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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1948)
| "DUCK TRACKS | By DON FAIR 1 jr Co-Sports Editor . „ I he Civic stadium, where the Oregon baseball teeam will .play all of its remaining home games, is a good ballyard. With some returfing on the infield, the diamond would be all that ballplayers could desire. DeWayne Johnson’s sparkling one-hitter in his first start for the Ducks was a welcome sign to Coach Don Kirsch. The husky left-hander, tagged with the nickname ‘ * “Swede,” showed lots of courage on the mound, especially , when the going was rough. Johnson had his high-hard one whistling past the Vandal batters, but in the true fashion of a southpaw, suffered his streaks of wildness. , j, At the plate, Johnson was a different story. In three trips to the batters’ box, he never managed to poke one as far as the * pitcher's mound, each time dribbling a dinky bounder in front of the plate, which the Idaho catcher quickly pounced on for a *. throw-out at first base. Johnson Also Adept at Football Johnson is dividing his talents this spring between the dia mond sport and spring football. In the latter he has been show ' wig up well, both offensively and defensively. Last year his •play at carrying the ball was almost negligible, but his hard * -sunning performances now may earn him plenty of offensive action next fall; Prettiest catch of the season thus far goes to Hal Zurcher and his nab of an Idaho fly in the first game, which was labeled for at least two bases. Zurcher, a sophomore mer cury-footed centerfielder, had his back to the infield when he stuck out his gloved hand and stabbed the towering fly back-handed. ►- After grabbing the pellet, Zurcher went tumbling to the ground, and Johnny Kovenz, who was streaking over from pus left field position, had to hurdle Zurcher’s prostrate form. 1 Kovenz is another sophomore, and along with Pat Wohlers, [a second-year man^ and junior Don Dibble should give the JWebfoots an outfield which will be tough to beat in the next ^fwo seasons. I S. Bartle's Batting Shows Improvement <■, Another good sign on the Oregon baseball team is the batting ^f first sacker Dick>Bartle. For his efforst, he has been awarded <_the clean-up position in the batting order. Sporting a meager average of .108 last season, Bartle seems to be more loose at the "plate this year. With the result that he has been poking solid Slid long blows to any part of the field. The Oregon infield, in its* Division games, has looked * better than average. It’s a closely packed inner circle, with - ^ captain and second baseman Walt Kirsch paving the way. ,w - Kirsch made a couple saves of hard-hit balls in Johnson’s one-hit performance which seemed ticketed for safe terri <K tory. ..f Behind the plate, Bill Burgher is proving himself a master •at the position.Three men tried to steal, in the first two contests, 2nd all three were cut down at the keystone sack by a perfect ’’peg. What a lot of people don’t realize however, is that a player actually steals a base on the pitcher—not the catcher. If a <■ba.serunner gets a big enough jump on the pitcher’s motion, the fciest peg in the world oftentimes cannot stop him from pilfer ing a base. Idaho Backstop a Hustler —t Billy Williams, backstopping for Chuck Finley’s Idaho nine, the same boy who, along with Oregon’s Norm Van Brocklin, Tset the Pacific Coast conference ablaze with their passing last season. Williams, definitely not a big man, makes up for his Ijack of stature with his continual hustling. One thing that he does, which isn’t seen often, is his running down to back up first .base on a ground ball by an opposing batter. This enables him W> retrieve any wild pegs, keeping the runner from advancing base. Burgher also practices this art for the Webfoots. J Oregon Should Have Had Another Run ^ But the catch is—Kirsch, according to the rule books, should iave been allowed three bases, which would have meant that ^another would have come in, and Oregon actually should have ■*tton the game by a 4-0 instead of a 3-0 count. Coach Don Kirsch pointed this out to the umpiresafterthegame.butallthreeofthem ♦pointed this out to the umpires after the game, but all three of : them had to admit that it was their first encounter with such „a play. Thus the reason for the muddle on the correct inter pretation of the rules. If Oregon had lost the game, however, they would have had perfect grounds for a protest of the con rtest, which means replay of the entire nine innings. Oregon isn’t the only school which has been plagued with fsainy weather—even sunny California has been a victim. At ‘.Palo Alto, the Stanford Indians have had to postpone three ^ack meets this season because of poor weather conditions. Aike*t 'WosJzA the. featfA (Duel Veterans Shine in Grid Drills Making the best of the good football weather while it is here, grid Coach Jim Aiken sent his squad through a two-and-a-half hour drill yesterday, spending the last hour in a scrimmage session. Aiken was apparently pleased with the good practice especially the good shape the team is in. He was also pleased with the individ ual performances, and good show ings on both sides of the line. Defensive Veterans Shine Two backs who spent most of their playing time last season on defense took cracks at ball-carry ing and both were impressive. Big DeWayne Johnson, who splits his time between spring football and baseball, was hitting hard and booming through holes, as he pick ed up yardage consistantly. The other veteran, 165 pound Ben Holcomb, was on the receiving end of several passes and did some good broken-field running. Bud Boqua and Bob Sanders, through the defensive line, and both 200 pounds plus, blasted holes showed that the fullback slot would have plenty of straight-ahead power. Sanders also did some nice blocking, aiding the other offen sive backs. Tackles Outstanding In the line, two big tackles were particularly outstanding, both seeing offensive and defensive ac tion.. Sam Nevills, the biggest man on the squad, and Steve Dotur, a Oregon Skiers Finish Third A four-man University of Ore gon ski team placed third Sunday which was run from one mile at the annual Trodse Giant Slalom above Silcox to Otto Lang Hill on Mt. Hood. Members of the Duck slat squad Who participated in the Lewis and Clark College sponsored event were Gordon Malafouris, Saul Zaik, Stan Arthur, and Jack Hessel. The sitz-markers returned to Eugene Sunday night each with a case of near--sunburn due to the bright conditions on 11,000 foot Mt. Hood. The six schools entered and their times are as follows: Lewis andi Clark, 9:52.8; Vanport, 10:42.2; U. of Oregon, 11:15.8. U. of Port land, 11:22.8; Multnomah College, 12:15.4, and Reed College, 14:40.1. regular last year, bashed and bat tered their opposistion, and when on the offense, were always open ing holes. Norm Van Brocklin was, as usual, pegging strikes, and little Joe Tom occasionally spelled him and did the same. Two of their favorite targets were ends Bob Anderson and Les Hagen. DeCoureey Runs Well One of last years veterans who is making a bid to shine this fall, right half Keith DeCoureey, was probably the outstanding running back of the afternoon. DeCoureey, a smart runner, followed his in UCLA Chooses New Headman LOS ANGELES, April 20—(UP) John R. Wooden, one of the Mid west’s greatest hoop stars, today was appointed head basketball coach at the University of Califor nia at Los Angeles. In accepting the UCLA job, Wooden will leave Indiana State Teachers college where he has been head basketball coach since 1946. He succeeds Wilbur Johns who gave up the job to devote full time to the position of UCLA athletic director. Wooden will not take over his new duties until July 1. He is coaching the Indiana State baseball team at present. Johns announced selection of Wooden as his successor after in terviewing 89 candidates. He said Wooden in two years at Indiana State won 47 games and lost 14. His 1948 team was runnerup in the 32-team National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball tourna ment. Remember— 4 WILL GET YOU 5 BOY O' BOY I’m Hungry Let's go and get us a delicious "JUMBO" Order of dozen Jumbos within 13 blocks delivered free. Small nominal fee for smaller orders. JUMBO HOUSE Phone 4581 255 East 6th terference well, and when he did not have any, danced by or bulled through the defense for extra yards. Johhny McKay, with hia short, choppy style of running, also made some good gains. Veteran Eddie Chrobot was one of the most effective guards on of fense, but the surprise line per formance was little Larry Hull, one of last year’s freshmen. Hull, only 178 pounds, stopped several plays from his defensive guard post. Another freshman, center Dave Gibson, also shined in back ing up the line. Ad Staff: Day Manager: SALLY WALLER Ass’t Manager: ANDY MOORE Production Manager: DONNA MARRY BRENNAN Soliciting Manager: ALICIA PETERS Layout Manager: TOM BRUBECK General Nuisance: LESLIE TOOZE Dear Jack: I just read in the pa per that students who don’t smoke make better grades than those who do. Love, Dad. Dear Dad: I have thought about it. But truthfully, I would rather make a "B” and have the enjoy ment; in fact, I would rather smoke and drink and make a “C.” Fur thermore, I would rather smoke, drink, and neck, and make a “D.” Love, Jack. Dear Jack: I’ll break your neck if you flunk anything. Love, Dad. —Ohio State Sundial. Sis Scott, former “O” student re cently announced her engagement in Portland has a wide selection for those that are engaged and think ing of silver: Carl Greve, jeweler n Portland has a wide selection for your approval. House dances were in swing last week, and as we flitted about many happy couples were seen, and many of them were cheered up by the fortune-telling of Theta Casey Jones. The orginally scheduled for teller failed to show so Casey took over and even foiled her sorority sisters for a while. To those who didn’t know she was the real thing, “Don’t you believe i't.” This weekend looks like a busy one, men can start sweating out the nickel hop and all the walking they will go through again. Also on the agenda is the spectacle “Midsummer Night’s Dream” un der the direction of Horace Robin son. Although the play is ready to go we still wonder why they sent out two tickets to one party in dif ferent rows and sections. Athletics is not taking a back seat this weekend either, so all the high school gals can get a looksee at how it functions down here. Slated for activity is a baseball game against Washington Friday afternoon, another baseball game with them Saturday, a track meet against WSC Saturday, a golf match against Oregon State and a tennis match against WSC. All four sports slated at home for one weekend! Southpaw DeWayne Johnson de serves a big hand for his masterful pitching against Idaho. Mike Steddem, head of the ath letic grounds was really disgusted with, the weather over the week end. The Hayward relays were go (Please turn to page six)