The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-12-16
ALABAMA FANS GET 7-5 BETS
 ON BOWL GAME
Tuscaloosa Team Under. dogs For New Years
 Classic in California
By HENRY McLEMORE Limited Press Stan COrresp0ndenO ' = SA.NaA VNo. HR fYYnN

VONNANGW &AGSo 0SSNAA NOeAN~AISe~N~N--NF
 Sacramento, Calf, Dec. 16,-(UPl How much better is Q wonder" football team than just an ordinary football team Iwhose members put their pants on one leg at a time, eat the regulat tion ham and eggs for breakfast, and think Zane Grey our greatest noveliStP
 In my travels about this sun- kissed state I have been trying to find an answer to this question, be- cause it won't be long before Cali fornia and Alabama meet in the Rose Bowl and an answer will be a very handy thing to have around, As you know, California has Q ''won- der" team this year. Every native son agrees on that, At one time or another in the past month l have read word pictures of that team which, if swallowed in the entirety and without the customary dusting of salt, could lead one but to one conclusion:
 That the California varsity is Q combination of the Ta1 Mahal by moonlight . sunset on the bay of Naples, mother love, Kreisler play ing two tiddles, and the hundred dash between the married and sin- gle men at an Elk's picnic.
 Modest Southerners
 Now Alabama makes no such claim for its moleskin warriors, In fact, I have heard 1t said that Alahamans are considering making the rabbit the state animal on the grounds that only the left hind legs of the rabbit enabled the Tuscaloosa team to go through the season unde- feated.
 I also have heard 1t said that at one time Alabama could not make up its mind whether to go to the Sugar Bowl and win for $40,000 or come to the Rose Bowl and prob ably take e beating for $80,000, don't know whether this is true, but if 1t is I want to congratulate those who decided to risk the beating for an extra $40,000. For $40,000 one can buy all the balm in Gilead, not to mention all the liniment the pores of Q football eleven could ab- Soyb in l2 months of steady rubbing,
 The odds the Californians are of- fering on the game are not consist cut with their talk of a wonder" team. At the present writing the best an Alabama follower can get for his $5 is $7. Now that's not right. Certainly a wonder" team should be an overwhelming favorite over an eleven that won two games by tho slim margin of a field goal, and two others by the almost as slender margin of a touchdown.
 Past Scores Convincing
 To date I haven't found any Cali fornia supporters willing to give points. They shy away from points as a politician does from flat statement of policy. The reason for this unwillingneSs to go overheard on the Golden Bears Is based. I be- lieve, on the dull but enlightening reading furnished by the history of the Rose Bowl. Four times Ala bamaS has been out, and three times 1t has won. And the worst the boys from the corn pone and suspender belt have gotten is a tie,
 It is my belief that Alabama's $ best chance this year lies in the fact that every member of the Cali fornia team can read and is a sub- scriher to one or more newspapers This means that the boys have read all the stories written about them and that perhaps they will take the field convinced they are all of all- America status and entirely unheat- able. If they do. Alabama probably will win, because football history does not contain even one instance of where a newspaper clipping, nc matter how carefully preserved, ever did e decent job of blocking, tack ling or running,
 I'll say this; If Coach Stub Allison, has managed to keep his players humble and untemperamental he deserves e hand struck medal, res plete with palms, hibiscus bushes and even Q live bird.
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