Evening star., 1937-09-11
By Bill Dismer, J.

r OCAL base ball fans waited %
years for their first world
series, but when major league
- foot ball is inaueurated in the
Capital at Griffith Stadium next
Thursday night not only the Eastern
champion but the second best team
in professional foot ball will be on the
field representing Washington.
The Redskins, they're called, this
team which includes six players who
were good enough to be voted all
Americans in college and who were
brought home by George Preston
Marshall from Boston primarily be-
cause BeantoVn didn't appreciate
them.
Washington has had professional
elevens before, but without exception
they have been comparable to base
ball teams in DID leagues. And they've
aattracted corresponding patronage.
Now, for the first time, the city has
franchise in the National Foot all
League-the big league" of modern
day professional foot ball. Accentuat-
ing the enthusiasm bound to be con-
nected with launching the new en-
terprise locally is the fact that the
Redskins have won the Eastern cham
pionship twice within the past five
seasons and were runners-up in a
third.
This year, with players like Dixie
Howell and Riley Smith of Alabama.
Wayne Millner of Notre Dame. Erny
Pinckert of Southern California, Pug
Rentner of Northwestern-all all
America college players in their under
graduate days-and a pair of stars
like Cliff Battles of West Virginia
Wesleyan and Turk Edwards of Wash
tngton State, voted the best halfback
and tackle in the National League last
season, another winning season seems
likely. Edwards. captain of the team,
also was an all-American in his senior
year at college, later being cited as
one of the two best tackles ever to
appear in the Rose Bowl
Last year all except Howell took
part in the late drive of the Redskins
which saw them, after an in-and-out
start, win their last three games to
top the Eastern division of Pittsburgh,
New York. Brooklyn and Philadelphia.
That they lost the sectional play-off
TO the Green Bay Packers, who had
won the Western championship in
competition with the Chicago Bears,
Chicago Cardinals and Detroit Lions,
was not unexpected, inasmuch as
Green Bay produced a team which
had won 10 games, lost one and tied
one. No other team in either section
lost less than games, the Redskins
themselves dropping five out of II.
All of the aforementioned teams,
with the addition of the Cleveland
Rams, again will form the two sec
tional divisions of the National League
this year. But only three of them
the Packers and Chicago's Bears and
Cardinals-have been members every
year since the league was founded by
Joe F. Carr of Columbus, Ohio in
1922. incidentally, Carr has served
continuously as its president ever since.
Therein lies an interesting history
MOT always has professional foot
ball been the major industry it
is today, attracting crowds of any
where from 10000 to $4,000 in cities
like Chicago and New York. Or as
in Green Bay, where the Packers
seem to have been adopted by the
entire State of Wisconsin, whose
Legislature passed a resolution lauding
the Packers for their championship
achievements and bringing national
fame to the Badger State in foot
ball way. Despite its population of
only 10000, Green Bay now has a
stadium to seat $1,000. Should Wash
ington go for the Redskins like Green
Bay has gone for the Packers, it would
require local stadium accommodating
more than 250,000.