The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-11-04
/ ALKING
IT OVER
NEW YORK. 4
WITH JOE WILLIAMS


w football player of all time?
This has become a pertinent sub
iect among the animated Raccoons
on the ffty-yard line since the
145-pound Booth of Yale scared to
fame. Most of the debaters agree
on Hinkey, also of Yale who -four
ished from 1891 to 1894. The late
Walter Camp called him the great
est end of all time and there were
many who agreed with him. Hinkey
made Camps all-American team
four times in a row. I'm not sure
whether any other player was ever
so honored. In those days it was
permissible to play four years Of
varsity football.
Hinkev was about ten pounds heavier
than Booth. remarkable thing about
him is that he rose TO glory in the DAYS
when football PLAYERS were picked accord
ing TO weight and when the average 155
FOUNDER was looked on with scorn and
high contempt by the giants in moIeskins.
The old timers tell YOU that Hinkey's end
was never turned in four wears Of bristlnE
been pretty good.
A BOUT the only national COL
"a legiate football championship
that had any value at all was won
by Notre Dame in 1924. That was
the year the four horsemen, run |
ming rampant, beat Princeton, Car
negie Tech and Army in the east, /
Georgia Tech in the south, WiScon- |
sin and Northwestern in the Big Ten !
and Nebraska from the Missouri val
ley conference. Then they conquered |
Stanford on the coast. The only |
barrier that stopped them was the |
geographical boundary Of the ma
ton.
Rnute ROckne admitted his team had a |
certain amount of luck that wear. There |
uern't MANY injuries. In some miraculous
wav be managed to keep the squad emo
tionaIly KEYED IN from October until De- /
cember. ANY team that survives touch
and long -drawn-Out schedule has to be
bit lucky.
What's become Of Bruce Caldwell? /
1t was just a couple of years ago !
that they were yip-yipping and hur-
raining as furiously about him at
Yale as they are about young Booth |
today. And now you never hear OF .
him. The life of a gridiron wizard /
is built on shifting sands.
TAD JONES called Caldwell the /
il best backfcld man the Blue had
seen since Ted Coy's time and that
was covering a long stretch Of years.
Coy was crashing through the lines !
back in the days of Scarlet of Penn, |
Fish Of Harvard, Tobin of Dart /
mouth, Tibbott of Princeton, Stef- .
fen Of Chicago, Benbrook OF Mich /
igan, McGovern of Minnesota and |
Fitzpatrick of Yale. to mention a |
few of the all-American crowd OF /
twenty years ago.
II
Caldwell turned professional after leav-
ing Yale. signed t, piav an infeld posi-
ton with the Clrycland Indians and in |
the fall joined tho New York Giants |
Salaried football team. Ont of the two
ventures he made about S15.000. trading |
largely on the distinction that had come
to him as a ball carrier the Yale
varsity.
He was not much of a baseball /
player, not even a player who stood /
out in the fast minor leagues. and /
after his box office appeal had worn +
off he did not seem to fit in with T
the scheme Of professional football. /
TT Is singular fact that few OF |
Il these an-America phenomS who !
turn to professional football ever |
succeed in performing with the |
same conspicuous brilliancy that |
marked their play on the college |
grids. or rather it is singular until |
you analyze the circumstances. Most |
professional teams are made up OF /
star graduates from the college /
game and this automatically oper- |
ateS against individual dominance.
Plainly II Is reasonably simple for |
player rare ability to stand out wbsa
the field embraces few of his mold but |
when the field is full of men of like or
similar ability the matter of running wild !
is not SO easy.
This Is what made Caldwell look |
like an ordinary back in pro foot
ball 1t is what makes most of them
look that way.