Evening star., 1938-10-16

HE men in maroon come out of their
huddle, the Seven Blocks of Granite"
are set, the backfleld shifts to the right
with Woitkoski back, and again Fordham
tries to pierce the Purdue line. But again the
hurtling ball carrier is flung back with no gain
1t has been that way all afternoon. Ford
ham can't gain; Purdue can't gain. Their
mighty forces have huffed and they have
pulled and now in the second quarter it is
much ado about nothing to nothing
Again the Rams line up on their 2-yard
line, second down, 10 yards to 60 for first
down. It's the same formation shift to
the right Woitkoski back once more .
the ball is snapped - but this time Woitkoski
doesn't hurl his body into that wall of strug-
Cling men. Instead, he takes jig backwards,
swings his foot in short, swift arc and sends
the ball booming over the battle lines, over
the incoming Purdue secondary and on over
the surprised safety mans head.
Frantically. the fellow wheels, digging up
divot or two with his cleats, and gives chase
- and is chased, in turn, by the Fordham
ends.
The ball, flying low and flat, strikes the
ground near midfeld and bounces crafty into
Purdue territory. beyond the 4O-yard line
the 80, the 20. the 10, and down to the s. The
Purdue safety man does the best thing under
the circumstances. Rather than try to scoop
up the pigskin on the run and risk costly
tumble he tries to block out one of the on
charging Fordham ends, hoping that the ball
will bound over the goal line for an automatic
touchback and thus be brought out to the
2O-yard line.
But as he turns to block out the end, the
ball takes one more crazy bounce, brushes
against his leg, and is pounced upon by two
Rams, who clutch it to their bosoms on the
Purdue 4-yard line It is Fordham's ball. first
down. goal to 60.
The Rams gained 72 amazing yards on that
kick. 1t was as if Woitkoski had taken
Purdue's hopes in his hands and booted them
down the field with the ball, because the
aroused Rams ploughed the remaining four
yards to touchdown and it was Fordham's
game from then on.
All of which demonstrated, once again, the
importance of kicking in football Despite all
the hullabaloo over laterals and laterals-off-
forwards and forwards off -laterals and other
such sleight of hand monkeyshines, the foot is
still in football.
Maybe. like lot of other folks, you think
that football has become pasteurized form
of basketball. Don't fool yourself. 1t s safe to
say that at least rs per cent of your major
games this season will be won and lost through
kicking in some form or another
The winning touchdown may be scored ona
25-yard forward pass, or daring lateral, or
well-executed bit of black magic, or some
bone-crushing ball-carrying, but if you go
back and study the game play-by-p play. you
will find that it was this teams good kicking
or that teams bad kicking upon which the
result ultimately rested.
In other words, if you don't mind pun
on punts. victory is not just matter of
inches - it s matter of feet
I'm not referring just to those games where
the point after touchdown, or field goal, is
the deciding margin. The importance of the
boy with the boot goes deeper than that. For
instance. you may have powerful line, but
your kicks will be blocked if your punter is
slow getting them off. Or you may have fleet,
alert ends, who can get down the field quicker
than you can say Alexander Wojciechowicz,
but the enemy safety man will run your kicks