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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 25, 1946)
DUCK TRACKS By BERNIE HAMMERBEOK Sports Editor Local sport fans are due for an outstanding football treat this weekend when Amos Alonzo Stagg arrives with his College of the Pacific eleven for Saturday’s grid opener with the Oregon W e b f o o t s. The 84-year-old “Grand Old Man’’ will field his 57th grid team this year, but there is little resemblance be tween the 1946 machine and his first eleven at Springfield Col lege in 1890. Stagg has been one of the greatest contributors to the modern game of football. A complete list of his innovations f would fill several pages, some of the more famous developments being: the use of the tackling dummy, criss-cross plays (later developed into reverses), the A. A. STAGG man-in-motion play, the spread punt-formation, intersectional football, defensive formations (7-2-2, 6-2-1-2, and 5-2-1-2-1), and the flanker offense. The Stagg eleven is expected to make good use of the flanker system this year and will undoubtedly open up with’ a complete bag of tricks against Oregon. The basic pattern of this system is an end lining up on the scrimmage approximately fifteen yards out from the tackle. The right half usually lines up behind this end and takes the name of flanker. Coupled with this is a man in motion, but he is seldom the flanker. The end and flanker run direct from the huddle to their positions; then another back breaks into motion before the ball is snapped. This gives the weird effect of two men spread wide to the right, and a third man in motion as the ball is snapped. The Tigers also make effective use of the lateral with long passes not uncommon. It is from this wide open style of play that sportswriters have come up with the terms P-ding, whing-dings, and slam-bangs. Reader Writes Jack Miller, a transfer from Cincinnati U., took this column to task in regards to yesterday’s treatment of the Indiana Hoosier upset, and Mr. Miller is hereby given his due. The impression was apparently given that Cincinnati is a small school, and Miller pojnts out that its enrollment actually exceeds that of Indiana. This fact does not change the complection of the upset to any appreciable extent, however, as Indiana has very definitely been groomed as a national power, while Cincy (as a football team) has been listed among the also rans, a good team in its own area, but not a major eleven. Miller brings up one other point, and inasmuch as he attended the institution himself and should know, we bow to him. He states that Coach Ray Nolting was at Cincy last year, and, therefore, 1946 is not his first coaching season. This column picked up the Nolting revenge angle from a reliable Eastern authority, but the information was apparently wrong. . Dick Strite, sports editor of the Register-Guard, comes up with his predictions of the 1946 PCC grid race, and to say the least, they warm the hearts of Webfoot supporters. Dick picks the USC Trojans to take top honors with a record of six wins and one loss. He then places OSC and Oregon in a tie for second with records of six and two. UCLA is ranked fourth. Strife Has Courage It takes courage to put the Webfoots in the second slot after ■-the various “experts” have placed them far down the list. And Strite may be right, for the Webfoots are definitely a darkhorse with a potentiality known to few beyond the coaching staff. The Oregonian sports editor, L. H. Gregory, was on the cam pus Monday looking over the Oregon eleven and registered a great deal of surprise when informed that the Olivermen had not been troubled with pulled muscles this fall. According to Gregory, other schools in the conference have run into a great deal of this type of injury, especially to the men returning from several years inactivity. Oregon’s success in this department may be due to the thorough planning of Oliver and Trainer Tom Hughes. Piq&hi+t Pn&uieut... hiJcdt jbattauan By ALi PIETSCHMAN Alonzo Stagg, College of Pacific’s venerable coach, may think the Webfoot’s mentor Tex Oliver was pulling his leg when he received the statistics on Walt Donavan, Ore gon’s second-string fullback. Full backs are supposed to be big, burly men, with plenty of heft and not so much speed to aid them in their attempts to crack the line for a yard or so. Donavan .is different. He’s no Doc Blanchard or John •Kimbrough when it comes to size— in fact he is a small fullback, al though 172 pounds are packed into his 5 foot 10 inch frame. Oliver’s fullback understudy for varsity game-starter is an unusual line plunger. He does have tre mendous speed and effective hit ting power when cracking the line for a few yards. If he gets beyond i the opposing line he can take care of himself as he is one of Bill Hay ward’s track men in the spring. As proof of his ability in the posi tion of line smacker, besides being first-string full on the 1945 eleven, Walt collected 36 points in the course of the Pacific Coast Con ference competition last year to tie for the league’s top scorer. In the (California game at Berkley last fall, Donavan punched across three touchdowns in the last half of the .wild game—one touchdown more than the Bears collected during the fracas! The fleet-footed fullback is twen ty years old and calls Santa Anna, WALT DONOVAN California home. His year of exper ience on the 1945 varsity was his first entrance into coast conference football, but he played under Bill Cook for Santa Anna Junior College before transfering to the Oregon campus. The All-Orange league of South ern California claimed him as one of its first eleven stars in 1943 white he was playing varsity high school football at Garden Grove California* After graduation, some two year* hence. Walt hopes to assume a job as coach. He is another football player majoring in Physical Educa tion with the desire to coach others in the rudiments of all sports. Similar to Jake Leicht in speed* Walt also prefers listing outdoor (activities as his main hobby as long p.s they are connected with sports* Benito Juarez, hero of Mexican independence, was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian. Ninety-five per cent of American families include canned goods in their diet regularly. A waterproof plastic clothes line that will not rust, corrode or rot has been invented. •f-» Jf •> Save theDay? i i i —» Last season Coach-of-the-Year Bo McMillin led Indiana University to its first Big Ten football championship. Though the victim of a stunning upset in its first game last Saturday, will Indiana still be the top team in the con ference? Win or lose, Bo won’t have to worry about his job. For, at Indiana, he’s something more than a football coach—he’s an institution. Don’t miss the fascinating story of this most color ful coach in today’s Saturday Evening Post. The Missing Man of the Year by W. F. FOX, Jr., and ROBERT A. COOK I I 1 I I I I 1 I m 6ALTZMAN PHOTO the POST Will PUBLISH THS< All-American Football Team SELECTED BY THE AMERICAN yFOOTBAll COACHES ASSOCIATION^ I