Evening star., 1930-12-15
NO NAVY WEAKNESS SEEN
AS AN ARMY BATTLE BAR
Quality of MILDLY Players Indicates Overemphass
of Advantage West Point May Get From More
Liberal Foot Ball Eligibility Code.

Of sport win be restored. III feeling,
the writer believes, has subsided.
Saturdays game showed this.
Nothing could have been finer than
the action Of the Navy players the
instant the final whistle blew in seizing
the hands and patting the backs of
their rivals unless 1t was the cordiality
OF the Army men In meeting this Spon-
taneous good fellowship, which was
wholesome and hawleSs.
Navy Not Outclassed.
This game can be played and should
be played every year. IF Saturdays
game demonstrated one thing it was
the Navy players are not outclaSSed by
West Point, differ the rules of eligibility
as they may.
The fact is that the Navy now-and
always has-drawn superior secondary
school material, just as the enlisted force
draws superior type Of youth for the
nant appeal to the imagination Of boys
throughout the country.
Again the Naval Academy has hun
dreds more students than West Point.
The writer feels that had the Navy
played the Army in 1928 and 1929 she
would have at least broken even in
these two games despite diverging
eligibility rules.
Why cannot the Navy try out the
matter, playing the Army on terms that
now exist. Many competent judges of
foot ball are convinced she would win
as many games as she would lose, bas-
ing judgment chiefly upon the fact that
the Navy is in a better position to grad
uate the severity Of her games than the
Army.
In any case were the Navy to be out
claSsed, which she never yet has been,
the unfairneSs of competition would
clearly be recognized by the public,
whereupon inequalities would speedily
be adjusted.
If it is asserted that in meeting the
Army under existing conditions the Navy
would stand as going back on her prin-
ciples, answer might be made that such
charge would be vailed only If she re-
scinded her own eligibility standards.
Yale, Harvard and other colleges,
whose rules differ from those of Army,
play the Cadets with no feeling that
they have done violence to their own
code. The main thing Is to restore a
fine and brave and wholesome rivalry
and then work to final understanding
upon the basis Of results.
Fine Defense Seen.
Saturdays game revealed splendid
fundamental training Of both elevens,
showed in both by superb defensive
technic. Navy had a forward pass Of
Tense beautifully conceived, which but
for consistent overthrowing Of the ball
and in another case the failure by inches
OF an end to get to his assigned posi-
ton on Q left-handed, goal line pass,
might well have won or at least tied the
contest.
Army's record Of first downs was sig
nal evidence Of the merit Of her attack,
and the short-side play from single-wing
back, which resulted in a touchdown,
was superbly done.
In this case the line blocking gave
Stecker his chance, while his speed and
head work stood him in stead once he
had got into the secondary and terri
tory zones.
Maj: Ralph Sasse, the head coach at
West Point, has In his very first year
displayed high coaching ability, and his
greatest feat, the writer thinks, was In
fusing his men with spirit as keen and
indomitable as that which inspired the
Navy underdog. It is hard to pep up
heavy favorfte.