Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1926, Page 46

SP ORTS. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1926. SPORTS. Foot Ball Has Made Great Strides in South, Says McGugin, Vanderbilt Coach ABOUT AS GOOD AS BEST "IN COUNTRY, HE ASSERTS Declares Game Not Only Has Reached a High Point Technically, But That Sportsmanship Now Makes It a Real Pleasure. BY H. C. BYRD. | Toot ball is on the highest plane it has ever known in the South, accord- 4ng to Dan McGugin, head coach at Nanderbiit Univers who is in “Washington for a few days. There is | no phase of the gridiron sport in| which in the last few years v provement has not hesn shown. and | in McGugin's opinion foot ball i South is only a hair's breadth behind the best foot ball in the whole coun- | try. “I have been more than pleased to | watch the growth of foot ball in the | South,” sald McGugin, “and to one who has been coaching in the South %0 long as I have the difference I»\—" tween foot ball as It used to be and what it now is can hardly be grasped. espectally by one who has not seen the transformation take plad “From a technical viewpoint the game has changed almost entirely. Fifficlent coaching systems have re- placed haphazard development, and &s a consequence the teams today are much stronger than they were a few | years hack. Not only has the coach-| ing in the colleges been developed con- siderably, but the players that come to the colleges and universities in the South now have had high sthool ex- perience, whereas just a few years #g0 a high school or prep school foot bail team was almost unheard of. And usually the game was in such disre- pute that most parente did not want thejr sons to play. “Another notable factor in the ad- vancement of foot ball in the South is in the spirit of competition as evi- dencedl now in games compared to spirit of some years ago. Then s o case of suspicion and dis- while now it is a case of open and confidence. A gathering a1 conches, cuch us we had in Jack- sonville a few days ago, is @ - ing of friends, and friendl les are discussed with perfect freedom and without theught of offense. “Foot ball today in the South is as far different from the foot ball of 20 years ago as golf from the golf of that time. It really is a pleasure to be connected with the game and it is one ‘of the few things which 1 derive a lot of genuine faction. And I'm not so certain. looking back as 1 sometimes do, that foot ball 20 vears ago was much pleasure to those engaged in coaching. “We have good teams in the South and more’ and more often do our teams go to other stions and get scross brilliant victor T re victories of Southern Sorthern and Middle Western . Vanderbilt beat Minnesota, Albama last year trimmed Washing- ton on the West coast, Georgia Tech | got his foot ball experience, and he | {ite game with Navy. at Chicago, in defeated Penh State, Maryland this year won from Yale, and our teams are going to continue to win such victories with ever-increasing fre- quenc; McGugin not_only is head coach of foot ball at Vanderbilt but also is athletic director. In addition to that, he is head of a law firm in Nashville, where Vanderbilt is located, and is | now in Wahington on business for his firm. It was at Michigan that McGugin was a member of the famous “point. a-minute” teams that Yost turned out. | He was one of the greatest linemen | the Western Conference ever turned | out. perhaps the greatest. And today | MecGugin is on of the bgst liked men | in foot ball. He is a man of splendid personality, the kind of man that every university likes to have at the head of its athletics but seldom finds. =3 Not only is the shift play coming in® for considerable criticism, but it seems that two or three schools that have used it almost ing of dofng away with it Especially is this frue of West Vir. ginia. Coach Rodgers of that school thinks his team was penalized so much last Fall that he would do well to abolish the shift and use the get- set style of play. No doubt that the shift pl is cost- ing teams dearly at times. Take the Army, for instance. At one time in one series of four downs the Army lost about 40 yards. On the first line- up. first down, 10 yards to go, the Army was, penalized 5 yards. On the next play Harry Wilson ran 25 yards, but the ball was-brought back and a 5-yard penalty inflicted. And then on the next two attempts to get off-plays Army was penalized 10 yards. This situation developed in the third quar- ter, and had Army been able to avail itself of the 25-vard gain made by Wilson instead of having that gain nullified and 10 additional yards sub- tracted in penalties, Army might have won, hecause, from the center of the fleld it could have Kkicked the ball down into Navy territory and pos- sbly kept it there. Instead of that it kicked the ball out to the 33-yard line from its own 10-yard mari It is probable that the State of Vir- ginia produced four as good tackles during the past foot ball season as ever have played in that State in the same year. They are Holt of Wash- ington and Lee, possibly the best; Miles of Virginia Polvtechnic Insti- tute, and Luke and Cardwell of Vir- ginia. Incidentally, Luke and Card: well were just about as goodsa pair of tackles as were to be found on any eleven in the whole South. MANY SCORES . ON INTERCEPTED PASSES Strangely, However, Only a Few of Such Feats Have Decided Games—Buckowy of Marines Makes Record Dash of 100 Yards. DAVIS, der. BY PARKE H. Foot Bail's National Rec URIOUSLY, more scoring long runs—that is, runs exceed- | ing 50 yards—this Fall have | urred with intercepted | passes than have taken place | a ball obtained regularly in | mmage. But still more curiously, | very few of these scores affected the ult of the game. In other words, | the statistician will hunt long and in vain this Fall to find games won by intercepted passes. The deduction is that it is more than dangerous to throw a forward pass nea ur own goal line, but that it also is highly difficult for the interceptor to get past all opponents with his prize he hunt for the player making the longest scoring run in this manner brings us face to with the player making the longest scoring run in any manner, and that is a perfect | flight of full 100 vards. The plaver « Joln Buckowy of the Quantico Ma- | vines, who, November 13, in a game | with Detroit intercepted a pass just | < the ball was crossing his goal line, | and with his prize sped 100 yards for | a touchdown. Roberts Is Close Second. Only two vards, however, separate this performance from its nearest competitors. Arthur Roberts of the New York University eleven captured a Niagara pass on h vard line and | raced through all adversaries to a | touchdown, and Snyder of Furman | duplicated ' the performance agail Georgla Clo following Thomas Work of caught an Occidental pass on his five- vard line and ran for a touchdown. Furman again flashes at the top of the ! list of scoring runs with intercepted \sses by presenting a dash of 90 ards by Fred Rawl against North! Cavolina. And now come two Eastern players ! to otcupy the $3-vard rank. Willam | Madden of Columbia covered this! ance with an_intercepted | t Union. and David Love Delaware paralleled the nt aguinst Swarthmore. American University put forth its first foot ball team this Fall, and that cleven has accredited itself gloriously. Thus we find Elmer Elliott of that| team presenting a run of 80 yards with an intercepted pass against Bridgewater. Walter Parker of Am-| herst can look back upon the season with pride, for in the game With Princeton he caught 3 Tiger pass on | his 25-yard line and ran through the pack for a touchdown. So, too, did nley of Morehouse against Clark, 1d his touchdown won the game. 1 Six conspicuous players have reeled | off 0-yard runs with intercepted passes this Fall. Bert Nason of Law-; rence thus scored on Marquette, Wynn | of Lehigh thus crossed the Brown goal line, Glynn of Montana State so put a patch on the record of Brigham Young. Samuel Drais of Holy Cross likewise chalked up six points against Fordham, Bunting of Loyola thus cleft the great Navy team from An- napolis, and Brown of Missouri scored on West Virginia. % Three plavers guard the 65-yard scoring rank in this class. Denny Hart of Washington and Jefferson t | | these leaders i Stanford. who == IGNITION TROUBLE? WE_REPAIR ALL MAKES CREEL BROS. 183.17 14th St. N.W. Potomac 473 Rehegenting 48 Leading Mfrs. of Auto HeSion! Fguipment and Motor Parts | Park, ARE MADE | caught a Bucknell pass on this 35- jvard line and ran the remaining dis- | tance to his opponents’ goal line. Fred Grim of Ohio State and Martin Karow of the same team in the same game covered the same distance after grab- bing Columbia passes. Four more players close the list of runs with intercepted passes 60 and more yards in length. John Roepke of Penn State caught a Lebanon Val- ley pass and ran 68 vards for a touch- down. Stein Griggs accomplished the especially difficult feat of scoring on Lafayette this Fall by intercepting a pass on his 40-yard line and running to the goal. Edward Mowrison of West Virginia did the same against Georgetown, and Perry Whitlock of Washington and Lee ends the list with a similar flight through Kentucky, scoring a touch- down which was doubly prized be- cause it created the score that won the game. MARYLAND LACROSSE TEAM HAS 10 GAMES University of Maryland will play many of the leading lacrosse teams in the country next Spring in the 10- game list that has been arranged by Prof. R. V. Truitt, faculty advisor and coach. Princeton, Harvard and New York University, high-ranking combinations, will be among those to visit College while Hopkins and Syracuse, Nos. 1 and 2 in the country last sea- son, and Army, will be met away. Maryland, rated fourth in the 1926 national list, Navy being third, should | have another. good team, although it | lost some of its best defense nfen. The_ schedul April 2—New York U College Park. April 9—Army at West Point. April 16—Lafayette at College Park (tentative). April 23—Virginia at College Park. April 25—Harvard at College Park. iversity at |WITTSTATT'S R & F. WKS. I am glad to say the non-scouting agreement _between Princeton and Yale worked very well indeed. I think this agreement is a step in the right direction and 1 hope before long all the college coaches in the country will agree among themselves not to scout each other. “Tad” Jones, one of the finest sportsmen 1 ever have met, really is responsible for the adoption of the non-scouting agreement be- tween Princeton jand Yale. Early | in the Fall the head of the Yale athletic committee wrote to the chair- man of the Prince- ton board of con- trol stating that Jones was very anxious to do away with scout- ing and he was writing to ascertaln how Princeton would feel about taking the same ac- tion. It appealed to me as a_ bully idea, and Jones and I got together in New York and informally discussed the matter. We both felt that the im- portance of scouting was overempha- sized, S0 we agreed that no one con- nected with Princeton would watch the Yale team and no one connect- ed with Yale would watch the Prince- ton team. We then had to consider the case of where some old playe, or alumnus, or even a person interested in_either team, would happen to see Yale or Princton play and after the game sit down and write about the play to some coach or player. In the past I admit I have gotten a great many such letters, some full of suggestions and others diagraming a certain Yale play or series of plays. Jones said he would guarantee that it any of the Yale coaches received such Information, they would not say anything about it to any one, and I as- sumed the same responsibility for my Princeton assoclates. We also agreed to tell the members of .the respective squads to pay no attention to any let- ters they would receive about either team’s play and to hand over any such letters as soon as they were received. Jones jokingly remarked that it would | be impossible to ask the postal author- | ities not to deliver any letters of such | a character, and in this I acquiesced. Under all ‘the circumstances it seem- | ed best to give this agreement as much publicity as possible, so we | drew up a short memorandum em- bodying our ideas, which was given to the press the following day. Cites Amusing Incident. i There was one rather amusing inci- | dent that followed on the heels of our | meeting in New York. I had hardly | reached Princteon when I received a long-distance call from New Haven from “Tad” Jones. He said he had been trying to get me for the past few hours, because when he had got- ten back he learned that one of the Yale coaches, not knowing of our non- scouting agreement, had left for |Princeton to attend the Princeton- Amherst game. Tad said, “I tried to s{ob him, but it wasimpossible tg lo- cate him In New York, so I have done the next best thing by appointing an officlal Princeton scout for our game against Boston College.” Frank Ber- gen, a successful lawyer and an old Princeton quarterback, lives in New Haven. As soon as Jones heard that a Yale coach would see Princeton play Amherst he hunted up Bergen and asked him to act as official Prince- ton scout at the Yale game. This is just to give an indication of “Tad” Jones' fairness and sportsman ship. Our scouting agreement offi cially went into effect after the first | game, though I didn't take the trouble | t9 bother Bergen to make a report on Yale's play against Boston College, and I doubt if Jones made any in. quirles about our own play in the Am- herst game. I am glad to say this Fall was the | first one in my coaching experience that not a single Princeton supporter made any effort to directly or indi- rectly give me any Information as to Yale’s play. Our alumni to a man felt the ‘non-scouting agreement a | step in the right direction and every one scrupulously lived up to the letter and spirit of the agreement. I know Yale can feel the same way and acted the same way. Plenty of T BiLL ROPER My 25 Years on the Gridiron BY WILLIAM A. ROPER, HEAD COACH PRINCETON UNIVERSITY XII—How Yale-Princeton Non-Scouting Plan Worked half learned because they were not tried in the preliminary, games. If a scout is sent to*watch an op- ponent play, when should he draw the line on what ‘is legitimate and what is not legitimate? . If it is the part of good sportsmanship to bring back the formations, why not the sig- nals? The line between legitimate scouting and spying is a very narrow one. Foot ball is too fine a game to permit of such tactics. (®pyright. 1926.) COMMITTEES NAMED BY SOCCER CIRCUIT An entertainment and publicity com- mittee, headed by President William Birch, was named at a Washington Soccer League executive session last night. John Hall of the Marlboro team was suspended for two weeks, beginning last Sunday, because of a disagreement with a member of the Concord team two weeks ago. League games carded for Sunday are: SECTION 1 . Mon 5. British Uniteds, Monument lot No. 1, b.m. Fort | Myer vs serves. WaMhingto Gerinan-Amer: Monument lot German-American Re- arr: .m. Heserves ve. Walfords, 0. 2. 1 p.m. SECTION Army Medical Center vs. Rockville, Walter m. vs. Marlboro, Rosedale, 2:30 m. P Béncords vs, Clan MacLennan, Monument 2:30 p.m. lot No. 2. TECH TO PLAY CIi‘Y. Tech High will again meet Balti- more City College in the latter’s open- ing gridiron game in 1927, according to City’s schedule announced yester- The tilt will be at Baltimore, ber 30. Princeton men saw Yale play _the Army and I have no doubt there! were some Yale supporters at the| Princeton-Harvard game. Those who | saw either team play enjoyed the | game and went about their business. | I know the players approved of the idea and I also am certain they en- joyed playing in the Yale game and being on thelr own initiative. Players Taught to Think. Foot ball teaches those who play it to think, and, in my opinion, scouting deadens the players’ initiative more than anything else in the whole game. In former years we thought more about outwitting the Yale and Har- vard scouts than in winning our early season contests. We often would go into a game and change our entire defense from what we intended to use in the final games of the year. Good plays were kept under cover and only RADIATORS, FENDERS BODIES MADE AND R| RED N R ADIATORS FOH AUTOS 319 13th N.W. 1423 P. REAR. TROUSERS April 30—Syracuse fi‘ Syracuse. May 1—Colgate at Hamilton. May “—Princeton at College Park. May 14—Stevens at Hoboken. May 21—Johns Hopkins at Balti- more. An Ideal Gift SixSmmVanHennnColhninnchmningafig. mas Box— what finer gift could you find for $3. 12 Smart Styles—S50c each. PHILLIPS-JONES, NEW YORK HEUSEN e VAN the World's IEISEMAN’S, 7th & F To Match Your Odd Coats Collar Right on the counter/ light in the Best Condition Right in Tobacco - Right in Price POPPER'S EIGHT 8 CENTER E. Popper & Co., Inc., M HILE Central, like Eastern, which it tied for the public high school basket ball title last Winter, has suf- fered heavily through grad- uations, the Blue and White can by no means be counted out of the pic- ture so far as its chances for the crown in the court series starting next month are concerned. A some- what light but fast and smart com- bination probably will represent the Blue and White. Coach Burt Coggins ‘has lost such sparkling performers as Earl Dunn, Earl Moser, Mickey McDonald and Bill Banta, but has at hand, in ad- dition to Capt. Swift, the lone real regular left from last Winter's team, and Crouch who saw service in the final two games of the last series, a group containing a number of tossers of tried worth and others who while inexperienced show a deal of promise. Besides Captain Swift, a guard, and Crouch, who has played both as a { forward and guard, boys Coach Cog- "l.'lns has at hand are Sam Tash, Ben Burch and Cy Yingling, centers; Pete Nee, Forrest Burgess, Duvall Lemon and Paul Hoddinot, forwards, and John Thacker and Bill Simmons, guards. In tilts played against St. Mary’s Celtics and St. John’s, both won by the Blue and White, just about every aspirant has been given opportunity to show his mettle under fire, and many have revealed ability. The Blue and White's next game is with Maryland School for the Deaf on Saturday at Frederick. Business High, which recently van- quished Strayer’s Business College five, was to engage American Uni- versity scrubs and Eastern was to face Emerson in practice games this afternoon Two engagements are 1347 Penna. Ave., N.W. NEW CENTRAL HIGH FIVE TO ENTER SCHOOL SERIES, Basket Ball Team Rebuilt by Coach Coggins Light, But Fast and Smart—Preps Will Reorganize Court League for Lightweights. T ~ 7 carded tomorrow afternoon for the local schoolboy fives, Coach Jerry Parker's Woodward School of the . M. C. A. Is to mix it with Tech basketers in the latter's first engage- ment on the Y floor, and Eastern is to tackle St. John's in the Saints’ gym. Preparation for the basket ball sea- son will be started within a few days by Devitt Preparatory School squad. Herb Kopf, assistant Georgetown grid- fron mentor, will coach the West End schoolboys, who are looking about for a gym they may use regularly. St. Alban’s School basketers will open their season January 14, when they will have as guests in their gym Emerson’s quint. Other dates ar- ranged for St. Alban's are: January 22, McDonough of Balti- more, at home; 27, Central, at St. Al- ban's. February 5, Shenandoah Valley, at Shenandoah, Va.. 15, Donaldson of Balttmore, at home; 22, Forest Park of Baltimore, at home; 25, Boys’ Latin of Baltimore. Engagements also are pending with Dunham and Friends, both of Balti- more. Regulars from last Winter's five at hand at St. Alban's are Hunt and Woodruff Weaver. Francis, Bowles and G. Fletcher are among .nore promising new aspirants. 1t is announced that the local juniot preparatory school basket ball league this year will comprise 135-pound teams instead of 130-pound fives. Friends, Episcopal High of Alexan- dria; Devitt Preparatory, Woodward, Western and Central “lights” are to make up the circuit, a schedule for which now is being completed. Jerry Parker, coach of the Woodward School basket ball team, organized the league two years ago and it was a success from the outset. Only three regulars of the St. Al ban’s foot ball team will be missing when another season arrives. They are Woodruff Weaver, fullback, and Ashworth, and Francis, linemen. George Mletcher, quarterback, has been named 1927 captain. These four have been awarded letters, as have Bowles, Hunt, C. Fletcher, Smith, Sa- bin, Manning and Kergam. When Eastern High's foot ball squad_takes the gridiron next Fall virtually the entire backfleld of the past season will be missing. Capt. Buck O'Brien, looked upon as the best defensive player in the recent public high series, and_Sap Allman, Bert Langhenry and Wilson Zambreney, sturdy performers, all are slated to be graduated. The line will be virtually FRESHMEN TROUNCE G. U. SOPH GRIDMEN Bruised limbs and sundry and va- ried aches meant little to Georgetown University freshmen today as they glanced back over vesterday's fresh- man-sophomore foot ball game and re- called their 13-to-6 victory over the second-year men, which brought them the right to discard their skull caps. Turner and Provincial yesterday led the freshman attack on a snow- covered field that nullified the line- plunging of both teams and forced them to depend largely upon aerial heaves to gain ground. = As soon as the frosh had made sure of their victory they kindled a fire in midfield and cast thereon the skull caps which have been their badge of servitude since September. QUINT WINS, 168 TO 0, IN CONTEST IN LEAGUE | DES MOINES, Iowa, December 9 (#).—Eighty-one baskets and six free throws, for a total of 168 points, were scored last night in a game in the city amateur league. The Old Pal quintet ran up the big score over the Combat Train five of Fort Des Moines, which failed to get a single tall anufacturers, Daniel Loughran Co., Washington Distributors Phone Main 391. ELEVENS PREPARING FOR SUNDAY GAMES Mohawks, defending champions. and Apaches are driving for their game next Sunday afternoon at Clark Grifith stadium that is expected to settle city sandlot gridiron supremacy ‘Waverly gridmen, who have split even with Mohawks in two encount ers this year is planning intensive preparation for the ‘“rubber” game with Indians, on December 19. In a game to be played next Sun day morning to permit players to see the Apache-Mohawk game Northern and Renroc elevens, front-rank con tenders for the 150-pound gonfalon will clash at Washington Barracks. Both will be strengthened. Coach Charley Guyon of Eastern High has been picked to referee the game between Wintons, winners of the Capital City League pound series, and Clarendon Lyons, claim ants to the Northern Virginia title that {e set for next Sunday at Lyon Village field. Stantons, who have mnot played since losing to Mohawks, are work ing hard in preparation for their test with Kenilworth on Sunday at Seat Pleasant. Anacostia Eagle Preps are after a foot ball game for Sunday morning at Fairlawn fleld, with a 115-120-pound eleven. Call Manager Acton at Lin coln 3133. Two neighborhood rivals will clash Sunday, when Cardinal and Monroe elevens meet at Tidal Basin field, at 1 o'clock. g NEAL CHOSEN CAPTAIN. WESTMINSTER, Md., December % Orville (Slippery) Neal, halfback, will captain the Western Maryland foot ball eleven next season. NAVY QUINT WINKEE. ANNAPOLIS, December 9.-— Navy opened its Winter sports season when it defeated Western Maryland College in the opening basket ball game. 30 to 15. Navy used 11 players. i ITS ALL RIGHT = k]