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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 1945)
2\uck By Leonard Turnbull An appeal to Jake Leicht: Please return to the University q:: Oregon for the 1946 football season! “Graveyard of football coaches"—it isn t a pleasing title to anyone, is it? Are we, the students at the University, expecting too much of a “little David" out of the football elevens turned out year after year? We have one of the smallest enrollments of all the schools in the Pacific Coast conference. Proselyting of players isn’t cm the well-organized basis of the larger schools. The past season’s Webfoot roster shows only one returned letterman on the squad, and the list also shows the greater majority of players in the 17-18 year old class. CHECK PRE-WAR RECORD OF OLIVER Upon checking the records of pre-war years here, dissatisfac tion with Tex Oliver and his coaching methods has become apparent. Most of this can be gleaned from growling Emerald issues of those days. The criticisms run along the same line: “Oliver’s system is too complex; he doesn’t stress the funda mentals. his player psychology is null and void.” Alumni organizations have been dead set against any change in the coaching setup here. There lies the power for a change, hut the power is dormant. Individuals hailing back to the days when, have written letters that seared the paint off the walls of the sports department—definitely not in a commendatory manner. We have been accused of being “fuzzy-cheeked kids trying to tell a 46-year old man. with at least 44 years spent toy ing with pigskins, how to run his team." Now I ask ya ! SORBOE CLICKS AT WASHINGTON STATE The favorite rival coach of this writer, 33-year young Phil Sorboe broke in the new pair of shoes at Washington State this \ ear without a creak. The youngest mentor in the area west of the Mississippi (of a big-time school—stop me if I am wrong), came out on top of the heap in the Northwest, and pro vided Cougar supporters with the runner-up team for the. Rose Bowl. ' When Sorboe started the year at Pullman, old alumni sadly shook their heads and said, "Guess we can’t expect much this year with that young whipper-snapper as head coach.” These doleful shakings have been changed to exhuberant back slap p.ngs. Young Phil is sitting pretty with clear views of a long stay at the helm of his old alma mater. BUILD UP BIG NAME THEN RIDE Big' names in football count a lot and also cost much money, la a lot of cases these fellow s ride on their past references. Season in and season out the*results run about the same, and school supporters murmur, “wait’ll next year—he's done it be fore and he will do it again—you heard him tell us at the meet ing- that the material is just beginning to shape up—wait'll next year!" Then there is a fellow over at Oregon State college who is blasting out with the football victories wher.e they count, namely, over the University of Oregon Webfoots. Lon Stiner took over the Beaver coaching staff in 1933 at the apple-cheeked age of 30. That first year the “Ironmen” of Oregon State became famous in the orange and black colors. New ideas popped, have continued bursting and the tradition of losing games was broken. AGES TELL A TRUER STORY Ages of the present conference coaches runs as follows: Buck Shaw , of California, who has had a wobbly season at the top spot of the Golden Bears, is 40; brought up from youth Lon Stiner is 42; Jeff Cravath of USC and Bruce LaBrucherie, breaking in at L.'CLA, are both 40; Best Welch of Washington is oS; and the kid of the lot is Phil Sorboe, 3d. Some of the tnurmurings of students around the campus are beginning to make a few clickings in the exam-struck noggin (• this writer. \ es, A1 Simpson has had a verv extraordinary season at Medford. CLEAR THIS POINT THEN HAPPINESS (hi yes. there is a point 1 want to clear up. TheMrivial point hasn't come to mind while writing Duck Tracks for past issues, but it concerns a certain coach who chased a certain writer out of a certain football locker room, and, according to tire coach, brought a crashing calamity around his ears. At one time, during the early part of the season, I was in the locker room at Mac court interview ing a football plaver. The Student athletic manager came up to the gridder I was holding a confab with, and told him that he wasn't allowed to have visitors in the room, lie looked at me. and pointed to the diagrams of plays on the walls. “I'm sorry," l said, and requested the footballer to step out side tin' locker room while 1 asked him the rest of the questions I had in mind. Coach Tex Oliver was not around. Down in Los Angeles he stated that "he" had chased the writer out of Joe Louis To ‘Fight’ On Dec. 12 Joe Louis “the Brown Bomber,” holder of the world heavyweight boxers title since June, 1937, when he knocked out James J. Brad dock, will “fight” a four-round match at McArthur court, Wed nesday night, December 12. The contract was signed, sealed and delivered last Saturday,' after negotiations between Don Owen, Euegne's mitt mogul, and champ Joe’s manager, Irwin Rosee, a nephew of Mike Jacobs. Louis and his crowd were some what skeptical about fighting in such a small town as Eugene, but a visit to Mac court, where Jack Dempsey, former heavyweight holder in the twenties, fought in 1931 at the same place, and attracted 10,000 p e o p 1 e—this assured Louis, and he remarked, “Okay I’ll fight.” Louis will go four rounds against the best opponent Owen can find. This will be one of the champ's final public appearances, before his title tilt with Bill Conn, next June. Louis has fought irj other' coast cities in the western states, but no record is known where the “Brown Bomber” has fought cn a university campus. Although numerous exhibitions throughout the world have been given by Joe. Lotus has been guaranteed $6000 plus expenses, with option of 60 per cent the gate. This terrific tariff has forced Owen to charge $5 for ringside, $3.50 for reserved seats in the groundfloor and $2.50 general admission, these prices in clude tax. The “fight angle" should make the bout even more popular than the Portland show, where Louis is scheduled. Joe Louis, fresh out of the army, when here, was reported in excellent condition, although a few pounds overweight. Reporters June Goetze G. Dune Wimpress Gloria Smith Jeanette Grant Shirley Anderson Nancy Stolz June McConnell Barbara Wells Dorothy Thomson Wynne Romtvedt Vesta Sargent Laura Olson Liz Gilmore Mary Ruth Springer City Desk Chuck de Ganahl Gloria Smith Pat King Maryan Howard the room, thereby causing hard feelings. So sorry to refute your point coach, hut 1 am the only Kmerald writer that has been chased out of the locker room, definitely not by you! The point was forgotten by Bull until the famous statement made at L. A. By BILL WALKENSHAW I _ ____— -— —■ Wait 'till the season is over they said. Well the season is now over and Oregon isn't at the top of the heap by a long shot. Not Just Jake Dropping six games and winning only three doesn t exactly make the Oregon Webfoots Rose Bowl contenders. To make the Oliver record even worse, one of those three victories was over hapless Idaho. Outside of an exceptional “Jake Leicht" day again at Washington State and Oliver’s “big win’’ over the mediocre California eleven the Ducks might as well have sta> ed in bed. If you think this writer is making it sound worse than it really is, consult the Pacific Coast conference standings which can be found in any large newspaper of last Sunday s edition at the bottom and too far to look down we find Idaho, a shade abo\ e California, and then Oregon. Brother, that isn t good! ^ Teams that had no better, if as good, material to begin with like Oregon State, Washington State and Washington did right good. How many coaches had an All-American to work with? Oliver not only had All-American Take Leicht but such men as Bobby Reynolds,' All Coast in ’42. John Kaufman, a lineman who could make any college team in the country (and this is not my opinion alone) plus Y\ alt Donovan, who was the top scorei on the coast a week ago. The rest of the fellas on the first eleven though not All Americans were fundamentally as good as any one else had. All Oliver had to do was to weld them together and teach the in experienced boys what they needed. Other coaches were capable of doing it. why didn't Tex? At the season's end Saturday they were still playing individually or not playing at all because they didn’t understand the complex Oliver system which was going nowhere. You’re Wondering Too? About this time there should be a question in your mind, dear reader, and I think it goes something like this—if Oregon was so poor, how come they rolled up 12 points and almost tripped Oregon State? As I said the Webfooters were playing individu ally and Jake Leicht happened to be the best individual on the field .It was Leicht, All-American that he is, who broke away twice for scores which kept Oregon even in the ball game. He received little or no blocking on those breakaways from the rest of the Duck squad because they were weak on the fundamentals of blocking and probably a little disgusted at the way the game was going. The only man on the Oregon squad who has ever shown lie could block for Jake and throw passes to him was on the bench. That boy wears a big “70" on his jersey and is a lot of quarter back. Yes, you guessed it, it was Bobby Reynolds! Why was Reynolds kept out of the OSC game? That question along with a lot of others was in lots of alums’ minds as they left Hayward field Saturday. Rumor has it that Reynolds and Oliver had one of those coach player arguments and Bobby was made sit on the bench to repent;^ while OSC pounded away 13 points worth against the Lemon and Green. Leicht was forced to play almost 60 minutes and was knocked out of the game. Only then did Oliver send Reynolds in, until Jake could come back in, which was about five minutes. Oliver then pulled Reynolds and there he sat until the final gun while Oregon lost the game 13-12. What kind of a coach is it « mat will allow his team to lose a close game and still keep his first string quarterback on the bench? I’m afraid this one will take a lot of talking to get out of, coach, because a lot of people aren’t very happy over it. Talk Fast Tex! At an appearance before the game Coach Oliver said, “I'll be very surprised if we don't win this one against Oregon State.” Oliver must really go in for surprises because he sure helped this one along by keeping Reynolds on the bench. We sort of think you re in for some real surprises from now on, coach, so—• Merry Xmas! According to Coach Lon Stiner, DeW avne Johnson is just about the best prospective fullback seen around in quite a few years. Johnson after carrying the ball “twice" and gaining 18 raids through the OSC line was pulled from the game to join Reynolds on the bench. Some odds, doesn’t it? Oh well, maybe Oliver was saving them for next season, who knows. And that, gang, just about sums up Duck Tracks for this teim. hoi am fuither dope on our "Coach," read Bull's comments on the current battle. Gotta hit the books now, so I’ll say “30.”