The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-21
DESERVED FAME OFTEN
DODGES GREAT STARS
THRU TWIST OF FATE
BY JACK vEIOCK

New York, Nov 21.-Fame and op-
portunity do a lot of teaming in the
realm of sports.
Where opportunity fingers fame
hangs around, and there are instances
of it too numerous to mention
There are a few vivid examples,
however, and the case of Howard
Berry, the great Penn star, stands out
in bold relief
One of the greatest players who
ever donned moleskins, Berry has won
many laurels and much praise, but
during his football career, which Will
come to an end with the closing of
the present season, Berry has never
been a member of what could be con-
sidered a really great football team.
He has never been on a team which
galIoped off with the eastern cham
pionship.
Had Howard Berry entered Colgate,
Harvard or Pittsburg his football
career might have been thrice as
brilliant as it has been. But because
he entered Penn, which has not had
an eleven ranked with the greatest
teams of the country during his term
at the Quaker school, opportunity
passed him up and football fame that
might have been his has been denied
him.
All Around Gridiron Man.
Berry is a great aH-around grid
man. He is speedy, a great openfleld
runner, a wonderful line smasher, an
adept in handling the forward pass
and a great kicker. He was consider
/ ed the ranking fuIlback of the east by
a good many critics last season, and
the majority has favored him in every
season he has played. Yet the fortunes
of his team were against his chances
And thus it is that Howard Berry
will pass out of collegiate football
without having known the glory of
! playing on a really great team. Fate
| has not had the slightest debt against
| him. He over her nothing. What
glory he has won he has fought for
/ against adverse conditions, and it is
/ to be regretted that during his foot
ball career with the Red and Blue,
Penn could not have had a ranking
| team.
! Like Lajoie in Baseball.
! Baseball has a similar case, and,
! stra nge as it may seem, the player in
| question wound up his major league
! career in Philadelphia.
That player was Nap Lajoie. There
was never a greater second baseman
than Lajoie. He was one of the great
est felders the game has ever pro-
/ duced and his wonderful batting rec
ord is known to every follower of the
game.
Yet after more than twenty years in
| the pastime, Larry Lajoie was forced
/ 10 pass out Oh the IldJOT league es
an active player without having
played on championship club: with
out having shared in the glory OF
winning a penant or playing in a
worlds series.
Fame has not passed Lajoie up, for
he is one of the most famous of vet
eran major league stars, yet he, like
Berry, owes nothing to fate.
Then There's Les Darcy.
In the fistic realm there was a re-
cent case where a great battler passed
out, denied the opportunity thai
rightly should have been his.
When Lester Darcy died of pneu-
monia in Memphis, Fate marked fms
to a career that was in the bud. Darcy
| was refused the chance to show
I America what he could do and there
are many who still contend he died Of
a broken heart as much as anything
else. Had Darcy stayed in Australia
till the end of the war; had he en-.
listed; had he taken any other course
thai the one which led him to the
/ end of the trail all might have beer
different.
He wO,-'1 1890 ~ he alive and
Apply today had fate been just