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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1948)
DUCK TRACKS I By TOM KING Assistant Sports Editor ' Although it doesn’t say so in their contracts, these guys who coach football are hired to win games, and firing comes with lack of same. This thing they call “character building" is strictly okay in its place, but when you see football players on the field, rest assured they're not'trying to impress anybody with their gentlemanly habits. This should explain why two of the country’s top coaches hit the headlines recently. Everybody cheers a champion. But cheers can change to jeers in a sport in which the present is the all-mighty, and the past all forgotten. That’s why a couple of ample-sized firecrackers were drop ped in the laps of Wisconsin’s Harry Stuhldreher and UC LA’s Bert LaBrucherie a few days and. weeks ago. The Stuhldreher case seemingly glared up over night. Loser of three-of their first four, the Badgers had certain fractions of the student body breathing fire. However, the truth of the matter is that the greatest of the great “Four Horsemen’’ hasn’t turned out a crack outfit since 1942, when he had Dave Schreiner playing a lot of end for him. Harry’s been harried by defeats and, as we pointed out, they just aren’t compatible with a low mortality rate. Not in the coaching fraternity. Harry Waiting for Pruning Knife So there’s Harry sitting on the block, waiting for the prun ing season. They say he’s a nice guy and his players have back ed him to the most hilty of hilts, but the man with the tongue twister name isn’t receiving paychecks for teaching his huskies how to knit wool panties. The what-gives with LaBrucherie is a different matter. Bert’s side was laid bare as early as January 1, 1946, after a rather sound thrashing at the hands of Illinois. This Rose Bowl riot, which set unhappy precedence for subsequent PCC-Big Nine battles, was weathered fairly well. Then the roof all but caved in. The Uclans opened their 1947 campaign with a bang, and closed with a whimper. They fell before Northwestern and SMU in games they deserved to win, lost to Cal in a game they deserved to lose, and finished by dropping a 6-0 heart-breaker to USC in the Memorial Col iseum. . A 5-4 record for a team supposedly right in the run for the Roses isn’t the best way to win friends and influence students and alumni, and La Brucherie was in danger of being thumbed out only one year after having put the Bruins into the Rose Bowl for the second time in the school’s history. Richards Incident Caused Trouble To add to this, the firing of Line Coach Ray Richards caus ed a team rebellion, an epidemic of defeats broke out like a rash this year, followed by another revolt when a lineman ob jected to the tactics used by End Coach Shelby Calhoun. Students, alumni, and a news-hungry press gave Bert quite a beating, and still arc. Part of his inability to win over the student body, the press, and in instances, players, results from his own approach to things. Although sincere, and also quite affable to those he knows closely, LaBrucherie is an individualist. His concern is with turning out a football team, and he throws all his energy in to just that. He is not smug wdth the press; it’s just that he doesn’t go out of his way to cow-tow to them. The Richards incident is closed now. The two personali ties clashed from the beginning, but the main thing was that LaEi ucherie insisted on mapping out full defensive plans for the next game all by himself. Richards, who had been around for almost a decade, considered this a slap in the face. Bert wanted a new man to teach newer methods, and he thought he had found him in Dutch Fehring, the Oklahoma line coach. So Fehring came to UCLA. LaBrucherie’s planning seemed to pay off in 1946, when the Bruins defeated Southern Cal for the championship. Football Fans Arent Human/ Says Wife The plight of this year’s Uclan squad is hard to explain. On paper it looks good, but no team can lose so many key men and still keep its slate unruffled. Evidently, Mrs. Harry Stuhldreher knew what the score was when she wrote “Football Fans Aren’t Human” for the Sate\ epost. Particularly if those fans happen to be uncontroll able alumni and an unknowing student body. Louis Bout in Detroit DETROIT, Oct. 28—(AP) — Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis will make his first home town ex hibition appearance in four years here November 19 when he goes six rounds with Vern Mitchell of De troit at Olympia stadium. Olympia’s matchmaker, Nick Londes, said negotiations were closed today. Louis flattened Johnny Denson of Indianapolis in two rounds here in a 1944 exhibition and hasn’t ap peared in a Detroit ring since. —-Sporfs Side 'Lau System' Picks Saturday Grid Upsets Season Rt. Wrg. Td. Pet. 108 38 5 .739 The grid schedule for October 30 promises more chills, thrills and upsets than any other previous week in the 1948 season. After last week’s windfall, this column feels glib enough to predict a few upsets of its own. We may be wrong, but not until after Saturday. ("Indi cates the home team.) *Yale by 6 over Dartmouth *TCU by 6 over Baylor "Texas Tech by 6 over Rice "Northwest’rn by 6 over Ohio State "Kansas by 6 over Okla. A & M Clemson by 6 over "Boston Col. "Portland U by 6 over Pepperdine Cornell by 7 over "Columbia "Temple by 7 over Bucknell Villanova by 7 over * Detroit Arkansas by 7 over "Texas A & M So. Meth. by 7 over "Texas "Wichita by 7 over Tulsa "WSC by 7 over Idaho "Stanford by 7 over Washington San Jose by 7 over "Col. Pacific Florida by 7 over "Furman N. C. State by 7 over "Wake Forest "Tulane by 7 over Miss. State "Brig. Yng. by 7 over Montana "Iowa by 8 over Wisconsin N. Carolina by 10 over "Tennessee UCLA by 10 over "Nebraska Duquesne by 12 over "Ohio U. Lehigh by 12 over "NYU Maryland by 12 over "Miami (Fla.) 3. Carolina by 12 over *W. Virginia N. Mexico by 12 over * Fresno St. California by 13 over ‘So. Calif. Mont. State by 13 over ‘Idaho St. ’Wm. & Mary by 13 over Richmond Georgia by 13 over * Alabama •Rutgers by 13 over Brown •Willamette by 13 over Lewis & Clark Penn State by 14 over ‘Colgate •Harvard by 14 over Holy Cross •Princeton by 14 over Virginia Mich. State by 14 over OSC Vanderbilt by 14 over ‘Auburn Mississippi by 14 over *LSU V-Ball Schedule Twelve intramural volley ball “B” teams will fight it out this af ternoon, as the 1948 V-ball season races into its fifth day of compe tition. Today’s Schedule 3:50 Sigma Nu B vs. Kappa Sigma B Hunter hall B vs. Phi Delta Theta B Delta Upsilon B vs. SAE B Stitzer B vs. Fiji B Beta Theta Pi B vs. Phi Sigma Kap pa B Sigma Chi B vs. Stan Bay B ♦Wichita by 14 over Tulsa Geo. Tech by 16 over *Duke Kentucky by 19 over ‘Cincinnati Santa Clara by 19 over *USF ♦Lafayette by 20 over Geo. Wash* (Please turn to page seven) Ice Skating TONIGHT—8 P.M. Special Price to University of Oregon Students (40c) SESSIONS: Nightly—8 P.M. —also— Sat. & Sun Matinees— 2:30 P. M. • Skates Sharpened • Rental Skates • Coffee Shop Eugene Ice Arena 1850 W. 6th v Phone 4957 Ralph Newman tor MAYOR “Born and educated in Eugene—A successful business man for Mayor’’ ‘A closer relationship between the University and the City” Pd. Adv. by A1 Lenhart, Chm. Newman for Mayor Com.