Evening star., 1932-10-12
MAKES STRENUOUS
EFFORT TO RECOUP
Illinois Situation Brightens
After Three Years of
Poor Teams.
BY FRANCIS ]. POWERS.

~HICAGO, october 12.-In his
contemplative moods Bob
" Zuppke occasionally says,
"All middle aged men are
philosophers and inclined to &C
cept things as they are This
may be applied to zuppke the
artist as he sits before an easel
sketching mountain, meadow or
rushing brook, but never to the
truculent Zuppke who furiously
follows an Illinois foot ball squad
across the practice field.
Zuppke, the foot ball coach, is all en-
thusiasm and fire, his spirit undinlmed
by the three lean years that came on
the Illini. In his 20 years as head
coach at Illinois Zuppke has nodded
seven championship teams and nurner-
Gus others that were strong ChallengarS
for the Western Conference title. But
Zuppke is not a person to engage in
retrospect. The little field marshal
dwells definitely in the present and has
only one goal-the development of new
championship elevens at Illinois.
ILLINOIS will not be a championship
i contender this year, but the Indians
are certainly on their way out of the
morass that has tangled the feet of
their halfbackS for the last three sea-
sons. In the not too distant future
Zuppke can see Orange and Blue teams
than once more will be winning from
Michigan, Ohio and Northwestern. His
revived enthusiasm is apparent in his
work on the field and in the response
from the foot ball squad.
This squad looks more like an old
time Illinois bunch, Zuppke declared.
waving an arm toward the little army
Of players engaged in the preliminaries
OF practice They are leaner looking
and not so pudgy."
Bob has a horror of pudgy athletes.
1t is from the lean and hungry Casius"
type that he manufacturers stars and
winners.
s"ERANKLY, I don't know just what
/ kind of a team We will have"
continued Zuppke. Those warm
up games with Miami. Coe and Bradley
last year. but how much better I do not
know. We still are rebuilding and have
long way to go.
We have to build a line capable of
stopping these Rentners, Fays and Cra-
mers. l expect some of last years team
to show an improvement. Our sopho-
mores are showing fine interest and
spirit, but you cannot bank on them
until they are tried. When they tell
me of some freshman wonder I always
ask how many yards he has gained for
Illinois. One job is developing a center
who can pass ball fast and far enough
r n OGf hair re
away. Spirit has as much to do with
victory as physical ability, and our sue
cess will depend largely on the spirit of
the squad, which SO far has been excel
lent"
7UPPKE has had almost full month
- for experimentation before coming
up to his first Big Ten game. which
Is with Northwestern at Champaign Sat-
urday. The lineup that started against
Bradley last week likely will be the one
that faces Northwestern and other con-
ference opponents In that combina-
ton Zuppke has linemen in the back
field and forwards converted into ball
carriers
Beat Northwestern has been zuppke's
war cry all Fall. and he may pull a sur
prise on the Wildcats unless the Purple
plays a better brand of foot ball than it
did against Michigan. Illinois will
match Northwestern in weight on the
line and speed in the backfield. The
difference will be found in the advanced
development of the Wildcat ensemble.
After the Northeastern game Illinois
will tackle Michigan, Chicago, Wiscon-
sin, Indiana and Ohio State. All of
those teams plastered Illinois last year,
but zuppke insists there will be less
calcimine found on the Indians blue
Jerseys this season. Furthermore Zup
seems to mean it,