Evening star., 1936-12-02


Z JOUR average foot ball fan still
" pounds his mitts together and
sends up shrill shout Of
Il beautiful" when the kicker
on the field gets off one of those
long, high. booming punts. the kind
of punt that hovers briefly among
the clouds and descends to find the
receiver surrounded on all sides by
enemy tacklers-but the expert Scowls
and raps his chair with his knuckles,
because that isn't scientific kind
Of punt at all.
For more than a decade now, a
man named Leroy Mills has been
preaching against the high spiraled
kick and singing the advantages OF
the low, precise end-over-ender. Mr..
Mills Is a specialist of the purest
variety. His connection with big
time foot ball is confined to the kick
ing department. He talks, sleeps and
breathes kicking. He talks it so well
and thinks and teaches it so well,
that his doctrines have come to be
known as the gospel according to
Mills
Decided Navy-"Irish" Diet.
7 WAS thinking about him at the
Navy-Notre Dame game. Notre
Danes punters were aiming the ball
at the sky, sometimes getting dis
tance and sometimes not. On the
other hand, Sneed Schmidt Of Navy
was keeping it low, pointing for chinks
in the Irish defense and the game,
as nearly as I could judge, was lost
by Notre Dame punt and won by
Q punt of Schmidt's.
You don't often get so clear-cut
an Endorsement of the gospel, accord
ing to Mills, but, in other games I've
seen this year, the low-target punter
has had a consistent edge on the man
who shoots high and for distance
not always in the statistics, but in
variably on plays which led to a score
or a break in the game.
Mr.. Mills, the gospel man, comedies
that high. booming punt is handy
weapon, if successfully executed.
When it is long enough and high
enough. and the ends and tackles are
fast getting down field. the safety man
usually is overwhelmed But the high
knicker cannot match the control
kicker (Mr. Mills phrase) for con-
eistency. He is gambling every time
u &c kan q
punt. or he may pave the way to a
damaging run-back. He never can
be sure what the wayward leather
lemon will do.
Employed as Adviser.
MR.. MILLS, the gospel man, fire.
A'A quently is employed by coaches
in the Eastern sector as special ad-
wiser to the foot ball squad. He knows
nearly every trick regulation foot
ball can perform, from the time it
meets the kicker's toe to the moment
1t reaches a full stop. His brain
teens with Typographical and geomet-
rical data. The foot ball field, in his
minds eye, is a rectangle of ground,
geometrically charted in every detail,
with allowance made for slope, angle,
roll, spin and direction in each sector.
The punter who sends one down the
middle is, in the Mills lingo, fighting
the topography" The man who aims
for the sides is reaping the advantage
of the roll or slope. which, according
to Mr.. Mills, exists on the flanks of
almost every foot ball field in the
country
If all this sounds trif1e pedantic
to you. you must remember that Mills
employs his geometrical and topo-
graphical lore simply in working out
his own theories to his own satisfac-
ton. When the time comes to trans
fer some of that knowledge to the
brain of college or high school ath-
lete, he talks simply and understand
ably-and he demonstrates.
II don't like to ask kid to do
anything I can't do" he says, so I
have to be on my toes all the time,
keeping ahead of them. When I put
the boys through session of target
practice, with flag, for instance, as
the target, I want to be able to dust
that flag as often as the best of them.
Otherwise, they're apt to say this
fellow talks a good punt. but why
don't he take some lessons from
himself?'"
Coaches Realize His Worth.
THE strange thing about Mills Is
that he never played bigtime foot
ball In his own youth. although he did
play guard and was the kicker for his
freshman team at Princeton. He de-
veloped his amazing knowledge Of
kicking, and his skill. at time Of
life when most foot ball players have
softened up for good and are pursuing
q strict martini diet. This doesn't i'm
pair his prestige with the coaches
who take his advice. Army and Co
lumbia, to name just two major foot
ball plants, have sent many Mills
instructed kicker into action in the
last few years.
The gospel man believes that the
punter should aim, not merely away
from the receiver, but at a definite
spot, where he can make the most OF
the roll of the ball clicked end-over-
end) and the trend of the game. He
looks forward to day when foot ball
will be a duel Of control-kickers. He
believes that no team has yet extracted
the maximum value from punt OF
. kickoff.
And he keeps peering into the
future. Even q guy who deals in the
relation Of pigskin to shoe leather
can have his ideals and his dreams o1
o better time to come.
(copyright. 1886. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc)