Evening star., 1938-12-09
From the
Press Box
Green Boy Set to Cool
Giants Hot Hands
By JOHN LARDNER,
Special Correspondent Of The Star.


NEW YORK, Dec. "a crowd Of
close to $4,000 will watch the Green
Bay Packers and the New York
Giants play for the national pro-
fessional football title Sunday.
That's a good house. 1t ought to be
a good ball game.
The best pro football crowd ever
assembled in these parts was 10000,
lured to the stalls by the flaming
fame of Harold Red" Grange, the
reformed ice hustler of Wheaton,
ILL.,. when he made his commercial
debut. Grange drew the crowd sin
gle-duke. Interest in pro football,
as such, was well under control
Few people would move more than
a block out of their way to watch
q Grangeless game.
Now the Packers and the Giants
can play to $4,000 without having
q single big box Office name on their
combined rosters. They have some
fine ball players-Herber, Hinkle,
Hutson, Isbell, Cuff, Leemans. Da-
noWski, Hein-but the average
sports reader has to scratch his
scalp minute before he can re-
member where even half of those
fellows played their college football.
It's the kind of ball they play today
that sells the tickets. If the ball
park were bigger, the crowd would
be bigger than the 10000 who will
watch the Packers and Giants.
College Come Is Not Hit
BY Pro Gridironers
DR.. Robert M. Hutchins. president
Of the University of Chicago, was
guessing last week that pro football
would sooner or later kill college
football as a big-time business en-
terprise and put it back where he
says 1t belongs, in the laps of the
boys. The doctor appeared to relish
the prospect He has no use for
high-pressure college football. I
doubt if he plans to see many pro
games himself, but anything that
will remove the jingle from college
ball has the doctors warm approval.
Well, there is no immediate like
1ihood of the cash game killing the
college game. The fans seem willing
to pay their way into one contest
on Saturday and another on Sum-
day. But, with those who have
no fervent college attachments, who
like to watch football for its own
sake and are capable of loyalty to
a home town institution, however,
commercial. as millions of baseball
fans are loyal to the Reds, the
Tigers, the Bees or the Dodgers,
pro football is making wide and
rapid gains.
A Grange or a Nagurski or
Sammy Baugh still will help at the
gate on the strength of his single
reputation. So will Ruth or a
Dean or a Di Maggie. But the
Packers and Giants prove that the
individual star is not absolutely
necessary. They are both solid ball
clubs. Their players were outstand-
ing in college, but not now. They
are merely sound and above the
average.
Packers Are Picked to Win
In Foce Of Facts
We now will get down to the busi-
ness of the meeting, which is to
decide whether the Packers will win
by one touchdown or two. The
Giants are slightly favored, because
they beat Green Bay the last time
out and because they swamped Mr..
George Preston Marshall's we'll
laundered Washington club last Sum
day by 36 to O. Those are the
facts, and we will do some flying
In the face of them, in formation.
The Giants beat the Packers three
weeks ago by IS to 8. They were
severely outstatisticked, the first
down count, as remember it, being
81 to 6 for Green Bay When I saw
the Packers the week before. moving
down Detroit, I thought they were
unbeatable, and I still think so-for
blue chips. Those white chips are
only a nickel apiece.
That doesn't mean that the Green
Bays loafed in the Giant game, but
with the Western title practically
in their pockets they could have
had the same kind of let-doWn that
the Yankees had last summer after
they clinched the pennant. You re-
member that when the World Series
came around the Yankees we're able
to make a stab at playing base
ball.
Mr.. Curley Lambeau, the Green
Bay master mind, comes out of the
West promising to chop the Giants
into small pieces and sell them for
bait. He has his best catcher, Don
Hutson, back in action to reach for
those throws of Herber's and Is
bells. The whole squad is in good
shape, and Mr.. Lambeau does not
believe that Mr.. Timothy Mara's
Giants are too hot to touch, though
Mr.. Mara's employees have not been
beaten in their last eight starts.
This is a good, deep Giant team"
comedies the Green Bay ringmas-
ter, with a strong line, or two
strong lines, and a lot of backs who
can move the ball by land. Steve
Owen has got fine pass defense,
too. They were catching everything
that Washington threw last week.
But we will give 'em something
.ittle tougher to handle than Wash
ington. The Giants play for breaks.
The thing to do is not give 'em
any breaks What do you think I've
got here, high school team? These
boys have been around, and they
want the title and what goes with
1t. They'll take some stopping"
This department casts one docile
vote for the Lambeau ticket.
(Copyrisht 1888. BY the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.)