The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-26
TALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

NEW YORK, Nov. 26.-Major
IN Ralph Sasse led his last foot
ball Army in review before the big
town up at the stadium today when
the West Pointers went into hand
to hand conflict against More Dame
Like most of his varsity men, the
youthful major is through with
football after the current season ex-
pires, and like his men who are
leaving athletics behind, he turns
again to the business of soldering
as a profession.
Football historians may find it difficult
properly to appraise the coaching ability
of the major. Football historians always
experience this difficulty in dealing with
Army coaches. They come and 60 with
great frequency. Generally the limit is
four, years.
establish class or the lack of it and maybe
YOU are right Still the Pop Warmers the
Howard Joneses and the Knute Rocknes
required much longer stretch CHR the me
years.
To what heights would these legends
have scared If the warmers, the JoneSes
and the Rocknes had been restricted to
four short years In which TO demonstrate
the soundness of their formulae? Rockne
was at his peak when he was killed,
Warner seems to have gone over the hill,
Jones still is very successful; :,
The fantasy I am toying with is that II
Major Sasse had decided upon coaching
as career he might easily have become
one of the great names Of the game. He
mas personality. imaginat ton, daring,
Understanding and the inspirational spark
i'm short, everything the assignment de-
I think he is the greatest coach the
Army ever had. weighing all the elements.
His teams have been beaten only four
times in three years. His material has
have been With run-of-mine timber, his
annual products have been progressively
better.
THE present Army team may not
Il be the greatest in the country
or even in the east, but by any
standard it is a first-rate outfit.
There is no way to estimate how
much improvement would be noted
in Army teams of the future if the
major remained at the Point in
charge of football. In due course,
you probably would be reading about
the wizardy of the Sasse system.
At any rate. here is the major with his
greatest team. bowling out At the height
OF his success he is through. Within a
few months he will drop from the head
lines completely submerged in that OBJ
scurity which marks the operation OF a
gigantic military machine.
And somehow, ] think that is not only
a fine thing for the major but for foot
ball. ! know 1t is fine thing for the
major because he is an ardent soldier
tionai defense And I think itsis a fine
thing for football because it helps tc
maintain the proper balance between the
game and the individual.
Perhaps I should say the institution anc
the individual. O1e of the curious truths
of football is that 1t is possible for an in
dividual in time to overShadow the I'M
versity for which he is employed.
have no quarrel with individualism but
II seems to me that it should ride on more
important matters than double wing backs
and deceptive line shifts.
So / say perhaps 1t would be a good idea
il all the universities patterned after the
Army and restricted the term of coach
ing service to four years. In that, way il
might be possible to distinguish between
the coach and the head master. At least
it would be less confusing. Or am l of
side again?
TIE majors success as coach be-
comes even more noteworthy when it /:
known that he played very little himself
NV recollection is that he didn't ever
make his letter at the Point He was
fine end coach. Succeeding Bih Jones. ht
became a finer head coach. He knew foot
ball and how to handle men. You don
need to know much more. That's pretty
fair system in itself.