The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-01-17
COLLEGE COACHES
ARE OUT AGAINST
PROFESSIONAL BALL
by FRANK g. MENKE

It's happened!
The college football coaches have
come right out in opposition to profess
sional football!
They just couldn't stand the sight
longer of their students going out,
after the college days were done, and
earning as much for playing dozen
games as the coaches get for a whole
season of coaching
And so they've all gone on record
as being fearfully and unalterably OPP
posed to professional football, while
the Western Conference radicals have
proceeded so far that they've re-
solved along these lines:
Any member of a conference col
lege team who plays professional foot
ball before graduation day will lose
his varsity letter; and, furthermore,
any football official who acts in such
capacity for professional football
games will be barred from officiating
hereafter in conference games
Can you beat it?
killineer's Case
Consider merely the case of Charlie
Killinger, whose college, fortunately,
is not listed with the Western Confer
ence, as a sample of the injustice that
such a rule would provoke.
Killinger. as quarterback for Penn
State, established himself as one Of
the greatest players of all time.
When States last game had been
played in the seoson of 1921, all that
he ever could do actively for Penn
State had been done. The boy had
put his heart and soul into the task of
Il fpor
and he succeeded. He brought to Penn
State more laurels than the college has
ever gathered together in one season
of play.
Soon after the college season was
over. Killinger. who graduates in June,
got an offer to play with pro" team
The exact sum involved is not public
property, but it was said to be 1000
Killinger accepted, played the game
and got his $1,000, or whatever it was
Was there anything wrong in that?
Was 1t Worse7
Was it any worse for Killinger to
sell his football brains and football
power than it would have been for him
10 sell his services in temporary ca
pacity as civil engineer, or a chem
ist. or a mechanic?
Would il be any more heinous for
DO Mcmillan, of Center, to accept
an offer of $4,000 to play pro" foot
ball next fall than TO accept an offer
of $4,000 to coach a Texas college
next year?
When Charlie Brickley finished at
Harvard and became coach of a foot
ball squad for $4,000 or so annually
Notwithstanding the narrow mind
ed coaches-said it was all right. But
when Cholly formed a pro" football
eleven and began playing the pro"
game himself the coaches shuddered in
horror.
Is it any worse for a collegian to play
professional football after his college
days are over and garner from $4,000
to $1,000 annually than it is for him to
become college coach and perform
more work for a lesser sum of money?
What's the real difference?
What About It?
Is there any logical person in the
world that will prove it's a fair rule
to deprive a collegian of his letter.
earned thousand times and over
simply because he earned a few hun
dred dollars by playing pro" football
at a time when he could play no
more for his college?
Quite few of our noble coaches
perhaps will shrek in wounded pride
if it were intimated that they prob
ably are opposing pro" football be-
cause they hate the thought of their
students going out and making more
money in one season than they can
make in two or three years as coaches
But perhaps such an accusation would
not be very far from the truth.
No definite reason for opposition to
professional football has been given
by the "holier-than-thou coaches, be-
yond the one that some day pro
football might become croowed. Along
the same line of reasoning, no man
should be appointed secretary of the
United States treasury because some
day he might become dishonest and
walk away with few trillion dollars
Why don't the coaches wait until
pro football is of proven dishonesty
before they start to condemn It'll
the fear of possible dishonesty is the
only motive that prompts the frowns
they now cast upon the pro pastime'
Copyright 1921 by King Features
Syndicate, Incl