Evening star., 1937-11-09

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many people lose sight of it
every once in while-no
matter how good a coach is, he can't
win without players. The wheel turns
around and coach goes up and down,
depending on his material The great
est coaches have known lean years
years in which only their regulations
saved them from the blind wrath of
the old grads. Had they been younger
and less famous-and had their teams
been losing for the same reason, lack
of materiaEthey would have been
fired.
But it takes years of hard work and
downright suffering on the part of q
coach TO reach spot where he can
take the bad years with the good. Not
that any coach / ever heard of could
take bad year calmly. He frets and
he worries and he wonders. in moments
of sheer panic, if maybe he isn't be-
ginning to slip. But at least his public
has faith in him.
Lou Little is just as great a coach
today as he was when Columbia was
knocking every opponent over and
roaring toward the Rose Bowl. Bernie
Bierman is just as able as he was when
everybody conceded that Minnesota
literally was unbeatable. And Dick
Harlow isn't bit smarter than he was
when Harvard couldn't beat major
foe-and was losing to some minor
foes as we'll.
Everybody recognizes the truth of
this. But what of some capable young
coach trying to make place for him
self-and, incidentally, his bread and
butter-with lot of willing but inept
players? He is strictly on the spot
and for practically "a hours a day.
Burt Was on the Spot
REMEMBER one time dropping in
on Burt Ingwersen, when he was
head coach at the University of Iowa,
and finding him deep in gloom. Burt
now line coach at Northwestern and
credited by Lynn Waldorf with being
responsible in large measure for the
fine teams Northwestern has had these
last three years-Was a good coach
then, too. But his material was bad
and he was taking a terrific pounding
from the student body, the alumni
and, Iowa being a State university,
from the Legislature
The youngest coach in the Big Ten
at that time, he was suspected of not
knowing his job well enough, and was
in danger of losing it. And, foolishly,
he was trying to coach the team with
one hand and answer his blistering
fan mail with the other year later
he had better material and nodded
one of the most powerful teams in
the country, and the fields where the
tall corn grows rang with his praises
Yet he wasn't better coach than he
had been the year before. He simply
had the players to carry out his plays.
Quarterback Is Important.
THE most important adjunct to any
coachs success, of course, is
good quarterback Look at any coachs
brightest years and you usually will
flnd they were years in which he had
a good field general. Notre Dame first
achieved prominence under Jess Har-
per, with Gus Dorais calling signals
Knute Rocknes greatest teams were
those quarterbacked by Joe Brandy.
Harry Stuhldreher and Frank Carideo
Jock Sutherland always has a good
team at Pitt. But the best team he
ever had was the 1884 team, ruled on
the field by Millar Munjas.
All coaches appreciate this, nat
urally. But no coach ever had
greater appreciation of it than Rockne.
When he found a boy who had the
qualities necessary in the makeup of
a quarterback. he worked on him night
and day, built up his ego and made
him strut. The quarterback was the
absolute boss of the team when it was
on the field, and all the players knew
1t. Indeed, under the Rockne system.
predicated on precision and split-sec-
ond timing to an even greater degree
than most systems, a Rockne quarter
back was more than a boss. He was
q deSpot. What he said on the field
went-and he had the power to order
from the field any player who OBJ
Jected even slightly to his rule. It
didn't make any difference who the
player was, either.
Ordered Gipp Of Field.
FOR instance, Rockne would tell
you privately that he never had
better quarterback than Brandy,
who ran his unbeaten 1920 team so
well. Everybody who was at Notre
Dame with Brandy-now, by the way.
q newspaper publisher in Ogdens-
burg, ~ Y.-remembers him as a
brilliant football nlouer put +b