Evening Star Newspaper, October 20, 1935, Page 87

b Yl Vlagazine Section Lithograph by Benton Spruance Who's Real Hero’ The man who carries the ball gets the plaudits of the crowd— but often another player deserves the lion's , credit, says this noted football coach. Here /e describes spectacular football as seen from the inside share of THIS WEEK Around the End the by Lou LirrTLE Head Football Coach, Columbia University OLUMBIA was playing Dartmouth at Baker Field. There were perhaps seven or eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Columbia at the moment was on top by two touchdowns to one. But as you know, and as we coaches cer- tainly realized there on the windswept bench, a one-touchdown lead can be wiped out on a single play by a smart {orward-passer, a receiver who can grab that ball and a defense which is caught napping. There on the bench we had been waiting to see Dartmouth turn on its overhead game, the hope of the trailing team in the last quarter. We had not long to wait. Held momentarily just back of mid-field, Dartmouth went to the air. Sam Fishman, a smart, versatile back in Dartmouth green, faded back and threw the oval down the middle alley — exactly the kind of pass on which, with the offensive end or wingback coming in to grab it and go, you have seen so many football games won or tied in the late minutes. But a sophomore quarterback of Columbia, whose name was Cliff Montgomery, was not caught napping. With the perception that helps to make a keen back keen, he came up and intercepted the throw; then he started to- ward the sideline. To have advanced straight toward the phalanx of green ahead would have been gridiron suicide. Perhaps ten yards from the sideline, he straightened out and headed upfield. But the Dartmouth team, covering as a good team does in the case of interception, had moved over with him. Now Montgomery was in a fix. On one side, the sideline; on the other, most of the Dartmouth team, eager to make the kill. Between them, a narrow lane. On the bench I could almost hear Monty thinking. *‘My only chance,” he was saying to him- self, “is to out-run them. Perhaps I can skin through. Then I'll have only one man to worry about.” One Dartmouth back had gone over deeper than his teammates. He was at the end of this lane through which Montgomery must route himself. If the others didn’t get Mont- gomery, the lone back at the end of the lane surely must. He was in perfect position for the tackle. But better only one tackler than sev- eral. Besides, there were valuable yards to be picked up. Montgomery put on full speed ahead. In the split-seconds that followed, Mont- gomery s calculations proved correct. He could out-run the line of Green. Man after man dived and missed him. But now, a long second or so later, this lone, deep back was poised, ready for the tackle, carefully attempting to crowd Montgomery toward the sideline. The tackle seemed inevitable. But the in- evitable isn't always so in football. Just as the green-clad defender gathered himself for the lunge, he was struck by what must have seemed to him the truly “‘irresistible force” — but what actually was the power-driven body of Steve Grenda, Columbia varsity guard. It was a perfect block. The tackler was cut down. Joyously Montgomery surveyed a clear field in which no green-clad enemy lurked. Some forty yards or so away, the goal-line beckoned. Such an escape from a football trap gives a football player new legs. No one could catch Monty now. Hescampered to the touch- down that put the game beyond recall. How the Columbia stands cheered! But I recall noting that the cheers were all for Montgomery. Yes, of course — he had scored the touchdown. More than that, he had done it on a brilliant piece of open field running. He Courtesy of E. Weyhe () Acme Photo Lou Little —- Once he was a lineman himself deserved his share of plaudits on the play. But what of the other boy, the blocker, Grenda? He had made the play possible. With- out theintuition which great linemen develop, which enables them to be in the right spot at theright time; without the block which had cut down that Dartmouth tackler at precisely the right instant, Montgomery would have been tackled out there near mid-field and the touchdown would not have been scored. But no one had seemed to recognize"Grenda on the play. It's difficult to read the number on the back of a blocker who is rolling on the turf with his quarry in a jumble of arms and legs. Welinemen have tolearn to be philosophical about such things. I know. 1 was a tackle when I played varsity football at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. Perhaps you remember the name of Freder- ick “Buzz” Borries. I remember him very well. He was the flaming, elusive halfback of the Naval Academy team which last year administered to Columbia its only defeat of the season. That was one of the most spectacular games I have ever seen. The teams, keyed up to a high pitch, went into the second quarter with Columbia leading by a single point, 7 to 6. Soon after the second quarter opened, how- ever, a poor kick by Columbia and a couple of nice gains by Clark, Navy’s fullback, and the aforementioned Borries took the ball to about Columbia’s 60-yard line. Here I believed we could stop them. I still think we might have had it not been for the play I am about to describe. The play was a forward pass from Fullback Clark to Left End Dornin of Navy. Timed as nicely as those same young men ever will time the firing of a 16-inch gun from the for- ward turret of one of their own fighting dread- naughts, the pass was completed in Columbia’s right defensive halfback zone. Although fooled for an instant, the Columbia halfback, Brominski, was not caught flat-footed. Almost at the instant Domin caught the pass, Brominski drove into him with a clean tackle that was, to say the least, emphatic. But Dornin of Navy was ready in this split- second battle of checks and balances. As Brominski made his tackle, Dornin pushed the ball away in a basketball toss, laterally and *slightly backward, to “Buzz” Borries. Borries had followed the play down on the outside, according to the assignments outlined and doubtless practiced scores of times. This was a down-field lateral on the end of a forward pass, a new development of recent years which is putting gray hairs on the heads of football coaches where gray hairs never grew before. But the battle of checks and balances on this single flashing play was not over. Nevel, the Columbia fullback and defensive backer- up, a firstclass tackler, had followed Borries to the flank. Always dependable, Nevel was on the job. He was in perfect posi- tiontomakethetacklethat would end theplay. ‘There was nothing more certain in football than that Borries would be tackled without Then suddenly there flashed across the legs of Columbia’s Nevel a2 dynamic body in Navy's blue jersey and the silk pants of tan affected last season by the natty Midshipmen. (Continued on page 12)