Ducks Battle Bearcats T'©night Starting Berths Sought by Varsity Local rainmakers have stopped manufacturing on such a mam moth scale those big, juicy, wet globules which pelted the local popu lace to cover and which bloated the Willamette to flood-stage propor tions, meaning that maybe that old sportster, Cramp Basketball, will fcet everyone's undivided attention tonight. Indian Now Sea-Lion This is the basketball story of •one James Pollard, second-high *.corer for southern division bas ketball race in 1942. Pollard held ■down a forward position for the Stanford Indians, last year’s na tional champions. His experience is great and yet last season he was a sophomore. Four years ago he graduated from an Oakland, California, high school. Then he went on to play for two years for the Golden State quintet, a bay area inde pendent five, that went to the AA.U finals. Starred for Frosli Aftei' amassing this experience lio finally checked in Stanford, i.nd proceeded to blaze up the Palo Alto pinewobds in his fresh man year. Even then he was more experienced than many of the 19ft Indian varsity hoopsters. The next season he immediate ly stepped into a starting berth on the Indian varsity and received numerous all-conference ratings. Mr. Pollard is still playing bas ketball, but not for Stanford. A little thing like a war came along and Jimmy enlisted in the coast guard. So he’s now hanking up tin' baskets for the Coast Guard Sea-Lions of Alameda. Stellar Attraction Another Stanferdite, Hank Lib retti, is now playing for the St. Mary’s Pre-Flight squad. The Coast Guard and the Pre-Flight team will meet soon in a highly billed basketball game. And it will be Luisetti vs. Pollard. Rare books dealing with early Mayan civilization have been given the Library of Washington •State college by Mr. and Mrs. Koy Merritt. Captain Jack London, 1901 graduate of the Naval academy, is new commandant of the Uni versity of Texas naval ROTC. Basket Bomber STK \1»Y AS A HOCK . . . . . . That's little Don lvirseh, who Holds down a guard slot on the Oregon varsity. Old Gramp was all set last week to cut some of his best capers— much to the elation of Eugene hoop hobbyists. Portland's Boil ermakers and Vancouver's Ram blers, both silver-plated outfits without tarnish, were due to put in appearances Friday and Satur day nights, respectively, against our VVebfoots. But then the rains came .... Result: No contests. Well, tonight Howard Hobson will herd his little covey of casaba kiddies out onto the polished hardwoods of the Igloo, there to sit down, wait, and hope that the opposition can ford the roaring Willamette and wend its way to the Duck hoop mecca. Willamette’s hoop strength is an unknown quantity, but fans can rest assured that those Bearcats have whittled their hoop-hitting eyes to needle point sharpness. Our Ducks did not run a head-on into the W il lamette hemp contingent last season, rather devoted their early season days to the con quest of eastern teams. Hobby has issued a grim warn ing that no regular need be as sured of his job on the opening five. He has thrown all positions wide open and invites participants to scramble madly for recogni tion. Just who the amiable mentor will beckon from the bench to start this evening’s fun-fest can best be denoted by a large and querying question mark. Many observers vouch that Hobby will make appointments from the fol lowing- group: Forwards, Eob Wren, Warren Taylor, R o 1 p h Fuhrman; centers, Roger Wiley, Wally Borrevik; guards, Don Kirsch, Bob Newland. Wren On The rambunctious Mr. Wren had an enjoyable evening Friday in the intra-squad scrimmage which served as a stand-in for the can celled Boilermaker brawl. The ag gressive junior forward served notice that his sights have been set on that hoop and that it’ll be “fire-away" from now on. Wren snared 17 points in the rumpus which also bagged him high point honors. Young Roger Wiley, 18 years old and still growing at (> feet 7 inches, was another who drew a smile of satisfaction from the Duck hoop dor-tor. Wiley heave hoed the sphere for 18 points— many being tips from close in, a la Slim \\ intermute. 1 he Ducks will institute speed in their attack tonight, a weapon which has always been utilized with success by Hobson-tutored quintets. With such go-go boys as Bob Newland and Captain Kitsch to bring the ball down floor, those Bearcat checkers will have to be prepared to stop the fast break by tackling if neces sary. One more crack at the non conference Bearcats is set for Oregon when Friday eve swings this way. This time the two out fits match shots at Salem. Saturday, Hobson and his wan dering Webfoots will leap aboard the S. F. and be off for Pullman and Moscow, hangouts of Wash ington State and Idaho, in that order. CAGE KING FORMER DUCK . . . . . . John Dick, All-American Oregon forward now performing for the Corpus Christi Air Force gang. New Obstacle Race Slated For Physical Fitness Plans By ROLXiIE GABLE “Recreational emphasis has been taken off (he physical edu cation classes and physical de velopment emphasis has taken its place,” stated Ralph \V. Leighton, dean of the physical education school. Times Have Changed Before the United States had entered the war, the classes in physical education were primar ily for the purpose of recreation in classes such as badminton, so cial dance, horseshoes, golf, arch ery, and softball. Now, with spe cial stress being placed upon physical fitness, five major class es are being' installed for the pur pose of conditioning the college student and as a preparation for military service. These five ac tivities are swimming, which comes in handy for the navy men, military track, eombatives, such as judo, boxing-, and wres tling, team sports, such as soc cer, football, and basketball; vol leyball supplemented with calis thentics, and gymnastics. All these are entirely in accordance with plans and are endorsed by military authorities. In previous years, coeducation al sports also held a spot on the curriculum in the physical educa tional school. Because of a pure ly recreational importance of this activity it has also been tak en off the list cf physical educa tion classes in accordance with the military program. Agility Essential The reasons for this change of program in the physical educa tion school is that all activities and classes are tending toward strength, agility, vigor, and en durance, and all activities that have not these physical require ments in. them are cast out of the curriculum. _ Dean Leighton remarked th^P there are few schools throughout the entire nation that adhere strictly to an all-out military physical program, but are some what on the order of the pro gram that is in existence at schooi now. Swimmers Improved Over previous terms of physi cal fitness there has been re markable improvement in the number of laps that the swim ming students have been doing this term, stated Dean Leighton. Forty-four laps are taken for granted now which is the sum to tal of a half-mile. Also in tracW^ during a recent cross-count®0 trek, only six men out of the 134 dropped out and failed to com plete the three-mile course. There (Please turn to page eight) Sports Staff: Fred Treadgold, Fred Beckwith, Co-sports Editors Doug Donahue Rollie Gable Mart Pond Mary Ald'erson CougarGuard Likes No. '5* Washington State’s varsity bas ketball cohorts are already dreaming up rosy-hued ideas of a northern divisional champion ship. Their Cougars are current ly winding up the last phases of an apparently very successful barnstorming cage tour through the East and Midwest. Big gun of the Palouse coun try’s representatives this season has been Captain Owen Hunt, who holds down a guard position on the starting five. This is Hunt’s third year of play, and1 second season as a starter for the Cougars. Incident ally he has carried the same nu meral on his jersey since high school. At Highline, Wisconsin, the coaching staff gave him n:# ber “5” and he hasn’t been part ed with this digit ever since, al though he admits he is not su perstitious. Nevertheless, Hunt has been adorned with that same number “5” in three years of college ball, four years if you want, because he donned it when only a freshman. In the summertime, Mr. Hunt’s activities are taken up with com mercial fishing. During the foot ball season, it is Captain Hunt’s booming voice that hawks tuose official pigskin programs you part with a quarter to purchase. Hunt goes skyward some six feet .He is goad on both defen sive and offensive play and the big surprise thus far this season is that he is currently high scor er for the Cougar squad, having been very instrumental in WSH upset win over Bradley Tech of Illinois two nights ago. Mr. Hunt will be putting in an appearance at the the Eugene cage headquarters again before long and you can get a better lock at one of the top perform ers in the northern division.