The Washington times., 1937-03-22
Mentor Faces
Huge Grid
Problem
BY HARRY COSTELLO


March 22.-Frank Murray, former
Marquette University gridiron
chieftain, today takes over the
reins as top man of football at the
University of Virginia. The man
who made a national reputation
as a grid mentor in Milwaukee,
Wis, faces a tremendous task here
at Charlottesville.
At Marquette University, Frank
Murray had good football material;
here at the University of Virginia,
Frank Murray on occasions prob
ably will have football material,
at other times poor football ma
terial Year in and year out, the
chances are that he will have ma
terial which, at schools like Min
nesota, Pittsburgh, Nebraska, Ford
ham, Alabama, Louisiana State,
Tennessee, Southern California
etc, would rate poor. -..
Today marks the beginning Of q
new era in Virginia football. Grid
iron victories for the Cavaliers
have been few and far between
over an extended period of years:
The new coach is expected to be
the Moses to lead Virginia out OF
the football wilderness.
Just how Murray will lead the
Cavaliers out of the wilderness, no
one seems willing or able to ex'
plain. On all sides it is freely ad.
mitted that he will have about the
same sort of material that his
predecessors have had.
Had Poor Material
Gus Tebell, whom Murray sue
ceeds, had poor material most Of
the time Fred Dawson, whom
Tebell succeeded, also had poor
material. That is, they both had
poor material as judged in the big
league" of American college foot
ball.
AS near as one can figure 1t,
Virginia is departing from its
years-old policy of sports for sports
sake, and is going in for sports for
victory. Some relish the change;
others do no..
Not a little publicity in recent
months held the obvious motif
that Virginia is out to get real
football players into the univer.
sity. It has been indicated in
this publicity that Virginia
alumni associations will foot the
bill. with the knowledge and con.
sent of university officials includ-
ing the board of visitors, in
whom. of course, reside all power.
While no one appears willing
to say that Virginia will subSl'
die her athletes, one visiting
Charlottesville may not easily eS-
cape the conviction that Virginia
is going in for football on practi'
cally the same basis as any Of the
high-powered football schools, ex-
cept that Virginia appears to be
going in only part of the way.
Slightly Subsidized
Bv that I mean that Virginia
seems to be going in, but only in
a comparatively small way, for
subsidization. The Virginia idea
seems to be about like this: In
years gone by. colleges and univer'
sites from outside the State have
been coming into Virginia and tax
ing this States fine athletes away
from the University Of Virginia.
Since such has been the fact, and
since it is the general opinion that
had Virginia had those athletes
(taken by outside colleges and uni
versities) the Cavaliers in past
years would have been successful
on the gridiron, it now behooveS
the University of Virginia to as
sure the Cavaliers of those "home"
athletes and thus build gridiron
strength.
To the hard boiled "show-me"
man of football, Virginia's point
does not seem to be well taken.
In the first place, there are COM
paratively few high and prep
schools in Virginia which have
turned out any appreciable num-
Der of football stars for bigtime col
lege football in the last 10 to 20
years. Secondly, competition be-
ing as keen as it is (obtaining the
services of outstanding school ath-
letes), it would appear that Vir-
ginias alumni associations will be
at a decided disadvantage in bid
ding for the services of high and
prep school stars, for the reason
that the real, dyed-in-the-wool high
powered schools easily can out
bid Virginia's alumni groups, and
for the further highly important
reason that the big league" col
legeS and universities have scout
ing forces nicely balanced and or
ganized whereas Virginia's forces