Evening star., 1938-11-21
Unforeseen in Billing
Games Also Makes
Job Hazardous
Stoee and Mehre Offer
Examples Of Unfair
Requirements
BY GRANTLAND RICE,

NEW YUM, NOV. d. AlAC oCa~
son now rolling rapidly to close
has resounded to the crash of many
a favored team and wrecked hopes
litter gridirons from one end OF the
country to the other. Indiana, Yale,
Illinois, Stanford, Washington, Col
gate, Nebraska, Columbia, Texas,
Temple, l.. S. U-at some time dur
ing the season, each of these teams
looked as though it was going to go
places. Some of them won some
striking victories. But, in the main,
it was a poor and, in many cases,
heart-breaking season for them.
Certainly not the kind of season to
which any of the coaches involved
ever will look back longingly.
1t proves again-although no fur
ther proof was needed-that sport
knows no more hazardous job than
that of a football coach and that
no matter how capable coach may
be, he will go up and down with
the years. All his skill and all his
experience will avail him nothing
once the breaks start running
against him or if his schedule is too
robust for his players.
Take the coaches of the teams
I've just listed as among those that
went down in the tumult this year.
How many better coaches can you
name than Lou Little of Columbia,
Bob zuppke of Illinois, Pop Warner
of Temple, Jimmy Phelan OF Wash
ington, Dana Bible of Texas. Biff
Jones of Nebraska, Bo Mcmillan of
Indiana, Ducky Pond of Yale, Bernie
Moore of L. S. u. Tiny Thornhill
of Stanford and Andy Kerr of Col
gate?
They are in the top division of the
Nations coaches. They have had
great years-and poor ones-before
this. They'll have great years
again-and poor ones, too.
Columbia-and Lou Little.
There is Lou Little's season, for
instance. Columbia opened by beat
ing Yale at New Haven and, the
following week, moved on to West
Point and beat Army in one of the
most dramatic games of the cam
paign, coming from behind to win
under the dazzling passes of Sid
Luckman. Right there, the Lions
loomed as possibly the best of the
Ivy League teams. There was talk
on Morningside Heights of an un-
beaten season.
Then the turn came. Colgate
throttled Luckman's passes and
turned loose its own passer, Hal
Lube-and Columbia was beaten.
Defeats by Pennsylvania, Cornell
and Navy followed quickly, running
the season for the Blue and White.
Luckman, Wright and others we're
hurt. Having only scanty squad
at best, Lou sometimes was hard
pressed to put II able-bodied
men on the field at one time.
But does any one suppose that
Lou isn't as great coach as he was
at the outset of the season? Does
anybody think that, following those
triumphs over Yale and Army, he
lost his touch? Hardly.
Then Pops Material Waned.
Pop Warner undoubtedly is one
of the greatest coaches that foot
ball ever has known-and a source
of learning and inspiration for
younger coaches all over the coun-
try who have taken his system and
made regulations of their own with
it. At Carlisle, Pitt and Stanford
he turned out teams and players
that contributed some of the bright
est chapters to the history of the
game. He moved East to Temple
and put that school on the map.
Here again he had spectacular
success.
The last couple of years Pops
teams haven't been so successful.
But this doesn't mean that he has
lost any of his old magic, nor that,
though the years have piled up on
him, the football parade has passed
him by. The celebrated Warner
system never has been static. Pop
is as alert today as he ever was,
adding parts to his system, ripping
others out because he felt they no
longer served him we'll. There still
is no better playmaker in the game
But his victories have been few be-
cause his material has changed.
No coach can win without the proper
material. A good coach will get
more out of his material than a
poor coach, naturally. But he has
to have something to work with.
Schedule Is Vital.
The schedule-not only at Tenn
pie but at many other Schools-can
be murderous to coach, one way
or another. If it is an easy sched-
ule and the team wins all or most
of its games, the hecklers say that
any coach could have won in the
circumstances. If it is drawn up
without regard to the number or
quality of the players and the team
loses most of its games, thoughtless
onlookers likely are to cry that the
coach is incompetent.
There are, of course, graduate
managers and directors of athletics
who try to mold their schedules to
fit the coach's material. But even
so the schedule can be unfair. This
is because, in the modern game,
schedules are made up two, three
and even four years in advance and
within even year or so there can
be such sharp change in the mate
rial that a schedule that looked rea-