action came. (Jene would be starting with a healthier psychology if hq took the all-im portant position under an aura of slight skepticism rather than of bursting enthu siasm. And alumni support has not always heralded coaching success in the past. * # # 'f'WO generations of coaches liavo either ignored or alienated student interest in tin* tram and Oregon lias suffered heavily as a consequence. Willi tlir errors of three predecessors before him and because he recog nizes the fact that the team belongs to the student body. Shields is more Ilian willing to have football join the movement to bring student interest back to the campus. Idealizing the difficulty of the University’s posit ion in sports lack of funds force us to a comparatively amateur status—and the fact that tlm coast conference is a tough league, students have never gone wild-eyed and rabid with demands that the team win. They have asked, however, for a team that can go out on the Held and play determined, intelligent, and planned football. There seems every possibility that Shields would produce just that kind of a team. LEROY MATTINGLY. Editor WALTER R. VERNSTROM, Manager LLOYD TUPLING, Managing Kditor Associate Editors: l'aul Deutschmann, Clare lgoe. 1 urpifon Daily r.merulu, ofueia! student publication of the University of Oreron, imblishpd daily during the college year excej t Sundays, Mondays, holidays and final examination periods. Kntered as seeond-olnss mail mutter at the postfTiee Eugene, Oregon. Editorial Board: Darrel Ellis. Bill Peace. Margaret Ray. Edwin Robbins. \\ Diekhart, Kenneth Kirtlev. Bernanline Bowman. Pi Lambda Theta To Initiate Pledges Saturday Evening Pi Lambda Theta, women’s na tional education honorary, will hold initiation of members Saturday evening in alumni hall in Gerlln ger, and will hold a joint banquet with Phi Delta Kappa, men's na tional education honorary, imme diately afterward at the Anchor age. The initiation will be at 6:15 p. m., and the banquet will be at 7. Members of the school of educa tion faculty Rnd their wives will be special guests ut the banquet, at which Dr. J. F. Cramer, superin tendent of Eugene schools, will speak on the Australian school system. New members of Pi Lambda Theta are: Mildred Schwartz, Bev yly Young, Marie Bing Erickson, Marguerite Kelly, Marcia Stein hauser, Edythe Farr, Marian Ful ler, Janet Felt, Margaret Earl, and Edith Clarke. 50 Theta Chis to Meet on Campus Fifty delegates from the north west's five Theta Chi chapters will meet at the Oregon house January 21. 22. and 23 for the annual dis trict fraternity convention. Representatives from Montana, Washington State, Washington University, and Oregon State chapters will attend. A program of business discussions and social events is being planned by Bill Vermillion, president of the local chapter. The Washington State group was host to the convention in 1V>37. Send the Emerald home to Dad YMCA to Provide Faculty Speakers For Living Houses A fireside forum will be spon sored by the YMCA this term, according; to Francis Beck, execu tive secretary. It will offer the I fraternities and other living or ganizations speakers from mem bers of the faculty who will be available for talks and discussions on topics of general interest. The YMCA is also planning to aid in the campus peace program. It will work with the peace com mittee called by the YWCA. The peace program will be an extend ed program and will develop in all departments in the University. There is also a possibility of ar ranging a Sunday vespers service in conjunction with the YWCA, as another phase of the term's pro gram. It's the Studious Student Who Pays rj''Tfl' University library lias always been proud of the record number of books which it loans each term to slndcnts. Yet last term it inaugurated a practice which hampers students in their use of hooks, even though designed 1o keep llic maximum num ber of books available. That practice, an extension of ihe old policy of charging two cents daily for overdue circulation volumes, is the imposition of a five-cents-dailv fine on books held out past t he date due. The increase in the fine was designed to stimulate readers to return books on time so that they will be available for use by others. Hooks not in demand are fined at the same rate as those for which someone is waiting. JN theory, the increased fine seems sound. Hut actually upper division and graduate1 students who are likely to have cheeked out a large number of hooks for a month are rudely awakened about .r» days after the hooks were due with a notice staling that they have 10 books out and are now indebted to the library to the extent of tti2.f>0. Now, those excessive fines are unfair to students writing papers and using large num r hers of books for other projects—pnd if the student has forgotten the books are overdue, five fonts a day is no hotter rornindor than two rents a day. If 1 hr library is going to rontinur its policy of heavy fines, it should do one of two things: the fivo-oont tines should not start until the notices that the books are overdue have been mailed and been given time to arrive, a two-eenl fine being used din ing this period; or notiees should he mailed before the deadline is passed 1o tell the stu dent (hat books which he has will be due on a certain date. RANTED that the bigger fine might cause the student to discover some means of his own to jog his memory, the five-eent fine won’t bring the books in much faster. Better we should find some more equitable method of paying for the new library. I*. B.—Editor's note: Latest information is to the effect that the five-eent fine is estab lished by state law—but if the state wants to be difficult, that doesn’t prevent ’the li brary from adopting the second suggestion and sending the “warnings” out in advance. ■i SIDE SHOW Edited l>y .... Bill Cummings, Campus J’aiil Deutschmann, National Student opinion seems lack ing in a matter vvliieh is of great importance to the students of Oregon—the coaching situation. While President Boyer and the University athletic hoard are painstakingly going over the signals in their own official hud dle, why shouldn't the students take action of some sort to pave the way for the officials in mak ing a choice? Tf the members of the AStTO were to express their opinion —by vote, by petition, or by delegation—that opinion would probably carry considerable weight in the selection of Ore gon’s next football coach. Stu dent opinion, culminating in ac tual agitation, was a major fac tor in the retirement of Coach Prink Callison. When dissatis fied, members of the ASUO were eager to express them selves; yet no one has taken any steps to help the officials pick a new coach. Members of the athletic board, as well as President Boy er and Anse Cornell, would more than welcome any suggestions from the students. The prob lem they face is not an easy one. and pleasing the student body is one of the most important things they must take into con sideration. * * * It is largely student opinion that lias given Gene Shields the edge in the race to date. As a member of the coaching staff, Shields is popular among ath letes and other students, and this popularity has no doubt given the officials visions of the old-fashioned Oregon spirit — wild-eyed pajama parades, torch-light rallies, and a genu inely enthusiastic student body backing its coach as well as its team,. Shields’ popularity, at least as an assistant coach, has already been established, and therein lies his superiority over other candidates who are being considered. * * * The possibility of signing a big-name coach from an eastern or southern college is wiped out by Oregon’s starvation salary and one-year contract plan, so the best the University can do is to try to pick a man who will start from scratch and build a name fgr himself and Oregon while on the job. It is true that an outside coach, such as Eric Waldorf of Jefferson, would draw material to Oregon much better than a local man, such as Shields. Waldorf is a big fish in the pond of Portland high school football, but a risk as far as college football is concerned. Yet if he were on the Oregon coaching staff, he would draw much of Portland’s annual crop of football material. The ideal solution would be to boost Shields into the head coach job—on a one-year con tract basis—and to obtain Wal dorf as an assistant coach. Then Oregon would have a familiar, popular head coach, and an assistant who would draw bad ly-needed new material. Campus Calendar Opening1 a new term’s service the University infirmary saw 17 patients occupying1 its wards yes terday. Confined students were: Jane Haig1, Peggy Peebler, Flor ence Sanders, Jean Gulovson, Pat Temple, "Smokey” Whitfield, Dick Terpening, Howard Over beck, Charles Frazee, Bruce Giesy, Fran ces Gray, Ronald Quaife, Robert Fulton, Erling Jacobsen, Kenneth Waggover, Del Bjork, Ruth Rea son. NVA checks may still be called for at window 2, on the second floor of Johnson hall, announced University Paymaster E. C. Tuttle. Reservations must be made for the Pi Lambda Theta banquet to be held Saturday evening at 7 at the Anchorage, after the initiation. Call Helen Emery, 531. Seniors must turn in their ac tivities blanks by Wednesday, January 12 at the educational ac tivities office. The deadline had previously been December 15. The blanks may be gotten either at the co-op or at the activities office. All athletes who received word to appear at Kennell-Ellis to have their pictures taken for the Ore gana, are requested to do so at once, Wayne Harbert said yester day. , There will he a social swim in j Gerlinger pool Friday night from I 7:30 to 9. j'Ah! Wilderness' Cast Prepares to Open at Theater Members of the cast of “Ah! Wilderness," forthcoming produc tion of the University theater re sumed intensive rehearsals Monday night under the direction of Mrs. | Ottilie Turnbull Seybolt. Iris Franzen has replaced Mary Elizabeth McCarty in the role of Mildred, the irritating little sister of the Miller family. Pat Taylor is now playing the part of Nora, j the Miller’s maid, formerly taken by Miss Franzen. The play will open the fourth | week of this term as the cast is j taking two weeks longer than 1 originally planned in order to do justice to O'Neil’s great play. Cameras Prohibited From Art Museum nave you over meet to taxe a camera through the doors of the Oriental Art museum? You had better not try it, for a guard is stationed at the door to stop any such attempts. “Cameras are not only prohibited here, but in museums all over the world,” said Mrs. G. B. Warner, director. This is done to guard against the possibility of photos being taken of the exhibits to be used Art Museum Hours AnnouncedAnew In answer to countless queries concerning: the days and hours when the museum of art is open, the director, Mrs. Gertrude Bass Warner, announces that the mu seum hours for visiting are from 3 to 4 Thursday, and 2 to 5 Sun day. The museum library hours are from 2 to 5 Monday through and including Friday. The back door of the library may be used during these hours. Among the new books on dis play in the museum library are ‘‘The Legal States of Aliens in Pa cific Countries,” "French Indo china,” “The Struggle for the Pa cific,” and "Japan in American Public Opinion." The museum librarian, Mrs. Mar jorie Reynolds, announced that four new magazines have been received also. They are: "China Journal.” "Amerasia," China Weekly Re view," and “Japan Chronicle.” WESLEY CLUB TO DINE Replacing the regular social hour at Wesley club Sunday eve ning will be a waffle dinner in the kitchen of the Methodist church at 5 o’clock. Selections from "This Simian World,” the book by Clarence Day which is the theme for a banquet on January 21, will be read during the dinner. 31S3ISfE1313E®3IBJ5ISISJ®SEIelEJ3J3JS®3/ ror commercial purposes. When more money is allotted by the Uni versity, the museum will have post cards printed of the exhibits which will be sold, Mrs. Warner said. A restricted budget has also limited the opening hours of the museum because of the expense involved in the upkeep and guard ing of the exhibits, many of which are valuable works of art. At present the museum is open to the public every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday afternoons except during exam weeks, Uni versity holidays and vacations, but in the future if the budget is in creased, the hours will be length ened, said Mrs. Warner. Mrs. Warner said that the mu : seum will be open this afternoon during Dad’s day weekend from 1:30 to 3:30 to offer the dads the opportunity of viewing the various exhibits. \ Delta Upsilon Meet Is Scheduled Here A pronvincial conference of the Northwest Delta Upsilon chapters will be held at the Oregon chapter February 4 and 5. Oregon State, Washington uni versity, Washington State, British Columbia, and Alberta will be represented by two delegates each. An undetermined number of mem bers from Oregon State and the other chapters will be present be ! sides the delegates, according to Ken Ely, local house president. The conference is an annual event, last year’s meeting was at the University of Washington. 2MaMafaisjsjaiaisEisj5J3J3isii!JSJEfs®s!S[s CALLING ALL STUDENTS . . . interested in a fine new Overcoat. Bals. Raglans and 1). B. Wraps $15.50 - $26.50 ROBERTSON’S (54 E. Broadway Eugene Next to Chase Gardens Boat House A University of Washington student uses this boat, moored in Puget Sound, for his house. Water and electricity connections give him the conveniences of home. F 'll 'i Ojim S{//ul # ~'JRNEJ McMo'JTRAN *- W ASHBURNE Phone 2700 We will make for a small charge Couch Covers and Curtains You select. from our stock the materials you desire and we will make them up for you as you desire. There is an excellent selection, of fabrics in all prices—new patterns ahd colorings. See them todav. Third floor. DUDLEY FIELD SHOP IS WASHBURNE 'S ON THE CAMPUS Special... for Friday and Saturday Large Angel Food Cake, White or custard.49c Oatmeal Bread, loaf . .. . ... 13c Soft-rising bread..15c ELLIOTT’S GROCERY 1 3th & Patterson Phone 95 These merchants made possible the prizes given with your winter term ASUO cards * -o— The Pit Williams Gordons DeNeffes Hadleys Taylors Heilig Theater | College Side Hoffman Jewelry Preston and Hales , Dudley Field Shop Sigwart Electric I Elliott's Barber Shop Medoland Creamery -O-— We owe them our support.
