The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-10-31

ments. l could understand them. /
mean the headwork.
Yes, there was drama for you.
Craftiness, cunning, sagacity, split
second thinking. Ability to diagnose
the strategy of the other fellow on
the spur of the moment and devise
impromptu ways and means of beat
ing him at his own game. When it
came to using the old bean, the Phi
Beta Kappa bows weren't even in the
money with the toters of the pig
skin.
Stuhldreher, quarterback par ex-
cellence, generalissimo Of those fam
Gus -Four Horsemen" of Notre Dame
and now head coach at Villanoya, is
only one case in point. Such super
human feats of gridiron intelligence
as he displayed were just too I'M
canny. They were too weird, mys-
ferrous, unearthly. They were beyond
the realm of human possibility.
Which, by the bye, is exactly what
they were.
Let's take this very Stuhldreher
It mattered not one whit how hot
the excitement or how thick the bat
tie. He was always doing exactly the
correct thing at any given moment.
A game wasn't two minutes old be-
fore 1t became apparent to that small
minority in the stands who knew
what it was all about that he knew
each opponent and that he was shap-
ing the strategy and tactics of his
own club accordingly. Rockne once
credited him with ability to Read
through another teams strategy
without a key to the CODE" When,
one Saturday afternoon in 1924, the
Army ends were playing smashing
came against the Fighting Irish, Old
Stud stood them on their heads by
sending Crowley and Miller out wide
around the Cadets TANKS. On the
other hand, when Princeton's tackles
and ends on the following week
played an opposite type of game and
went in straight, this clever head re-
versed his tactics completely and
sent Layden, Crowley and Miller
straight ahead through the Tigers
thinned-out line. Smart guy, huh?
OUCH men simply weren't In the
" same category as we frail mortals.
At least so thought until I began
to get around. But fourteen years
OF knocking about as a high school
and college player and then as an
assistant and later head coach soon
taught me that there is no Santa
Claus. 1t was sad shock and a rude
awakening when early in this career
it suddenly dawned upon me that
this sport Of which I was so genuine
ly fond was packed to the brinl with
the Shiny stencil of stool pigeons and
spies. Just another one Of those
things--tough but true.
Oh no, that's not what they're
called in the profession" Imagine
anything so coarse in the sedate and
stately atmosphere of the collegiate
world! The term Scout" is so much
more dignified and exalting.
TALL 1t what you will, the inner
v circle of every football staff has
0SsoSAACN w ~ q odue1Q VI VI uoO-
worthy" and competent football men
who are the Pinkertons, and the Will
liam J. Burnses of the aggregation.
These palookas crawl about each
week to watch future opponents in
action and to bring back the details
of their offensive and defensive styles
OF play. Every link in their rivals
machine is analysed and studied in
search for weak spots. Accurate
diagrams must be brought back of
every play the team uses.
The big shots in the Grade A cir
cults even carry the thing to the
extreme Of assigning some scout to
watch a single future rival in every
game played prior to their own con-
test. Preceding the Fordham- Alabama
game last Saturday, for example,
Earl Walsh, Fordham sleuth, had
secuted Alabama in every game it
played this year.