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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 1948)
DUCK TRACKS By FRED TAYLOR Co-Sports Editor Supporters of Pacific coast conference football should have 10 regrets that the grid season is finished. Many fans would lave felt much happier, in fact, if hostilities had been stopped ibout the first of December, before Southern California fur i'l.i: __i.j , i. •, 1 II1V.1 UI.’VUIUI V. V I VHt. oVaoUU \\ 1LU I ler two beatings. PCC gridiron iggregations turned in one of heir poorest showings as a kague since the conference’s organization in 1915. Every- | body and his little brother took 1 |i turn at knocking off one of 1 the Pacific slope’s college 1 plevens, and the situation was | neatly capped by the two dis- 1 Istors that befell the team sup- | posedly the toast of the coast, | Southern Cal. Take a brief squint at the ..i _ ... i BOBBY BAYNE • r* r 11 1 UV.IUCCU I cIUILIU LUlUClCliLC bUlUUlb rt.UU their non-conference opponents. The top team, the Rose Bowl selection, the best the coast had to offer, beat Ohio State im pressively, 32 to 0. tied with Rice, 7 to 7, and then was humbled 38 to 7 by Notre Dame, and 49 to 0 by Michigan. The runners, Mp for the top place played about the same caliber ball. Oregon bowed to Texas, Nevada. UCLA was edged by Northwestern, J7 to 26. and 7 to 0 by Southern Methodist. The Uclans did beat Iowa, 22 to 7. One fairly bright spot was California, who de feated Navy and smashed Wisconsin 48 to 7. There were other gems, like small Utah hitting Oregon " State, and the clobberings Washington State took from Michigan and Penn State. And so it went through the sea * son. Everytjme a coast eleven beat an outisder and regained a bit of the lost glory, along came another interloper to ►smash back, only more so. And the big question, of course, is why was coast football so much below the standards of , the rest of the country particularly the Mid-West. Is the Coast a Year Behind? ► During the 1946 season when the west coast's teams were absorbing lacings pretty regularly from eastern opponents the theory advanced, was that layoff from football during the wai years had put them a year behind. But that theory is stretchec a bit thin this past season, two years after the war. All colleges had problems with the muscle-weary veterans, but for the most part the stars of the 1947 season were around in 1946. So the reason can't be that this year’s crop of coast gridders didn’t have a chance to regain their proficiency on the turf. Maybe the reason is that the Big Nine conference and the others are less strict in regard to recruiting players than the coast league. Of course, the eastern schools have been established longer, and consec[uently are financially better off than many coast schools, especially the northern ones. Big schools naturally attract better players. Notre Dame can hardly be considered on a level with the average college football team. And Michigan currently ranks on the same standard. But the members of the Pacific con ference were beaten by teams from the more nearly average schools, with like budgets and about th^same size. Certainly > there can’t be that big a difference in the coaching from one section to the other. The answer to this question, the secret of success of the Big Nine and like conferences, would be highly valued by the mentors of the West coast. In passing reference to the Bowl games of January 1, the Sugar Bowl battle between Texas and Alabama must be men tioned, in the light of the fact that Oregon did battle unsuccess fully with the Longhorns earlier in the season. Bobby Layne, the passing wizard of the Texans' T, turned in a sparkling per formance, passing to the first touchdown and personally run ning the fourth across, as well as masterminding the squad in between. After the Oregon-Texas game there was doubt in many Webofoot fans’ minds that Layne was actually as hot as he had been built up. True, he- passed to three quick touch lowns, but Oregon’s aerial defense was still plenty sketchy, and his receivers were completely alone, making the passing a cinch. But against Alabama, a team used to stopping good passing :old, Layne proved that he was plenty good, not only as a hurling ace, but as a runner and field general. Southern California sports writers are hotly defending the case of Glenn Davis, Army’s All-American halfback who re cently wanted to resign from the academy, but was bluntly turned down. Seems that when Davis graduated from Bonita high school in Los Angeles the big shots from West Point high-pressured the lad into the Hudson river school. Their line was that by playing on the team, and making the Army ' eleven something to be proud of, he would boost the morale of the men overseas. It was put up to Davis as the patriotic ' thing to do. So Davis signed up, did everything they asked and more. But now that the war is over and the fellows are prhome he feels his job is over. But the army says no. Reporter Gives Personal View Of Rose Bowl (Editor’s Note: Emerald sports reporter Eddie Artzt had the good fortune to attend the recent Rose Bowl contest, and presents his first-hand report here.) By EDDIE ARTZT There's a story behind this year’s lopsided Rose Bowl classic, and it doesn't ring with the fancy brass statements of criticizing sports writers from the big newspapers around the country. I had the in teresting opportunity to sit right smack in the middle of the USC rooting section during the bowl game. They were twelve thousand strong, and after the powerful Wol verines started chewing up their ball team, it was like sitting in a graveyard. The pre-game activities, as al ways, were colorful and impressive. The feeling was high, and despite general opinion, the USC students thought they were going to win a ball game that day. There was very little football talk going around the stands before the game. It was easy to see that everyone was sick of hearing about Chappius and El liot and Fritz Crisler’s bag of grid tricks. One rumor was widely ac cepted, and that was that Michigan was pretty light, both on the line and in the backfield, and USC had no reason to fear a bunch of little guys. I he tension was terrific after the singing of the national anthem. All of the restlessness and pent up eagerness that had collected in the weeks preceding the game explod ed like a careless bubble dancer’s routine when the Trojan Varsity glided onto the field for the first time. They screamed and cheered for five minutes. USC looked sharp and ready as they zipped through their warmup drills. Then a rather ironical thing ha * pened. The newsreel cameramen asked the entire Southern Califor nia rooting section to rise and face the goal line and scream and yell as if their team were scoring a touchdown. They wanted the shots to add to the newsreel of the game. Four times we had to leap up and go into a frenzy while the cam eras recorded the most useless films in football history. Then Michigan raced out onto the field. The cheers faded then and there. Everyone started whis pering, and the Trojan head yell leader got a small laugh when he shouted over the mike, “Who said they were little guys.” They were huge, and you could tell that the weights on the program must have been recorded in a three-day steam bath. Jack Weisenberger ran by SC’s big John Ferraro and the two looked surprisingly alike in stat ure. Weisenberger was tabbed at 178 pounds on the lineups. Chap pius looked as big as any man on the field, and the Michigan line was by no means a mass of muscle bound midgets. That was the first eye-opening sight to take place. The next was Michigan’s first play of the game. The deception and faking, both in the backfield and on the line was so perfect that SC’s All-American tackle, Ferraro, looked like he was playing hop-scotch in a dark room. Half the time you couldn’t tell who had the ball, but that only af fected the Trojan defense. There is still the matter of the offense. The Southern California student body and Jeff Cravath seemed to disagree on who to play in the game. Twice in the game the Tro jans clicked. Once when their pass • inS ace> Jim Powers, spearheaded , a downfield drive, and once when ATOs Ahead in IM At End of Fall Term There will be a meeting of all intramural basketball off'iials in the IM office at 4 p.m. today. The Intramural fall term sports program is finished, and with the total points compiled the 1946 IM champions, the ATOs, are again holding a decisive lead with a score of 343. Only one of her group reached the 300 mark and the Phi Delts with 316 points held a second place edge over the underdog Sigma Nu outfit, who garnered 277 counts for a third place spot. The remaining totals for other or ganizations are: Totals Organization Fall Term Alpha Tau Omega .343 Phi Delta Theta .316 Sigma Nu .277 Phi Gamma Delta .262 Theta Chi .260 Delta Tau Delta .245 Sigma Chi .242 sub back Jack Kirby started carry ing the ball. Both players rode the bench during most of the game. The root ing section started chanting “Put in Powers, We want Kirby.” From all over the enormous sec tion, insulting cracks were being shouted at Cravath. SC fell apart in more places than on the grid iron. According to personal interviews of Michigan players, they main tain that they played a poor game of football, but any team that can lateral a football six times before you can take another bite of your hot dog rates the nod as one of the greatest elevens ever assem bled. Chi Psi .229 Beta Theta Pi .228 Sigma Phi Epsilon .224 Sigma Alpha Epsilon .208 Sigma Alpha Mu .204 Kappa Sigma.203 Pi Kappa Alpha .....'.193 Delta Upsilon .193 Phi Sigma Kappa .180 Minturn Hall ..174 French Hall . 162 Lambda Chi Alpha .155 Phi Kappa Psi .„.150 Campbell Club .149 Sigma Hall . 143 Villard Hall .130 Sherry Ross Hall .127 Yoeman .125 Tau Kappa Epsilon .12b Westminster House .124 Legal Eagles .124 Pi Kappa Phi . 124 McChesney Hall .112 Nestor Hall .112 Omega Hall .112 Merrick Hall .90 Cherney Hall .62 Phi Kappa Sigma .62 Stitzer Hall .62 Loans Given Students All students wishing Interlibrary loans should now apply to the ref erence department of the library, instead of the circulation depart ment. Interlibrary loans will also be free of transportation charges to all students. t --— ■ Sports Staff: Fred Taylor Don Fair Glenn Gillespie Eddie Artzt Dick Mase A LIMITED NUMBER OF THESE BOOKS Wanted at the "Co-op" for CASH Please Bring Them In at Once Hatcher. Modern Drama (Shorter Edition) Henius. Dictionary of Foreign Trade Blair: Literature of the U.S. Vol. 1 Kenoyer and Goddard : General Biology Longwell, Knopf, Kline: Outline of Geology, Tart 1 Bush :Newspaper Reporting of Public Affairs Parks and Beatty: English Drama Maynard and Beckman: Principles of Marketing Thompson and Gassner: Our Heritage of World Literature (two vol. set) Hall and Davis: Course of Europe since Waterloo, 1947 Edition Bays: Cases and Materials on Business Law Freeman and Martin: Pacific Northwest Sanders and Nelson: Chief Modern Poets Vinacke: Far East in Modern Times Pargment: Tente Trois Contes University 4*Co-op”