The Sauk Centre herald., 1938-12-22
s Sport
% Wags
Rv Chuck Rathe
By Chuck Rattle

| % NgS |
| BY Chuck Rattle
Cleve Talks
He Plugs Athletics
SRO Capacity
Dressing Room Palaver-
You've learned a lot, lofty, since
you played for me-" Frank Cleve,
South coach, said to his gift to
Sauk Centre basketball hopes Fri
day. In hard-bitten sentences,
Cleve talks and acts like a coach.
He wastes no words, his voice has
that nasal twang so often associat-
ed with close followers of sports
used to be bellering out orders in
close, hard-bitten phrases. ;. lofty
just smiled, rather modestly we
thought. So we settled back
for an informal chat with this man
Cleve, with the soft brown eyes,
and hair just as brown. /. His
face is clean cut; he's rather a
youngish looking man for the years
he's coached. For he was ten years
at his post in Concordia where he
spilled out knowledge to Toftness
and three others who now coach
teams he's played this season. /.
Over at Staples the coach, an
other Of his former boys, took
him to supper at his home. Sup
per served by the coach's wife.
Funny" Cleve remarked to
him, "fattening up the calf be-
fore the slaughter" Staples
coach thereupon voiced his dis
belief with laugh. But it was
so. Staples knocked of South
81 to 21. -.
McGinnis, the boy who has been
making plenty of points for South,
didn't dress Friday. Injured in
Thursday nights game with Wa
coma, McGinnis was saved by Cleve
who didn't want to risk him. i.
Cleve said Of McGinnis: Hes a
good boy. Works hard. Tall, he's
all arms and legs and :" (You
can guess the rest.)
Three years at South, Cleve told
me a tale Of woe about how North
beat him out of the race two years
with identical scores, identical sit
uation. 4. Let me tell you. the
score each time was % to 20, North
the winner. Both times they won
on a free shot earned when one of
his boys fouled-now get this-in
mid court, in the last ten seconds
of play. -.
Like most coaches, he must
put in a plug for athletics. But
his little piece was different
than most coaches harangue.
He did mention, In passing, the
competitive gain to the indiv-
idual athlete and the rest Of the
CUFF that's been passed around
about character building" -.
But he had this important point
to offer. Properly conducted"
he said, athletics can be un-
flying force In a small town.
First it's knits the student body
more closely over q common
cause. Secondly, IL unifies the
town behind the school In one
of the few remaining social
centers." thought that q nice
departure from the run OF the
mill line of bularney tossed out
bv the boys who 60 to the wall
ing wall each late fall. -.
After that, your correspondent
walked over to the official table
with the Cleve lineup, taken from
his own lips. Said I to the
scorer, Want the lineup" /.
"Don't put that down as official,
said the high school manager from
South. And so I was interested.
And this is what his manager said.
"Cleve changes his mind quicker'n
YOU can change your underwear.
The other night he shifted the line
up three times before the ball game
started. This morning he told me
to pack the black outfits; this noon
It was the white ones" (P. S.
they wore the white ones.) Well,
I was greatly interested. For here
thinks I, is really a coach. I've
never seen a good one yet who
could make up his mind just what
he would do before hand. But get
him in the ball game his judgments
are unerringly snappy. Well,
SO much for Mr.. Cleve.
Fans that jammed the gym to
SRO capacity wanted to win. But
they settled for a scrappy ball game
that showed the Toftness men to
be as scrappin' a bunch Of hombres
as ever wore a Sauk Centre uni
form-no matter what color it was.
-. Boy, was that ball game rough.
And admiration went out to this
Sauk Centre troop over the way
they carried themselves. No let