Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-31
FOOT BALL SPIRIT
IS STIRRED EARLY
Indications Point to a Big
Year for Game-Notre
Dame St"l2 BoomS.
By H. C. BYRD.

several Gays IL mas Deen
creeping into more and more
prominent places in the news col
umns, and it will be only a little
while before it holds commanding
position. Of course, the gridiron
now is accepted pretty generally
as a source of news throughout
the entire year, and hardly at any
time is it out of the public eye.
It is at this time of year,
though, that the public generally,
and college alumni especially, be-
gin to think out loud about the
prospects of the teams in which
they are most interested; and be-
gin to compare notes.
And IL is only a short while before
real comparisons may be had, campari-
Ems that are the conjectures Of news
paper writer's, who often base their
opinions and statements on the predic-
tions of not overly optimistic coach.
However with the actual thud of thou
sands of cleated shoes against the pig
skin resounding on hundreds of grid
irons, no further evidence is needed to
indicate that real and vital competition
is Just ahead.
Dixie Starts Tomorrow.
Tomorrow Southern gridirons will
become alive with foot ball players.
Fields that have known only the almost
silent echoes of groundkeepers' voices
for months, again are to be vibrant
with the pulsing struggles of human
against human. Somewhat different,
it is true, from the savage conflicts In
which men met in arenas some two
thousand years ago, but albeit with
much of the same earnest effort and
the same wild haphazard delight and
kindred desire for victory over a con-
quered foe.
Almost every year, for many years,
some one has tried to take good hard
fling at foot ball. seemingly in an effort
TO give 1t a staggering blow. but every
year, for some fundamentally sound rea-
son. foot ball comes into its own with
ever-increasing interest for all. 1t has
its faults, without which 1t would rot
be human institution yet with all its
real faults and attributed faults, in in
Sercollegiate life and in the public eye
u seems each year to gain higher
place In the sun.
What foot ball holds in store for in
dividual colleges and universities dur
ing the coming Fall none can tell but
unless all signs are as fallible as the
many indications of rain the last few
months, generally the game should at
tain its high-water mark in public in
terest. Stadiums will be crowded for
big games and the demand for tickets
Tor many contests is greater than the
supply. But what the average alum
nus, and in great majority of cases.
somewhat strange to say, the average
!ayman who knows little about this or
that university, is interested in Is
whether or not his team can 90
through a successful season and. espe-
.clally. whip its most honored opponent.
POSSIBLY somebody NAV make q good
guess as to what will happen and
strike 1t right, but so many are the
possibilities of the modern day game
that lucky, indeed, is the person who in
september can tell what a team may
90 In October or November
Bad Guesses Likely.
But, anyway, the squads are getting
under way and people want TO know
about the possibilities of this team or
that team. And II is the business of
the newspaper men to supply the best
information they can get So in this
vein here begins series of stories
that viii 60 on until after Thanks
giving day, giving the best available,
and probably making the usual mis-
takes.
Northern squads generally do not
begin practice for q week or 10 DAYS,
but not so of the South. Tomorrow
Labor day, an appropriate time, the
players say, TO start practice, squads
from Maryland to Louisiana take the
field for their three-morth grind
Every member of the Southern Con-
ference has issued a call for practice
tomorrow morning, and the chances
are good that 95 per cent of the play
ers will be on hand. And in addition
to the larger schools making up the
Southern Conference, nearly all the
others are likely to begin Some may
let their squads report day after to-
morrow, but not many later than that.
1t is a local school, though, that has
first begun practice in this part of the
country and in the South, Catholic
University having had 10 members of
its squads at work since last Tuesday
The Brooklanders usually have been
getting on the field around the 10th
of September. but this Fall. with a
new coaching staff and new order of
things, they have decided to jump in
and begin with a rush. Other squads
are expected out by the middle of the
coming week.
Notre Dame Prevails.
The type Of foot ball in the South
should be little different from what it
was year ago. The coaching sys-
TENS generally remain the same, al
though four or five schools have made
changes. But in those schools in which
changes have been made the new sys-
TENS brought in are the same or very
similar to others now being taught in
other Southern schools. And most of
the schools that have made changes
seem to have gone TO the Notre Dame
style of play.
Roth CyatboIic TTpivarSitv and Teoroe-
town have brought in head coaches who
will teach Rocknes plays. Arthur
Bergman at the Brookland institution
and Tom Mills on the hilltop learned
their foot ball at South Bend, and as
a consequence local people are due to
watch entirely different types of play
in games in which these teams take
part.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
North Carolina State College also have
new coaches. The former has Neal,
former Western Maryland College half
back, but the " p. /. system is likely
to be only a little different, because
the style of play Neal knows Is closely
akin TO Warner foot ball, which Is
what v. P. 1. has had for six years.
North Carolina State goes to the Notre
Dame system, which North Carolina
University has been using for four
years The influence Of Gus Tebeli,
who left North Carolina State TO assist
Abel at Virginia, may be ssen in
Virginia's play, as Tebell probably will
enjoy relation to Abel more in the
nature of an associate than assistant.
nature of an associate than assistnt. At
Spring probably would come, as he has
Q very high opinion of Tebelps ability
Rockne Followers.
AIaIzspoa poTvtechnic Institute is an.