The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-10
Talking
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Nov. 10.-Tim Mara
4 Y who runs New York's profess
Aonal football team called. Come
on up to Sing Sing with me and
watch the jail birds play football.
Houu get some laughs"
It's beautiful ride at this time OF the
year. up Riverside drive. along the
cleaning Hudson. through rolling West
chester ablaze with a riotous pigmenta-
ton.
After an hour or SO your car rolls into
the sonorous little town Of Ossining and
from the top Of a steep. slsnting street
you get your FIRST glimpse Of the cd
prison with its sprawling brick barbados
and gray frowning cell blocks.
Il haven't seen these guys play my
self.' said Mara but my men say they're
hot stuff"
Some Of Mara's men were on the rec
reation field when we arrived, including
the celebrated Red eagle who had scared
to all-America fame as a Soldier half
back at West Point. Just a few miles 10
the river.
eagle and the rest of Maras men were
putting the two Sing Sing teams through
their PAGES. showing them how to block
ana tackle. pass and kick.
One Of the teams was made up OF
whites the other Of blacks. After spell
the two teams lined I'D to scrimmage.
The blacks kicked off to the whites. A
tall ranRy fellow called Mac" caught the
ball and started awkwardly up the neld.
He hadn't gone more than fifteen Yards
when he was clipped and buried under
terrific downpour Of blacks The opera
ton on both sides had been marked by
great ardor and intensity.
What did tell YOU" nudRed Mara.
Well to tell the truth I had come up
for laughs but there was something about
the youthfulness and cleanliness of these
men that was incredible. This couldn't be
Sing Sing the notorious American prisonl
These couldn't be criminalsl
one Of che linesmen on the whites was
& boyish looking youngster. not more than
%. visitor had called to see him and
he hadn't had time to change to one OF
the football uniforms donated to the well
fare department by Mara. The gray cap.
spotless white shirt and neatly pressed
gray trousers emphasized his youthfulness.
THAT kid out there-you don't mean to
say he's q criminal. too. do your" I
asked.
Doing ten-year Bit Got three to
60" drawled a guard.
Il
CTANDING around, looking and
- listening, you learn that the
team is made up OF all types Of law
breakers, from first-termers held for
minor infractions to killers, who
somehow managed to miss the chair
and gain instead an aimlesS life be-
tween leering walls.
That's what's wrong with the system"
observed the same guard dryly Tossing
these kids in there with them tough guys.
II they amt real criminals when they
get here. they amt far from 1t when they
leave"
system was inhuman. idiotic and out
rageous and began to pen mental let
ter of protest to my congressman When
shrill cry Of glee swept over the prison
LOOK at AIabam' go!" shouted the I'M
dergraduates on the side lines.
Aabam' happens to be the captain ana
duped the opposition by calling for q for,
ward-lateral. taking the ball himself ana
ealoping sixty wards for touchdown
Runs like he's trying to get ava, away VI from
Keep it up Alabam'" ch1rped another
"and the Pee-Kay will put YOU on his
The Pee-Kav is prison argot for prison
keeper in this instance large. portly.
kindly looking gentleman whose duties,
among other things consist of leading con-
Been men ou6 to or xeny geaTs
The good naturedness of the men and
the genuine fun they got out OF playing
football and watching II n payea S8ep aDy
rate these men hadn't forgot how to
laugh.