Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-08
HOPING TO START
WITH GRID SEASON
Has Capable Group OF Men
at Helm and Facilities
Are of Best.
BY H. c. BYRD.

" 1t firmly belleVeS Will De
new era for 1t in intercol-
legiate athletics. In the first
place, and in many respects most
important, it is to open new
stadium, seating $4,000 persons;
in the second, it has rounded out
a group of men to manage and
coach its athletics capable Of de-
veloping good teams in all sports,
especially foot ball.
Whatever may be the results Of games
during the coming season, an air OF
optimism pervades Charlottesville and
it, environs as far as the present out
look Is concerned. This optimism Is
not based on any feeling that Virginia
should clean up the earth in the next
10 weeks, but on the simple fact that
good coaching. better material and f1ne
facilities for practice and for games are
almost certain to produce vast i'm
provement in gridiron prowess.
ERED DAWSON is the man relied on
i to bring the foot ball situation up
to the desired point. and it certainly
fully capable of doing just that At
Union College up in New York, at
Nebraska and at Denver University he
had remarkable success. and there Is no
reason to believe anything other than
that his unquestioned ability should be
just as productive at Virginia. Incident
ally. Dawson has two able assistants in
Gus Tebell. formerly head coach at
North Carolina State, and Butch
Slaughter, line coach at North Carolina
State Tebell Is Wisconsin man, while
Slaughter is from Michigan.
Virginia IS taking great pride In its
new stadium, and has every right to.
The Orange and Blue has been playing
for several years in the old Lambeth
Field Stadium, which was all right for
the time 1t was constructed, almost IS
years ago, and has not had stands to
accommodate real crowds. The new
stadium, though, should take care of
everybody that wants to see games at
Charlottesville, although 1t confidently
Is expected that capacity crowd will
attend the opening with Virginia Mill
tary Institute, october Is. The new
stadium is the gift Of Frederick w.
Scott of Richmond, Va, rector of the
university.
IT would not be a great surprise to
i see Virginia represented this Fall by
an exceptionally good eleven. Six
teen letter men are back and they
represent among them good deal OF
what might be called real foot ball
ability. Bill Thomas. halfback, is one
of the outstanding performers of the
South, having few peers in broken field
running or in general all-round play.
Frank Sippley, quarterback. made
good running mate for Thomas last
season. and between them they ac-
counted for many hundreds Of yards.
Letter backs who are out with the
squad, besides Sippley and Thomas, are
Sackett, Pinder, Myers. Bryant and
Brewer and possibly Beury. 1t is I'M
derstood there is some chance that
Beury may not return. Drissen, a
former Tech boy who played on the
Virginia Freshman team two years ago
but who was out last season, is back,
and so Is Abramson, who played half
back at Emerson. Reiss. star center, is
again on the job although he is likely
to have his work cut out for him to
hold it. as Wager, a former Bellfonte
Prep star, IS good enough to give any
body a battle for a regular berth.
De Butts. q 190-pound guard. and
Poss, q tackle, who tips the scales at
about the same figure. are the best
of the returning linemen. Rorhbaugh
q West Virginia product is eligible this
+
high rank. 1t is thought he will make
regular tackle berth and be Pose
running mate.
VIRGINIA opens its season Septem-
Y Der 10. which means that Coach
Dawson will have to get his men
in shape in a hurry. Two weeks Is
not very long to put men in condition
to play regular foot ball game, even
II that game is against a weak oppo-
nent. Roanoke College is to open Vir-
ginia's season at Charlottesville. The
first games however. will take place on
lambeth Field. as 1t is not the inten-
ton to use the new stadium until the
dedication game with Virginia Military
Institute.
Ten games in all are to be played.
Following the one with Roanoke Ran
dolph-Macon appears at Charlottesville.
then on october Virginia comes up to
play Maryland at College Park. and the
next week meets Sewanee at Charlottes-
vile. The v. NJ. I. game was set on
October Is so as not to be in conflict
with the Yorktown celebration Fol-
lowing the v. NJ I. contest, Virginia
meets consecutively Washington and
Lee at Lexington. Harvard at Cam
bridge, Columbia at New York. Virginia
Polytechnic Institute at Charlottesville
and North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
IN speaking Of the decidedly optimistic
i trend OF feeling at Virginia, it would
hardly be giving credit where O
good deal Of credit is due were Jimmie
Driver not mentioned. Driver in two
years at Virginia has completely reor-
gained the personnel, managing and
coaching the teams. has constructed
about 25 tennis courts. nsw practice
fields and a new stadium.
Driver does not deserve all the credit
for these things, 1t is true, but it is
a fact that none Of them was done be-
fore he went there. and all have been
done in the two years since he took
charge. Driver has the ability to in
terest others in his work and get them
TO do things in a big way. He made
things hum at South Carolina. just as
he has at Virginia as during his re-
gine at South Carolina he paid OF a
big debt that had accumulated. built
q new athlete field and a new field
house. Besides his general executive
and business ability, Driver is one Of
the Cost attractive personalities con-
necteE with athletics in the entire